Homeschooling_ebook_V1

How to
Juggle Life,
Work, and
Homeschooling
(Without
Losing Your
Mind!)
by Sandie Dennis

“Suddenly, life’s
daily challenges
don’t seem so
important.”
www.confidencetoreturn.co.uk

Introduction
Julie Francis
Do these words sound familiar to you?
They might, if you’ve been hurled into
the position of ‘honorary schoolteacher’,
battling daily to educate the kids and
keep their attention…
…whilst trying to stop your own workload
from escalating wildly out of control,
making sure your home stays clean, and
that everybody’s getting the right amount
of food and sleep.
As a qualified employee support coach,
if there’s one crucial question I’m
guaranteed to be asked during these
intensely challenging times, it’s this one:
“How do I manage work AND homeschooling…
and stay sane?”
So, I’ve put this eBook together to provide a realistic, and
hopefully helpful, answer.
In this, I was lucky enough to get some valuable insights
from Julie Francis, a lovely client who is a successful business
owner; Creative Fire Agency and a parent of two children.
(Julie, who uttered those familiar-sounding words at the
beginning of this eBook, is successfully navigating the work
and home-schooling minefield, so you’ll be hearing a lot
more from her in the following pages!)

What
Happens
When
Your Usual
Routine
Doesn’t
Work
Anymore?
You’ve probably noticed that all the things that
previously characterised a ‘typical’ day have
changed. All the usual rules (get up at a certain
time, make packed lunches, drop the kids off
before heading into the office, and so on) no
longer apply.
While a sense of routine is still important – this
will add purpose and structure to your day –
relaxing the rules can help take some of the
pressure off.
In fact, this is Julie’s number one tip:
“We’ve definitely been more flexible and
relaxed since lockdown. So, if Little Miss wants
to stay in her PJs until lunchtime, so be it. If I
can’t get any work done during the ‘regular’
9-5, it doesn’t really matter.
The same goes for getting the kids to do their
schoolwork – some days are better than others,
but I refuse to feel bad about that.”

www.confidencetoreturn.co.uk

Don’t Revolve
Everything Around
the Kids
In recent weeks, work and family life have
merged out of necessity.
So, don’t worry if the kids are playing in the
background while you take a business call.
The likelihood is that person you’re speaking
to will have exactly the same issue – or at the
very least, they will understand.
Like many parents, Julie has found that making
‘deals’ with the kids can help if she really needs
some privacy – such as telling them she’ll come
and play football in the garden, in exchange for
30 minutes of quiet time!
Work as a Parenting/Teaching Tag Team
If there are two of you, you could try rotating home-schooling
responsibilities into half-days, so that one parent has the
morning, and the other the afternoon.
This will not only help mix things up a little for the kids, it
will also allow you to concentrate solely on work during the
half-day you’re not teaching!

Schedule Set Tasks and Breaks
Your new routine could include making a clear
task list, with something to do for everybody in
the household, to display on the fridge.
This is a suggestion I often make to new parents
returning to work, but I’ve found it to be just
as helpful in this situation, because it clarifies
everybody’s responsibilities (thus helping to
avoid arguments!)
Julie found that allocating jobs to the kids is
helping to instil a keen sense of accountability:
“The kids have been helping with lots of
household jobs, so they are learning vital
life lessons – which in my opinion are just as
important as vocational lessons!”
Schedule breaks throughout the day, so that
everybody has a chance to down tools for a
while (and look forward to doing so!) This will
help to maintain a sense of balance, stopping
you from feeling frazzled and irritable at the
end of the day.

Separate Family,
Work, and
Personal Space
If you can, try to take some exercise
separately, to help create an important
sense of your own personal space.
Dedicate evenings and weekends to family
time, during which you can do whatever
you like together – such as play board
games, or tell fun stories.
Happily, Julie has found that lockdown
living has helped to bring her family closer
together:
“Since the schools closed, we’ve created a
vegetable patch in the garden, and it’s the kids’
job to keep everything watered. We’ve baked
together, made dinner together, and even eaten all
together, which didn’t happen very much before.”
www.confidencetoreturn.co.uk

Create a Family
Gratitude Board
We all need a little something to help get us
through the bad days.
A visual reminder of everything you’re grateful
for can be the perfect pick-me-up.
Your own Gratitude Board doesn’t have to be
fancy, just a dedicated place on which everybody
can add their own drawings, pieces of writing, or
even scribbled Post-it Notes. Appreciating the
gifts in our lives will help to release ‘feel good’
chemicals (dopamine and oxytocin) into our
bodies.
www.confidencetoreturn.co.uk

Remember,
We’re All in This
Together…
…yet your family is unique.
So, try not to get too hung up on what everybody
else is doing. The way you choose
to approach this uncharted situation must
work in the best possible way for you.
Some people will suddenly discover an
abundance of free time, while others will be
more restricted. Some children will settle
easily into their new routine, while others
will take a little more time to adjust. Some
families have two parents to take control,
others just one.
As Julie insightfully puts it:
“It feels at the moment that I
have even less free time than I did
before. But it also feels as though
time itself has less importance. No
one has anywhere they need to be
in a hurry!
Like all phases in life and
parenthood, this is an adjustment
period. We’re finding our way, doing
what we need to do, and making
things work for OUR family.
We’re not all the same, and every
family needs to find what works
best for them.”

Sandie
www.confidencetoreturn.co.uk
@confidence2rtn
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