Wondering how to maintain a healthy balance between home school and home life? Here are five tips to try.
Here’s what you’ll learn in this article:
- Why it’s important to maintain a healthy balance between home school and home life as a parent-educator.
- Tips for separating home school and home life while giving both the time and attention they deserve.
- Answers to common questions about being both a parent and an educator when homeschooling.
- Key takeaways that parent-educators can use to start building (or maintain) a healthy school-life balance at home.
- Where you can get additional resources for effectively managing home school and home life as a parent-educator.
It’s Important to Maintain a Healthy Balance Between Home School and Home Life
As a parent-educator, you are responsible for a lot. When you decide to homeschool, your “normal” obligations as a parent don’t go away. Instead, you are taking on even more responsibilities, and you are preparing to play an even greater role in your children’s lives.
This is challenging. There’s no other way to put it. Homeschooling is commendable for lots of reasons, not the least of which is the amount of time and effort it requires. But, there are strategies and resources you can use to manage your time effectively—both as a parent and as an educator.
Maintaining a healthy balance between home school and home life is important for parent-educators. In fact, it is arguably among the most important aspects of successful homeschooling. Yes, you need to be able to guide your children through their education. But, you also need to be “just a parent” when a parent is all your children need.
5 Tips for Separating Home School from Home Life
With this in mind, how can you separate home school from home life? How can you be a teacher when it’s time for your children to learn, and how can you be “just a parent” when the school day is over? Here are five tips you may find helpful:
1. Create a Dedicated Home School Space
One of the most effective ways to separate home school from home life is to create a dedicated home school space. If you have a spare room at home (or if you can create a spare room at home), turn this into your children’s classroom. Keep your home school resources here, and set up the room so that your children can use it for all of their daily home school activities.
To be clear, you don’t have to home school in your dedicated space 100% of the time. Exploring is an important, and valuable, aspect of the home school experience. It’s okay to do daily home school activities (like reading) in other areas of the house as well—or outside on nice days. But, by having a dedicated home school space, you can keep your children’s school activities and assignments from taking over the house, and this will help your children feel like home isn’t all about school.
2. Maintain a Consistent Home School Schedule
Maintaining a consistent home school schedule is important for maintaining a healthy balance as well. This includes starting home school on time every day. If your children have a clear picture of when school starts and when school ends, this will help them understand when they should be acting like students and when they are free to explore and play to their heart’s desire.
3. Be Conscious About Being in the Present
While maintaining a healthy balance is important for your children, it is also important for you as a parent-educator. With this in mind, you should be conscious about being present in the moment—both when you are educating and when you are parenting.
Some parent-educators struggle to turn off the “parent” switch during home school; but, more often, it is the other way around. Once the school day is over, you are done being an “educator” for the day (unless you need to prepare the next day’s lesson). After school, you are a parent first and foremost, and remembering this is important for both you and your children.
4. Encourage Your Children to Play and Grow Outside of Home School
Many home school students struggle to turn off the “school” switch at the end of the school day, too. Ultimately, this is a good thing. It means they are engaged in their work, and it means they are interested in what they are learning.
But, children of all ages need a break. With this in mind, once your children have met their school-related responsibilities for the day, you should encourage them to go play. While you don’t necessarily want to discourage them from continuing to explore what they’ve been learning during home school, you don’t want them to get burned out or miss out on the creativity and growth that come with unstructured play. This is a delicate balance, and you will ultimately need to gauge what is best for your children on a day-to-day basis.
5. Acknowledge (and Celebrate) Milestones
Another way to maintain a healthy balance between home school and home life is to acknowledge (and celebrate) milestones. Finishing a semester or school year is a big deal—so treat it like one. By closing the chapter on a semester or school year, you will help your children (and yourself) set school aside until it’s time to pick it back up again.
When celebrating school-related milestones, you should keep your celebrations separate from celebrations of holidays, birthdays, and other special events. This, too, will help your children (and you) avoid feeling like everything is always about school.
FAQs: Being Both a Parent and an Educator When Homeschooling
Should I create a dedicated “classroom” at home if I am homeschooling?
While not strictly required, creating a dedicated classroom at home can be an effective way to help your children stay focused during the school day and set their work aside when the school day is over. With that said, you should not feel like you are confined to your home classroom—it’s fine to mix things up, and this can help keep home school interesting and engaging if your children are less interested in doing their work on a particular day.
How much “parenting” should I do as a parent-educator during the school day?
This is a difficult question, and there is no single “right” answer. In general, during the school day your role as an educator should take precedence, but you should not ignore the fact that you are still your children’s parent.
Is it okay to blend home school with travel and other family activities?
Yes, it is okay to blend home school with travel and other family activities—and this is one of the benefits of homeschooling. With that said, it is important not to make family trips and non-school-related activities all about school. If you are planning to home school on a family trip, consider helping your kids get some of their work out of the way while your family is in transit, and be sure to still maintain a schedule that allows your children to enjoy their time without only thinking about their schoolwork.
Key Takeaways
- Maintaining a healthy balance is important. There are important aspects to home school and home life that need to be maintained separately.
- Set aside a dedicated space and dedicated time for home school. If possible, create a dedicated classroom at home, and maintain a schedule that clearly delineates between school time and free time.
- Encourage your children to maintain a healthy balance. As a parent-educator, it is important to take responsibility for helping your children maintain a healthy balance and avoid becoming burned out or feeling overwhelmed.
- Prioritize both aspects of being a parent-educator. While it is important to devote the necessary time and effort to your role as your children’s educator, it is equally important to devote the necessary time and effort to your role as your children’s parent.
Where to Learn More
If you are interested in learning more about how to maintain a healthy balance between home life and home school, consider becoming a Crush Home School member. As a member, you will receive monthly tips, insights, and resources you can use to help manage all aspects of your life as a parent-educator. Learn more about becoming a Crush Home School member.