“But why are you homeschooling if you have a full-time job? He should go to school.”
And I agree – however, we’re kind of a nomad family, and sending him to school in different countries, with different languages is out of the question, especially considering that he already speaks 3 languages at the age of 6.
So we’re left homeschooling and working remotely, all at the same time.
And here’s how we do it.
Always have a plan
A plan, is, of course, the first thing you need. Make sure you cover at least one week of both homeschooling, work assignments, and personal items (because you also need to live for yourself), and always be prepared for that plan to fail.
And why is that? Because the world is unexpected, kids are unexpected, work is unexpected (at least in my case, as any of my clients can have different, urgent requests at the same time), the traffic is unexpected (because we’re bound to visit a place or two) and even we, as supposedly organized adults, are unexpected.
The sooner you get to terms with that, the sooner you’ll stop trying to be perfect.
So have a very good plan, but accept that it has the potential of going south at any point throughout the day or week.
What’s better than a plan is to have a short task list with items that MUST be completed during the week. This usually consists of deadlines, important milestones, doctor appointments, etc.
And now, having that, the plan becomes more of a guideline while you get some sh*t done for real.
Do not panic
And you’ll probably need a constant reminder for this – multiple times a day. Because you’ll want to get as many things done as possible in the shortest time and it always feel like you’re out of time.
Some tasks only take 10 minutes and you’re wasting 5 hours panicking about it, creating scenarios of what can go wrong and finding a fix for those scenarios (or is it just me?). The point is – be realistic about how much time your tasks will take, and write it down if it’s useful in any way. It takes some of the stress away and helps you deal with anxiety.
Set reminders for the things that are super important, and if you have the flexibility, take care of the rest whenever you feel like it – even if that’s at 10 pm on a warm Saturday.
Designate work and school zones
This can be hard, especially if those zones change a lot or if you don’t have space to do it.
But if you can, it’s a great way to establish boundaries and eliminate distractions.
Instead of learning the alphabet in a room with working people (which is distracting for everyone), it’s best to just learn the alphabet in the learning room and use the workroom to spend quiet time with your work tasks.
If that’s not an option, I find it really helpful to completely transform the workspace depending on the activity. So if you’re doing exercises with your kid, remove all work-related items from the table, and vice-versa.
And of course, you may have days when you’re sending emails while the kiddo is doing math, but that’s not the easiest thing to do – you may both end up failing your task.
Use technology
Now – you may not agree with this, but technology is a life-saver sometimes.
It helps you stay organized, find relevant educational videos for those moments when you can’t even catch your breath, keep aligned with the entire family, and almost never lets you down (unless you forget to charge something).
In our case, we try to do as much as possible using technology – it saves us a lot of time, all our notebooks and to do’s are in the same place and we’re synchronizing our devices so the entire family has access to the same information. We’re basically creating a seamless life experience for ourselves.
Prioritize self-care
If you’re not happy and stable, everything will crumble. So before exhausting yourself trying to set everything up for everyone, make sure you’re well taken care of. Meaning you have time for yourself, you don’t skip your favorite activities and you actually rest properly.
Having at least one child, a partner, and clients (or a team) depending on you, the first thing you need to put together is your mental and physical wellbeing. And after that, you can go ahead and deal with life properly.
Embrace the chaos
The chances of doing everything perfectly all the time are… Well, super low.
So at the end of the day, you may just as well embrace the chaos, and go with it. And as long as that important task list is taken care of, you’re free as a bird, ready to actually enjoy life a bit.
So how about you? What would you add to this list?