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How To Juggle Being a Home School Mother and a Home School Leader

© Jennifer James

There is nothing more fulfilling than to witness your child excelling at the highest academic levels possible. It is equally rewarding to see your home schooled child immersed in an active, socially-sustainable home school organization or support group. To achieve this, moms oftentimes assume roles as both home school teachers as well as home school leaders.

In so doing, moms find themselves in dual leadership roles that demand a tremendous amount of time and attention to detail, while both being equally as important to the healthy rearing of a home schooled child. What do you do, then, when it is becomes increasingly difficult to balance teaching duties along with serving as a support group leader? Here are a few remedies that ensure striking a balance in both roles.

As both roles demand much of one's attention, it is imperative to place goals and objectives into priority lists in order to feel a sense of accomplishment at the end of the day. Without a well-thought out and well-planned priority list, activities, lessons, e-mails, conference calls and projects gel into a one, rich amalgam of confusion. No mom needs this. In order to avoid this scenario, take a day or two, even a week, to plan your course of action. What projects need to be handled first thing each morning? Between what hours will you teach school lessons or will you intersperse teaching throughout the day? What projects can be handled before going to bed? Are there any projects that you can seemingly do simultaneously? Place your to-do items into a list of "must-do's" to "can wait" columns and be fervent in being honest with your assessment.

After you have jotted down your daily tasks and have put them into a priority list, it is time to make a plan. There are several types of plans that one may choose from. Some mothers create plans all throughout a given day, while still keeping their priority list in mind. Others plan their daily activities weeks in advance. Whatever style works for you, make sure to schedule your day to a tee. In realistic terms, ask yourself questions such as: "Do I need to allot one hour or two to teaching math?" How long will it take me to e-mail everyone in the group about the upcoming zoo trip?" "How much time do I need to leave for the weekly trip to the library?" Efficient scheduling, in effect, guarantees that you are consistently on task and you are assured that you will accomplish all that was scheduled for any given day.

The copyright of the article How To Juggle Being a Home School Mother and a Home School Leader in Multicultural Homeschooling is owned by Jennifer James. Permission to republish How To Juggle Being a Home School Mother and a Home School Leader in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.