This is a topic that has been on my heart for the past year. I am a mom who struggles with staying home. I feel like the days kind of drag on and also live in a very cold snowy area of Canada - meaning we can’t just go out in the backyard for much of winter! To combat cabin fever, we take advantage of many social groups, play dates, community resources (library, museum etc.). But…I am finding it hard to have any sort of schedule at home. We only stay home for the whole day maybe 1 or 2 days a week. The days we are out, we are home by lunch.
I guess my question is: How many days a week are you home all day? AND how do you set a similar rhythm to your day if you are often out?
-As a bonus: How do you not go crazy being at home with little ones through the winter?
We currently schedule 4 days a week and have friday as our activities day. I have enjoyed having that extra day to have as a make up also. If we have something fun to do on monday then we switch it for friday. I have not felt like it has hurt us academically or put us behind. I am only homeschooling my daughter though so we can get through quite a bit together. The great thing about homeschooling is being able to adjust to your families needs. If your family needs that outside time do it. Maybe plan that u start your homeschool day after lunch everyday or take fridays off like we do. I think regardless of what the schedule is, if you and the children are happy and learning at the elementary level that is what matters. The 8-3 5 days a week really doesn’t apply when homeschooling. I hate winter and it is tough for me to be couped up but i try to find activities on pinterest and online to make inside days fun. Do what makes you guys happy and good luck!
This is my first year homeschooling. In the fall I overdid our social schedule and we were out of the house 4 mornings a week with scheduled activities. In some ways it was great but I felt a lot of stress trying to fit our school time into the day. Most of the activities ended in early December so we took that month and then part of January to reset.
Now we are trying to get out 2-3 times a week. They kids have Phys Ed on Fridays. Tuesday we have lego club every other week. And we are going to start story time at the library in mid-March when it starts up again. This seems to be a much better balance for us.
I however am very happy staying at home. I am a homebody majorly. Plus I have two that still need naps so that needs to be factored into our day. On top of that my oldest son does not do well with seatwork in the afternoon if it goes beyond 30 minutes. Its a balancing act trying to get done everything that needs to be done.
I think that it depends on the ages of your children. When mine were young (preschool-early elementary) school did not take all day. I was able to go out and still feel like I covered everything that we needed to with schoolwork. As the kids got older they got more schoolwork, it takes longer. I do stay home more now that my kids are older (5th and 12th grade).
But, there are times when I know we are getting cabin fever and we just stop school and go out. It always makes the rest of the school week better.
I only have a two a yr old at the moment, but I totally get the cabin fever especially when our temperatures this winter have been -36 for days on end! I like a routine, but know I need to be flexible as well. Our Monday begins at 9-10am and then we go to the library for story and song time. I also pick up books that have to do with the letter of the week we are learning. So Monday she gets some teaching and social time. Tues-Thurs. 9-noon is our learning time. Again 11-noon we try and do music and physical activity (which is mostly in house as it’s so cold out) I found some fun zumba kids dance videos as well as dance dance kids videos on Youtube. If I need to go to the grocery store or just want to get out and go shopping she comes with me so we can both get out and I try and make the outing fun for her as well. When temperatures aren’t so cold we play in the snow with neighbors. I am also apart of a Mom’s Preschoolers group at our church every other Wednesday where she has lots of little friends to play with! Friday’s like some of these Mom’s have said above is also our day off for family time.
I think I might have the reverse problem. I’m a heavily introverted homebody and while I get along with others and even like other people, I personally prefer to stay in on any given day. I can tell that’s starting to take a toll on my oldest. He’s forevermore asking to have someone over or to go to someone’s house, so I hope that next year we’ll have more chances to go out. Unfortunately we live in the middle of nowhere in a small town with not too many resources so it’s going to be quite a challenge!
We have some weeks where we are home most of the week(especially now that its cold). And then some weeks are busier and we are away from home more. We have homeschool group every Wednesday so that helps to break up the week a little. And on about 1 Friday a month we have a field trip with the group. It also helps that once a month we do something fun with another family that are friends of ours. They have kids around the same age as ours so we always find something everyone will like. Things such as bowling, skating, sledding, museums, movies…or in the warmer weather, we swim, have picnics, go fishing, take a walk,etc.
This year we are doing school 4 days and on Friday’s the kids do a co-op and I get to run errands! On the other days we have sports and such so we’re out in late afternoon quite a bit too. I am looking forward to warmer days though where we can get out and play outside! It’s freezing and snowing here right now!
I’m the same way! I would prefer to stay home everyday. When I first started homeschooling I was a bit disappointed that my children were the opposite from me! My kids belong to a church group that meets with kids their age once a week in the evenings on Sundays. Then on Tuesdays we have girl scouts and boy scouts in the evening. Other than that we are home each day during the day. (Of course, having a second vehicle would probably take us out on more field trips!) But, I think the kids getting out twice a week is a good balance for them right now.
I have about four feet of snow in my yard right now! I get so annoyed when I’ve finally tackled shoveling the drive way and the plow drives by and shovels the snow back into the end of the drive way! GGGGrrrrr!
I don’t really have a good answer for you but some days my husband walks in from work and just looks at me and knows that I need a break! He’ll take the little ones from me and I go and take a hot bath and come back down stair a little more relaxed and refreshed! Summer will be here soon!
JdJuly22 I am the same way! I am an introvert and prefer being home. After my baby was born last May I hadn’t left the house for a couple of weeks. My father-in-law asked if I was getting cabin fever. I just laughed and said “nope, I love the cabin.” My biggest challenge is making sure I get out of the house for my kids to have other interaction. The last few years I’ve developed a bit of social anxiety and I don’t want that to affect their lives. My son is in karate and I am going to be signing them up for some other activities at the Y soon so they have a chance to interact with other kids their age that aren’t related to them. :
When my kids were little, I did find it important to be home during the day, so that we could have a regular school routine. So, I purposed to be home at least 4 out of 5 school days. The 5th day (usually a Friday) would be either a field trip or a play date. This morphed into “Friday Friend Day” as the kids got older–we’d school half days on Friday and spend the afternoon with friends. It’s good motivation for all of us to get our work done throughout the week and enjoy the reward Friday afternoon.
Our only other regular outings were for things like AWANA on Wednesday nights (later on youth group), or music lessons, or art lessons…things like that. Not to say that we never had an off week with more going on, but that most weeks there was a regular pattern. I always found that weeks where we ran around a lot were hard to recover from–everything seemed out of whack.
As for how to cope–the friend days were for me too! I enjoyed time with another mom on those days. Some years I was in a Bible study that met once a week in the evening, while dh watched the kids. Some years I would go out once or twice a month with a friend in the evening. Regular dates with my husband…things like that. (And a “date” can be “in” too–there were a few times we put the kids to bed early and enjoyed a treat downstairs etc…)
A big thing for me was to make sure I was taking care of myself–mentally, physically, spiritually–eating well, getting exercise, enough sleep, being in the Word etc… It takes a lot of resources to be a mom!
