It can be tough tying to move through a fixed schedule day after day in the homeschool classroom. What makes it worse is the fact that as you begin to fall behind with things that were supposed to be done on previous days, the rest of the days get even more crammed with things that need to be done.

Things start piling up and you never seem to have enough time to catch up. Eventually there is a feeling of total overwhelm that the homeschool parent begins to suffer from. How then, do you recover from this space?

The Timer is an Invaluable Tool

On a regular day you may have the luxury of stopping and smelling the flowers, but when you are on a mission to make up stuff from seven previous days, this may not be possible. Don’t expect to make the recovery all at once in a single day. That is just not going to happen.

Do begin working on the stuff that is due in an organized manner. Try to follow the current day’s schedule as best as you can so as not to fall behind on more stuff, but in between that find ten minutes to work on the other pending stuff. Just use a timer to work exactly ten minutes on this.

Sleep is not a Luxury, it is a necessity

One of the biggest mistakes a homeschool parent can make is trying to finish doing extra work in the hours when they should be getting a good night’s sleep. You may feel that missing a couple of hours of your nightly sleep is a good idea, so that you can make up on pending stuff. Trust me, it is not a good idea.

I would go so far as to call it a terrible idea, specially when you consider the rather gruesome effects that lack of rest can have on your system. As of now you are only backed up in your work and chores. If you start missing sleep you are also going to be cranky and irritable. Do you really want to subject your children to that?