Moms’ Favorite Conference Session

Moms’ Favorite Conference Session

Almost without exception, the best attended workshop at our annual conferences is on time management. Moms are looking for a way to stretch more out of a 24-hour day to better serve their families, especially if they are homeschooling moms. Let’s face it. Moms are busy. Not only do they run their households–including cleaning, laundry, food purchasing and preparation– they also teach their children grammar, math, health, social science, and biological science. Unlike a professional teacher who may have twenty children at the same educational level, homeschooling moms may have six children in four to six different grades. A definite challenge!

The homeschooling temptation is to cram as much into the day as possible. Some moms create mountains of paperwork in order to compete with the public school, but then they will also throw in numerous side projects in order to feel competent around other homeschooling mothers who take a walk along and talk along approach. Rising early, staying up late, and not having a moment for downtime is one of the surest ways to burn out and crash in the very first year of homeschooling, especially if you are teaching more than one child in your initial journey.

I constantly tell homeschoolers, “You can’t have it all, and you can’t do it all.” We clearly see this scene played out for those women in the professional arena where they try to wear five of six hats. Several have commented, “I don’t feel like I do anything justices, and I feel guilty all the time.” Although this is a miserable way to live life, many keep on doing it because it is what everyone else in their circle does. Homeschoolers can and should seek a better, more satisfying way to live. This reality must stay in the forefront of our minds; therefore, we must choose daily what is most important to us, not only for the next 3 months but for the next 3 years.

Scheduling, in its purest sense, is not about milking every second out of the day but rather making sure we drink in the joys of life that flows out of our values. What does it profit our children if we dogmatically force them to jump through everyone else’s hoops, especially if they are not akin to ours? For example, in our home, the Word of God is our priority, not just in our spiritual lives but in our educational lives. I write this neither arrogantly nor apologetically. It simply is what it is. If we get a late start to the day, we still do our family devotions and push everything back accordingly. If we run out of day before we run out of school, we let something else slide. Why do we do this? Are we trying to discount the academic aspect of our home discipleship? Absolutely not! We simply understand our schedule preaches a powerful message to our children as to what our truest priorities are. Remember, our children will learn more from our lives than they will from our words or their books.

We either act upon life or life acts upon us. If we do not make intentional choices, something or someone else will make them for us. I have seen homeschoolers be slaves to the schedules and expectations of extended family, church members, or other homeschoolers. They are pulled one way and then another. Again, this is no way to live life. To make matters worse, there seems to be that little voice within our head that whispers we are not living true to ourselves.

As this new school year begins to unfold, it would be time well spent, perhaps best spent, if husbands and wives would take a mere two hours and discuss what are the three to four things they would like to see accomplished in their homes and in the lives of their children this year by the grace of God. This does not—nor should not—be overly complicated or super spiritual. It may be something as simple as establishing family devotions four to five days a week. It could be using less sarcasm or deepening sibling relationships. How about no technology after 6:00 p.m.?

The most important aspect of setting a schedule is realizing it is not about how much we get done but that those things we do get done are the nearest to our parental hearts and especially to the Heavenly Father’s heart.