July 26, 2023 – Homeschool Planning: Breathing Room and Simplicity

Mercy Every Minute

Deborah Wuehler, TOS Senior Editor

Plan What is First

So many good things are happening, but do you ever have times when they are all happening at once? I feel like I need some serious breathing room.

Plan What is First

It’s pretty simple: give God the first of your school time. The first of your downtime. The first priority in all areas. The first thought when interruptions come. If we honor Him in all of our planned times first, He multiplies the peace in our hearts as we face all the busy, and often unplanned stressful times.

Plan the Rest

Now we can think about planning everything else. Some of you plan your schedule and curriculum well in advance. Some plan during the summer for the next year. Some plan each evening for the next day, and some of you wait until the end of the day and write down what really happened in your planner. God can use all these methods as they are yielded to Him. Seek Him FIRST, and God will give you wisdom for each child, and strength to carry it through (Matthew 6:33).

• Evaluate each child’s ability and placement, do some research on curriculum, make a simple plan of study. Be willing to adjust the plan as you go.
• Gather the simple curriculum and sign up for any classes. (If new to homeschooling, SchoolhouseTeachers.com is a great place to start with a budget-friendly full curriculum).
• Create a simple, flexible schedule. Plan in downtime for rest. Don’t over plan your days and try to keep all outside events to only one or two days.

Plan to make pursuing God and His ways your family’s main purpose. If you are seeking Him, He will be faithful to lead you—today, and in the new school year.

You will gain confidence by staying close to the Lord—doing His will in His strength for His children—at Home. Where They Belong.

If you know someone new to homeschooling, our Homeschooling 101 Supplement has all the information necessary to start their journey, including planning templates! Plus: here are six helpful articles on planning for the new school year! Don’t forget to check out the freebies related to planning: a weekly planner page printout, as well as Homeschooling the High Schooler free eBook to answer your questions on how to plan for high school!

~Deborah

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Kristin Stewart

Homeschool Planning: Breathing Room and Simplicity

What do you think of when you hear the word margin? For me, I first think of the margins on my loose-leaf paper that I wasn’t supposed to write in in school. My next thought is of trying to set appropriate margin sizes in Word when I started working on a computer. Until recently, those were the only two definitions I knew for the word margin. In my homeschooling mother role, it has come to take on a whole new meaning.

Margin is now the extra time in my days and weeks—the unplanned time with room for rest, beautiful family moments, or for the Holy Spirit to move. As moms, many, but certainly not all of us, have perfected the art of figuring out how to fit quiet time, exercise, housework, cooking, school lessons, and extracurriculars into our days. It’s like that old game, Tetris, that I used to play on my Gameboy. (Dating myself a little here). “I just need to adjust this piece to fit a little bit. Oh, here comes another piece! How can I maneuver that to fit in? Ok, got it.”

I really need to heed my own words here, but it doesn’t have to be like this. There is a better way! We can schedule in the margin. We get to choose our own commitments (except for the cooking—that seems to really be required!) Running around and hopping from task to task can leave me feeling flustered, and I bet it can you too! The best way to feel calm and to reset is to make sure I leave margin in my days. Those are the hours of unscheduled time in my days and weeks where I can rest or I can hear the Spirit’s leading. This margin gives me time to cook for a neighbor in need, offer childcare help to a friend, fill up my daughter’s quality time cup, or have tea with a friend who needs an ear. Having a set time to accomplish our homeschool work allows me to have margin elsewhere in my day instead of constantly feeling like we are behind.

Mamas, as tempting as it is to do everything, leave room for God to meet you in the margins!

About the author

Kristin is a former teacher who now homeschools her two daughters, ages 11 and 9. She has lived many places in Canada due to being an RCMP wife. She is a writer and content manager with The Canadian Schoolhouse. She blogs at From Kristin and is passionate about helping mothers feel equipped to educate their children. She does homeschool consulting to help those starting out. She loves reading and travelling and actively posts on her Instagram.

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Lee Binz

Three Steps to a Simpler Homeschool

Homeschool takes a lot of planning—budget planning, curriculum searching, assignment charting, then actually doing the assignments. We are very familiar with the daily stresses of planning homeschool, but the stress adds up over time. How can we include breathing room and simplicity in our daily lives?

Plan Time Off.  The busiest seasons of my life were times I forgot to plan days off. Each week got harder until my body couldn’t keep up and I got sick, forcing me to take the rest I needed. One of my favorite Bible verses is Psalms 23. “The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside quiet waters. He restores my soul.” It says the LORD makes me lie down. When we ignore our body’s cries for rest, the LORD steps in and helps us find the rest we need to restore us. Don’t get to this point! Dedicate days off and take your rest.

Reevaluate Your Goals. Are there enough hours in the day to get everything done? Do you have to fight to motivate your children? Look at each subject and activity and add the number of hours each takes. If your children are spending eight or more hours on schoolwork each day, that’s too much! Taking a full English course and a novel-writing course in the same year sounds fun, but it can quickly add up to be way too much. Pick one curriculum for each subject.

Learn to Say, “No.” Sometimes, the only way to get out of a busy season is to cut things out. It could be curriculum, soccer practice, or those super-fun supplementary subjects you had planned. If you are barely getting core classes done because you’re overwhelmed, then maybe The Fine Art of Cheesemaking isn’t necessary. Let your children have breathing room, so they can enjoy learning.

For more tips, my book, Creating Homeschool Balance, will help you understand what homeschool balance looks like, feels like, and how to create it. Check it out!

About the author

Lee Binz, The HomeScholar, is a speaker and author of more than 30 books about homeschooling high school. An expert on homeschool transcripts and getting scholarships, Lee’s mission is to encourage and equip parents to homeschool through high school. Grab some of the complimentary homeschool resources from Lee and connect with her on Facebook and Instagram.

Pillar of Future

Adam and Dianne Riveiro

Plan to Be Flexible

Where are the planners out there? If you can’t tell, both my hands are raised! I’m one of those strange souls who loves planning a vacation as much as the vacation itself. And heaven forbid if someone wants to have lunch at 1:30 p.m. when I scheduled it at noon!

While having a “planning personality” is a benefit in many ways, it comes with several flaws as well. Hyper-planning can overcomplicate something that is supposed to be a simple, joyous experience (like a vacation). Plus, isn’t one of the perks of a vacation the fact that it’s one of the few times of the year that you don’t have a rigid schedule?

I think sometimes we forget that this same principle also holds true for homeschooling. One of the many benefits of homeschooling is that you set the pace. Make sure you take time for some of the joyous and spontaneous moments that homeschooling allows (no, that it encourages). Your child’s hopes and dreams won’t be dashed by taking an extra day off of school, nor will they lack the skills they need in life just because you refused to school them at a breakneck pace. Breathe, my hyper-planning friends. We’ll be ok. You can plan on it!

-Adam

About the author

Pastor Adam and Dianne Riveiro live in Easton, Massachusetts, where Adam leads Liberty Baptist Church. They’re the authors of several books, including Hope from Our Heart to Yours: A 30-Day Devotional Journey for Special Needs Families, available from their family’s publishing label at www.readyscribepublications.com. They have four children: Bethany, Kaylee, AJ, and Peyton. They’re passionate about helping their fellow special needs families find joy and contentment in Christ.

Incorporating fun subjects to do as a family into your schedule helps take some of the pressure off of the heavier subjects. Try Family Fitness at SchoolhouseTeachers.com to learn more about your bodies, and work together to achieve better health for your family. Have fun tracking activity levels and checking off those goals as a family.