When your life and homeschool routines don't feel satisfying or you don't know how to get it all done, consider these 6 game-changing ways to streamline and simplify your life and homeschool routines.
From embracing imperfection and finding joy in the present moment to owning your authenticity and pursuing your passions, today I'll offer you 6 game-changing ways that can guide you toward a more intentional and purpose-driven life.
Let's chat homeschool routines!
Before I share the 6 game-changing ways to streamline your life & homeschool routines, I want to ask you six questions. So grab your journal!
Six questions to ask when you'd like to simplify and streamline your life and homeschool routines:
Question 1: Which routine do you want to clarify?
Question 2: How can you embrace imperfection to simplify and enhance your homeschooling experience?
We want to recognize that mistakes are a natural part of growth and grant ourselves permission to learn from them.
Question 3: How can you find joy in the present moment and apply mindfulness to improve your homeschooling routine?
We need to create practices amidst our daily tasks and challenges, engage in affirmations, and foster gratitude and enjoyment in both teaching and learning.
Question 4: What steps can you take to own your authenticity as a homeschool mom and streamline your homeschooling approach?
We need to ensure that our activities, curriculum, and extracurriculars for us and our kids align with our values and boundaries, ultimately simplifying our lives.
Question 5: How can you integrate your personal passions into homeschooling to simplify and enrich your daily routines?
We want to align our daily activities with what genuinely brings you fulfillment and happiness.
Question 6: What strategies can you employ to live with intention and align your homeschooling with your aspirations for a purpose-driven life?
At the end of our homeschool family days, we want to know we've created meaningful learning experiences and shared moments of significance with our communities.
Can I tell you a story about my life and homeschool routines?
Straight up, I didn't know I couldn't do everything. I wanted to know that everything I was doing was enough.
Sound familiar? I hear that discussion of enoughness all the time.
I didn't get it then, but I now know that I have to determine what my version of "enoughness" is. What is my version of success & enoughness in my homeschool and my life? Then work backward to decide what I have to do.
- Did I want to eke out a consistent routine with specific subjects each day?
- Did I want to include enrichment activities for my kids?
- When would I eke out the time?
- What was important for me to include? I had to write it down. All of it.
Could I do it all? Nope.
Could I give my kids every opportunity? Nope.
Would I be able to say at the end of the day that I could have done things differently or more? Yup.
What I learned I needed to do:
- Set Clear Goals: Academically, socially, and personally.
- Establish a Consistent Schedule: Consistency is key for a successful routine, creating a sense of structure and predictability.
- Include Core Activities: Allocate time for core subjects like math, language arts, science, history, and extracurriculars.
- Incorporate Margins (or Breaks): For tension relief through exercise or yoga, outdoor time, or snacks.
- Then Learn Flexibility: While a routine is important, flexibility is required.
- Review and Adjust: Regularly review how the routine is working. Be open to adjustments based on your child's progress, interests, and feedback.
I learned that the homeschool routine is a tool to help me achieve my home education goals while also maintaining the well-being of my family. It's important to attempt to include both structure and flexibility to create an environment that supports your child's growth and learning journey.
Do you know what else I didn't get about my life and homeschool routines?
I didn't know that I was supposed to use my natural giftings and aptitudes and my kids as a jumping off board to create an authentic, meaningful life. Oh, and also, determining how each of us functions together.
Certainly, I didn't know I had to create space and time for myself.
I didn't know that my goal wasn't to do it perfectly but to learn from imperfection.
Of course, I didn't know that my end goal wasn't when they graduated, but this moment right here right now: because I was making memories and living my life right in the moment. Not when I was done with the work.
If you want to streamline and simplify your homeschool, I don't believe your goal is to cull stuff, get rid of unhealthy relationships, or delete an overbusy calendar.
1.
Embrace Imperfection and Self-Compassion.
Remember, perfection isn't the goal—it's embracing life's beautiful imperfections that truly matter.
Messy routines. Messy people. Of course, messy kitchens. And always messy homeschool spaces.
How you engage yourself is how you engage your kids.
And a nasty cycle of perfection can preoccupy your days.
You can have unrealistic perfect expectations of yourself, then you project that need for perfection onto others, then you get frustrated that they can't achieve it and you get frustrated or ashamed that you can't perform it, and clearly they get frustrated with you that they can't achieve it, and you live in a cycle of shame, accusation, too much control, and obvious dissatisfaction.
2. 
Find Joy in the Moment.
Even with daily tasks and endless to-dos, there's magic in practicing mindfulness.
If you're waiting for life to align so you feel great, no ebbs and flows with your monthly cycle, no relational challenges with your partner, and no frustration or disappointment with your family and friends, I regret to be the bearer of bad news: it's not going to happen.
Life is this: growth.
Those things are opportunities for growth.
But you can do a few things to bolster your joy.
You can practice mindfulness moments, create a gratitude practice, speak daily affirmations to yourself, incorporate breathing techniques, or sensory moments, include a communal prayer time of thanks, or offer a lovingkindness meditation for the world, your community, and your family.
Whether it's the giggles of your little ones while you're playing Snakes & Ladders, the warmth of a cup of pumpkin spice latte, or a breathtaking blue moon in August, these moments hold the power to fill your heart with gratitude and joy.
3. 
Own Your Authenticity.
The more we get clear on who we are, allow others to see the real us, and create practices to encourage our authentic unique selves, just like we do the same for our kids, we will instinctively streamline and simplify our life and homeschool routines.
- Because we'll know that certain activities are our dreams, like becoming an NHL star, not our child's dream.
- Because we'll know we need to invest more time in doing things we love, then the things we don't love will drop off because they don't have relevance in our lives.
- And that can mean we spend less time with certain people too. Perhaps we've only been in a relationship with certain people because someone told us we had to, but we didn't choose that relationship. Include the people that should be in your life. You get to choose them.
When we own our unique selves, really lean into us becoming more us, the things that aren't us disappear.
It's time to take one more step toward living outside the societal box and embrace our unique selves, unapologetically and authentically.
Your life, your journey, and your homeschool routine are yours to create!
4. 
Pursue Your Passions.
What lights up your soul? Is it writing, painting, dancing, or a long-lost dream?
You want your kids to do the things that light up their souls, even if it's pursuing their passions because they enjoy them...
- not because they'll make a career out of them,
- not because they'll be productive when they do them,
- and not because they declare to the world that they ARE something,
But rather, because we embrace your passions and allow them to bloom in their interests.
The pursuit of their passions not only fuels their creativity but also brings an incredible sense of fulfillment. That's why they look so happy playing.
Therefore, I'm going to encourage you to pursue your passion too.
And guess what happens when you pursue your passions? You fall in love with the thing you're doing and you spend more time doing things you love.
Then you love your life (oh and you realize there are a whole bunch of things in your life and homeschool routines that you don't love so why in the world are you doing them?)
So, pursue your passions, girlfriend!
5. 
Live with Intention.
You may have heard me speak to "time blocking your life". (I have a time audit that you can access that spells out just how to do this.)
Time blocking means this: decide if an activity is something you want to include in your life, determine how much time you want to spend doing it, and grab a simple hour-by-hour schedule and block out time to do it.
For every single thing you want to do in your life.
- Do you want to volunteer at the local seniors' center once a month? Write it in.
- Want to have a regular date night with your partner or a girls' night out with your friends? Block it off.
- Want to sleep 8 hours a night? Set a reminder on your phone that you're going to bed, screens not welcome, at 11 pm.
- What if you want to include a devoted learning time in your day? Block it off.
- Want the house to be relatively clean regularly? Schedule two hours on Saturday.
- Want to do a daily neighbourhood run? Stop your daily routine at 3, give screens to the kids for a half hour, and go.
What if you want to but you can't...
If you want to include a weekly activity just for you but don't know what you even want to do? Ask your mom (or exchange kids with a friend) and leave for an hour every week to do whatever strikes your fancy. Do you want to book time at a pottery studio, peruse a bookshop with a latte, begin a writing practice, learn to weave, or start your own business?
But you can't you say…
Because there are too many extracurriculars. Next semester, only include the activities that fit when everything else is determined.
You don't have anyone to look after your kids? I get that. But time to make friends.
What if the kids won't give you the space? Time to teach them you're unavailable on the other side of your bedroom door, and mean it, or simply plan to leave. Consider practicing an afternoon quiet time on each of their beds, or a communal quiet time in your family room with quiet music and reading. Get them used to not being "available" all the time.
Or what if your partner won't give you the space or support you in it? Straight up, you've been participating in a way of relating that isn't serving your partner or yourself. Your needs matter too. Stop telling yourself they don't. And require him/ her to honour them too.
And what if you want to do some of these things but you just can't make the time? Then, my friend, you might not want to as much as you're telling yourself you do. That is totally fine, just recognize that if you really want to do something, you'll make it happen.
What if there are things on your list that you don't want to do? That doesn't truly align with your sense of life purpose. Delete them. Categorically and unapologetically, though kindly still, delete them.
Craft a life that aligns with your aspirations. Your dreams aren't meant for "someday"; they're meant for today.
Join me in the Patreon Homeschool Mama Support Group to evaluate your daily habits and routines. Make space for what truly matters and create a life filled with purpose.
Above every discussion point I shared today, remember that transformation begins with the willingness to embrace change.
When your life and homeschool routines feel overwhelming or uninspiring, these strategies can be a guiding light toward a more purpose-driven existence. From honouring imperfection to pursuing your passions and living with unwavering authenticity, you have the tools to craft a life that aligns with your dreams and aspirations.
Your homeschool journey is not just about an academic end goal; it's about creating lasting memories as you savor as many moments as you are able.
Reimagine your homeschool life where you and your family thrive more, where life is a curiosity-based adventure, and where each day is a step toward your life well-lived.
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Teresa Wiedrick
I help overwhelmed homeschool mamas shed what's not working in their homeschool & life, so they can show up authentically, purposefully, and confidently in their homeschool & life.
Call to Adventure by Kevin MacLeod
Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3470-call-to-adventure
License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
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