5 Habits Every Homeschool Mom Needs

The habits you have as a homeschool mom can be a huge difference in how successful your homeschool day can be. So I want to share with you in this video five habits that have helped me homeschool well over the past 16 years of homeschooling. Now these habits that I'm going to be sharing with you these are personal habits that I keep. This is in addition to a regular routine. It is so important that you don't enter homeschooling with just no plan, no idea what you're doing. We have a regular routine that we've refined over many years. If you want to learn more about our four-step routine, you can watch the video that I did about relaxed homeschooling. We can be relaxed because we have practiced this routine for so many years. It's just part of our life. Everyone knows what to expect, what comes next, so it's very important that you have a plan. But these habits are just personal habits I have as a mom that keep me going from day to day. If you're new here, hi my name is Sheri. I'm a Christian. I'm a homeschooling mom to 10 children ages 21 down to three. I'm married to my high school sweetheart Nelson. We've been married for 26 years. I love encouraging other moms here on my channel and on the blog ourlifehomeschooling.com. If you haven't heard about it, I have a brand new course that came out in April called Beyond School the Home Education Breakthrough. And in this course, I take you step by step through the process that I've refined in over 16 years of educating our children at home. In the course, I take you from overwhelmed as a mom to a confident home educator. If you're interested, click on the link in the description box to find out more. The first habit is to write it down. As moms, we have so much on our plate. We have a huge mental load. We have birthdays to remember. We have just the general cleanup and taking care of meals. We have all of our kids' individual health needs. There is just always so much that is going on in our minds. And what helps me is to write it down. When I write something down, whatever it is that's on my mind, as soon as it comes into my mind, I write it down. It just takes it off of my mental plate and puts it in a place where I can come back to it when I have time to take care of it. Throughout the day, there's always so much going on. And if you add even just what you have to do, add to that your constant interruptions just by nature of having your kids around you. Because of that, sometimes your brain can just be in so many places all the time. So whenever I get a thought of something that's nagging, something I have to do, something I want to try, a book someone mentioned, anything, I always write it down. Now I write it down in my planner, but you don't have to have anything special. You can just have a notebook. I also have a notebook in the kitchen that goes in a certain cabinet and it's just a blank anything notebook. Anything I need to make a list of. If I just randomly need a couple groceries and I just want to make sure that I remember them, I jot it down in there. If there's a couple things that are on my to-do list that have to happen that night, I'll just put it there. But for the most part, everything goes into my planner. Now if you're looking for a really good planner, I highly recommend Wendy's Planner from Plan Prep Prey. This is not an advertisement. I just, she's a good friend and I absolutely love her homeschool planner. It is the best. But write it down. It is going to give you peace of mind. The things that I write down, I remember, but in a way that's not overbearing on what I'm doing right now. It stays in my mind, but it's on a back burner and then when I have time to take care of it, everything is right there in front of me so I can just cross it off. The things I write down also usually get done and I cross them off and it's so rewarding. So write it down. It will give you a mental break. The second habit is to run a load of laundry each morning. As soon as I get up, it's not something I think about. It's something I just do. The laundry is always there and I found that if we have clean clothes and a plan for meals, then we're good for the day. That takes a huge weight off of me. And the laundry, if you've been a mom for any period of time, you know it's never done. It's always a process. So get up and just run the next load through and that load gets washed, dried, folded, and put away in one day. That way everything keeps moving. And just remember that your housework, your chores, are not an obstacle to your day. This is something that I learned the hard way as a new homeschool mom. Your housework is a part of the learning process. So we bring our kids along with us for all of it. I do the laundry, but when I'm running the load of laundry through, our kids all have assigned chores that they're doing because they're all contributing. And this is part of the process of our homeschool day. The third habit I recommend is to check your kids' work every day. This is a one-on-one time that you have with them. For me it's usually at the end of the day, but not always. I try to check in with each of our kids, especially the older ones, every day. And this can be harder as they hit those teen years because they just get so independent. And a lot of times you check in on things and everything's fine, but they still need that accountability. Checking in with them doesn't have to take a long time. It can just be five minutes. Usually I'll sit down and ask them, what did you read this morning in your Bible reading? What did you read in the literature book that you're working through? What did you accomplish in math? What lesson are you working on? And then with math, I almost always have them get it out and show me the problems that they got wrong or anything that they were struggling with. Ask to see their copywork and you can ask to look at Keep it short. It doesn't need to be something that is overbearing on you. If you just make a daily habit of checking in with your kids, you have the satisfaction of knowing that you're keeping them accountable with their work. And that gives you peace of mind because you're not worrying about if you're doing enough or if there are things that are getting missed because you've Now don't stress if you miss a day here or there, or if you're able to get to two kids, but not to five of your kids or whatever it may be. But just make it a mental habit that you're going to make an effort to check in with each of your kids at some point during the school day. The next habit, which is absolutely crucial, is to spend time with the Lord. Intimacy with the It is not easy being a mom, let alone a homeschool mom. You are juggling the housework, the meals, the laundry. Most of us have toddlers and babies in tow. We're constantly working, have people constantly asking us questions. And I don't know about you, but I've always felt like this job is too big for me. I need his strength. If you're a mom and you have very young children, you're perhaps up during the night and it's not easy for you to get before your kids are awake. I always try to spend the very first part of any time I get alone, spend that going to God's word. You need real refreshment, not scrolling on social media. The first time you get time to yourself, go to the Lord, seek his strength through his word, spend time with him, and then you'll be ready to pour yourself out into your children. And the last habit is spend time alone by yourself, away from the kids every day. I have done this for many years. I take at least an hour and a half by myself. I did this even when we had babies, infants, toddlers, I spent the time and did the work that was necessary to teach them how to have a quiet time. Little ones get used to having a nap time. Now this isn't always picture perfect with babies. There were days that I missed it, but I always made the effort to try to make it happen. And over time, every new baby got used to and just adjusted to that regular quiet time that we had in the afternoon. The quiet time was nap time for the littles, quiet times for the middles and bigs, and then it was my alone time. And everybody knew, everybody still knows, during that time, mom should not be interrupted. Don't come knocking unless there's something serious going on. It's really important to have some time to yourself. Homeschooling is all consuming and you need to just step away for a little bit. Now during alone time, sometimes if I had a baby or a toddler, that was my first time alone. And so I spent that time doing habit number four, some of it spending time in God's word. And then the rest of the time, I recommend doing something you enjoy. It might be napping if you're pregnant, but if you're not in that season, spend time on a hobby. What do you like doing? Do you like to read? Enjoy a good book or maybe you just want to be in your room by yourself to clean up and organize things or get things done around the house without your kids interrupting. Whatever would make you feel refreshed, that's what you should do during this alone time. I hope these habits have been helpful. Sometimes it's just the smallest things that we do consistently that make the biggest difference in our families. I'd love to hear from you. Comment below and let me know what habits have helped you as a homeschool mom, brought peace to your homeschool day and gave you confidence. Thanks for watching. I do one video a week on homeschooling encouragement for everyday moms. I'll see you next week.