Ladies I need tips!!! We’re nearing the finish line of this year and my excuses are getting the better of me. Doctor, Dentist, grocery shopping, play dates now that spring is here, laundry, dishes, sleep, meals - prepping and preparing, new baby, yard work, remodeling a bedroom, library days, holidays, ugh! The list goes on and on!!!
I need some help keeping focused on completing our school days first before all the other things so we can enjoy the summer. 30 days and counting, woohoo!!!
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This is my real “official” full year of homeschooling but I am feeling this too! lol It may not be the best tip but what I try to ask myself is Do you actually want to be done in a month or not? Basically reminding myself that my procrastination is just going to cause more frustration and probably some tears 
if I’m not done by my end date. Plus, in a more serious tone I usually get my butt into gear by reminding myself that I am responsible for my kids learning ya know? If I get lazy that’s only going to cause the same thing in my kiddos and that leads to frustration all around… that I could have avoided. Anyhow, I do feel your pain and good luck pushing through and enjoy your summer!!!
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I usually have a hard time with this in the winter, and I have great drive when I can see the end in sight! NOT THIS YEAR! I’m really struggling, and not just with our schoolwork but my own tasks as well. I don’t know why this is this year! I think cleaning out our homeschool room and our workboxes and just having an organized and fresh room helps me to want to be in the room more! I think doing something different can help too like going to the park, going for a walk, taking a field trip. It helps to break the monotony. Also, this year I noticed that it isn’t my kids that are having a hard time-it’s just me! I need to get in some “me time” I think because I’m just feeling really worn out. Maybe you need some me time too!
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I went through this in the elementary years with my olders and my guess would be that it was because I needed to teach everything and I was not using the best curriculum at the time either. It would take alllllll day and all of us would end up in tears and this was only for Phonics and Math. No Science, History etc… Now those elementary children are going into 5th and 6th Grade in September eeeek… and I have a 2nd grader and preschooler in September too plus twin babies. We are actually getting through the work without issues even when I have off days… My ‘secret’ would be that the children are doing their work mostly independently now, except my preschooler who really isn’t doing too much yet. (Yes even my 1st grader… but that is nothing to do with me so much as her personality). My olders work on Language arts (reading, spelling, grammar) alone. We do IEW for writing on and off. Math is Teaching Textbooks all around so again I am not needed. Because of all the independence regardless of if I am having an off day or week or month or not they are getting work done, and because I have to mark it it gets me going as well and I soon find myself back on track. We do Science and History as a family right now so as you can guess these are the subjects we are currently ‘behind’ in. We are catching up now. Also as @bran said reminding yourself that you are responsible for your children’s education can help you kick it into gear quickly when you see how much they still need to learn…
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Yes the mind set of I’m responsible for my kids learning is a real “booty kicker”!!
Me time would be awesome, I definately don’t get enough of this. one of these days it will happen.
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I just started teaching textbooks with my 2nd grader last month and she loves it & yes it definately frees me up. I wish they made those programs for language arts too, haha! My kinder and 2nd grader can read their own directions and do some work by themselves so I do try to teach them the main concepts of the lessons and I get nervous that if I’m not with them they may learn something wrong and I won’t catch it, so I place myself under a lot of pressure with that. With the teaching textbook for math I have my 2nd grader also complete a few pages from the Abeka math student workbook just as practice and review and I feel so bad bc sometimes it’s hard for me to find the time to check her work to make sure she’s doing well. How do you check your kids’ work on the things they complete themselves, do you have a system? I’ve thought about getting the answer books and having them check it but then I’m afraid they won’t learn what their mistake was and how to fix it. I’m hoping as they get older it gets easier. And maybe I’m not giving my kids enough credit either, they do really well most days and I fee they are right on target with most and maybe above on some subjects, but I’m just really nervous if we ever have to go into the piblic school system that they will do horrible on their tests or not answer a question right because of the way a question is worded (I’ve seen this first hand - the writers or givers of these tests don’t seem to understand that these are children 5yr - 12yr olds and feel that they should have the mindset, critical thinking skills and vocabulary of an adult, and they wonder why teachers and children are stressed out all the time during their regulatory testing, ugh!)
Ha! I get you (on the test thing). As far as checking work, I do make sure I check the work daily but here and there I miss a day, I just go through the work first chance I get and go over the mistakes. Our current schedule is this:
Every morning after eating, chores, showers etc… we do devotion. I recently decided to follow Diana Waring’s University schedule where we do Monday, Wednesday, Friday Math and Science (including Health) , Tuesday and Thursday Language Arts and History (including Geography/ Social Studies). However for my 1st Grader she is doing Language every day mostly because we are trying to finish out the year and we are almost done with everything and partly because I want to finish all levels of All About Reading as fast as possible after which she will follow the schedule exactly. With this new schedule I find it easier to keep up, with marking as other than the 1st grader I am not marking every subject everyday and on Math days there is almost no marking at all unless I have to look over a notebooking page or something.
I hope this helps. 
We are finishing up our last year in public school and this is really tough. Especially knowing how much fun we are going to have next year with homeschooling! Anwyay- for us getting through the end of the school year just means we take everything with a grain of salt…meaning just do what you need to do, but try not to stress about it. It’s only important that you finish. Not to say there is no value in completing well, cumulative review, testing for comprehension, etc. but if it’s just a struggle to get through at this point, give yourself credit. We also eat out more, try to relax when we have down time, etc. Just stay sane! You’re almost there! 
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To help me stay on track I keep a daily notebook. I write down every night the work to be done the next day and the kids or I check it off as we do it. I also check in with homeschool friends. Once a week I meet a friend for coffee at 5:30am. We bring our babies if needed, or husbands help out by getting up early. It’s hard but it works to keep me motivated and accountable. Can’t wait for summer!!!
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thanks for the awesome information.