How to Homeschool and Work From Home Without Losing Your Mind!

Are you a working homeschool mom? Maybe you’re already working full-time and considering homeschooling. Or maybe you’re a homeschooler who needs/wants to work or start a business. In either case, here’s what to know about how to homeschool and work from home without losing your mind.

I’ve been working from home as a freelance business and finance writer and website owner for 11 years. For eight of those years I’ve also been homeschooling one or two of our seven children (five are grown and on their own.)

Between running a financial content business and building two websites and an ecommerce store, homeschooling, and homesteading at our off grid home in Canada’s far north, my days are full.  Here are my top five tips for how to homeschool and work from home while staying (relatively) sane and healthy!

Don’t Do It All

Yes, you read that correctly! Sure, you might be a great business owner, homeschooler, homemaker, volunteer, daughter, and friend. Yet you don’t have to be all that at the same time.

Choose your top priority for this week, and focus on that. For example, if I have a major work deadline at the week’s end, I don’t introduce new homeschool studies or units. We get our top three must-do tasks done (usually Language Arts, Math, and History) and that’s it. 

The kids know that our family depends on my income to keep us in food and clothing! So they get it.

Then next week I’ll prioritize homeschool, usually starting with a gameschooling activity to get the kids excited about our “intense” homeschool week that makes up for our “just the basics” weeks.

In our home, homemaking and meal planning fall to the bottom of the list all too often. (We’re also renovating which just makes things even more challenging.) I try to delegate this to my husband or the boys when possible. 

Choose an Open-and-Go Curriculum

Now, I realize that finding the perfect homeschool curriculum for our family at the beginning of our homeschool journey was lucky. Sonlight (AFF LINK) is a literature-based Christian curriculum that comes with a full-year-option. So with just a few clicks of my mouse I can order History, Bible, Language Arts, Science, and Math. All the materials and my Instructor Guide arrive in just a few days. I unbox them, snap my guide into the binder, and we’re ready to go.

This saves time when it comes to annual homeschool planning as well as weekly planning. No need for three-hour Sunday night homeschool planning sessions!

Are you a working homeschool mom? Maybe you’re already working full-time and considering homeschooling. Or maybe you’re a homeschooler who needs/wants to work or start a business. In either case, here’s what to know about how to homeschool and work from home without losing your mind.

5 Tips for How to Homeschool and Work From Home

I’ve been working from home as a freelance business and finance writer and website owner for 11 years. For eight of those years I’ve also been homeschooling one or two of our seven children (five are grown and on their own.)

Between running a financial content business and building two websites and an ecommerce store, homeschooling, and homesteading at our off grid home in Canada’s far north, my days are full.  Here are my top five tips for how to homeschool and work from home while staying (relatively) sane and healthy!

Don’t Do It All

Yes, you read that correctly! Sure, you might be a great business owner, homeschooler, homemaker, volunteer, daughter, and friend. Yet you don’t have to be all that at the same time.

Choose your top priority for this week, and focus on that. For example, if I have a major work deadline at the week’s end, I don’t introduce new homeschool studies or units. We get our top three must-do tasks done (usually Language Arts, Math, and History) and that’s it. 

The kids know that our family depends on my income to keep us in food and clothing! So they get it.

Then next week I’ll prioritize homeschool, usually starting with a gameschooling activity to get the kids excited about our “intense” homeschool week that makes up for our “just the basics” weeks.

In our home, homemaking and meal planning fall to the bottom of the list all too often. (We’re also renovating which just makes things even more challenging.) I try to delegate this to my husband or the boys when possible. 

Choose an Open-and-Go Curriculum

Now, I realize that finding the perfect homeschool curriculum for our family at the beginning of our homeschool journey was lucky. Sonlight (AFF LINK) is a literature-based Christian curriculum that comes with a full-year-option. So with just a few clicks of my mouse I can order History, Bible, Language Arts, Science, and Math. All the materials and my Instructor Guide arrive in just a few days. I unbox them, snap my guide into the binder, and we’re ready to go.

An open-and-go curriculum saves time when it comes to annual homeschool planning as well as weekly planning. No need for three-hour Sunday night homeschool planning sessions!

Teach Self-Reliance Skills

Now since we live off the grid in a remote northern wilderness area, we do teach our kids various outdoor survival skills. That’s not what I’m referring to here.

These self-reliance skills involve goal-setting, planning, problem-solving, and independent living and learning skills.

I teach my kids how to use a paper planner to list their daily chores and skillwork at around age 6. They move into goal-setting and longer-term planning for their research projects and hobbies too. 

I also encourage them to work independently by keeping their week’s worksheets in a folder. They know if they finish their assigned daily work they can tackle those sheets on their own.

Teaching basic problem-solving and logic gives them the tools to try to figure out solutions themselves before “coming to mum.” 

These self-reliance skills help foster independence. I’m hoping that by the time my two youngest children (currently aged 11 and 8) reach their teen years my homeschooling mom role will transition more to an “home education advisor” role. (Fingers crossed.) This also frees up more of my time for working from home. 

Forget About Multi-Tasking

One of my best solutions for how to homeschool and work from home is to forget about multi-tasking. However, this is much easier said than done!

As I am an early morning person, I get a ton of work done between 5:00 am and 8:00 am, which is when kids start waking up and things get crazy. (We currently have two young adults and two children at home.)

We homeschool between about 10:00 am and 3:00 pm, including lunch and breaks. The challenge for me is to keep from answering my phone and emails. I’ve found that if I leave my phone in a different room, and check it at noon only, our day goes much more smoothly.

I remind myself that I owe it to the girls (and their education)  to give them my undivided attention during this time.

Prioritize Your Self-Care as a Working Homeschool Mom

Finally, one of the most overlooked aspects of success when it comes to homeschooling and working from home is self-care for moms.

Momming is hard work. Running a business is hard work. And homeschooling? You guessed it. Hard work.

Combine those three and you have a killer recipe for burnout.

Literally.

Prioritizing your own self-care isn’t selfish. It’s nourishing your mind and body so you are as effective as possible in your many roles. 

If your physical or mental health starts to suffer, so too will your business and homeschool goals.

While the details of self-care look different for each of us, the basics are this. Eat healthy, sleep for at least 7 hours a night, take at least one day off work each week, and have at least one hobby or past-time that has NOTHING to do with your work or homeschool responsibilities.

Are you a working homeschool mom? I’d love to connect!

Find me on Instagram @saritaharbourofficial or on Facebook @thriveathomecentral