Trying to find time to...

[mamagrigsby]

I started homeschooling kindergarten this year. I have definitely noticed that it's harder to schedule things for me, such as dr. appts., coffee time with friends, and things of that nature. The one thing that has really been frustrating me is trying to find time to workout. When my dd was in preschool two days a week I would go to the gym in the mornings. I can't do that now because I'm teaching. I try to get up early in the morning before she gets up (she gets up between 6:30 and 7:00) to workout at home but I am always dead tired and don't get up early enough. I find myself staying up later at night now that I'm homeschooling because I am needing that "me" time more and that's when I usually get it. I am also lesson planning at night and figuring out what we will do the next day. I can't workout at night. That just doesn't work for me. I can't go to the gym after we are done schooling, which is usually around 11:00, because the daycare closes at 12 noon. So, my question is, do any of you workout and when do you find the time to do it? I'm afraid I already know the answer to my dilemma, and that is just get my butt up earlier. I just want to know if anybody else struggles to find the time.

[AnnR33]

The beauty of hsing that you can schedule it around your life! There's no "law" that you have to get all your school work done in the morning so go workout at 10am so you can take advantage of the day care and then do the other school work in the afternoon.
And for that age I don't think we did more than an hour of "sit down" work anyway. Reading and other things of interest were done throughout the day.

And why can't you exercise at home when your child is awake? Have her go play, read, watch a DVD, etc and take an hour for yourself and workout.

I have 4 kids at home and while I don't workout as much as I want (will power issue) I still do it when they are up and around. The only downside is that they sometimes "critique" me when I'm doing a workout DVD LOL

So loosen up and go with the flow Hsing does not have to be about rigid time schedules, it's all about working it in with your lifestyle.

[Momma Aimee]

why not do 1/2 of the school work -- take a break and go to the gym -- you get to work out, DD gets to play -- then go home and finsih up.

or then go home, have lunch and then finsh up ...

I agree with PP that you can arrange your day anyway you want.

or most of my buddies HS 4 days a week -- well that means you have one free day for appt and so on .. while that doesn't help a whole lot with the working out -- it does give you more flex.

Aimee

[pigpokey]

I am homeschooling K and 1. I put them both on the home school swim team and I swim while they are working out. Also no way I would personally suggest you get your butt up earlier. That sounds like a horrible idea. (Just me.)

I would suggest you do half your lessons, break, go to the gym, and do half after lunch.

[elizawill]

i totally agree that you should make homeschooling work around your schedule. if you have appointments, field trips, co-op, outings, etc. then make your schedule work around the things that are most important for that particular day. as for working out, i totally understand. i don't go to the gym, but i enjoy running. i get up and leave the kids with my dh each morning. i'm training for a half marathon, so i give myself a couple of hours each day. school is definitely starting later than normal now, but that's the beauty of homeschooling. plus, you can accomplish in a fraction of the time what they cover in public school...so you really only need about an hour or so a day to cover things with your dc, ykwim? just make it work for you

[pigpokey]

I also wonder how much time you are putting into lesson planning? I definitely spend time doing research (e.g., being on here learning from everyone, googling topics of interest to me in education, etc) but my lesson planning for this age involves setting up a weekly schedule. But you are probably working with more curricular goals than I am. All I have to do is pick up where we left the time before in (reading, math, hopefully Spanish when I get my butt in gear) and continuing until we are done for the day.

My experience with this age has been that they learn best in small chunks with not more than 1 day off at a time.

[bobandjess99]

Maybe I am completely stupid or not getting something here, but why not just go to the gym during teh morning when the daycare is open?? the awesome thing about homeschooling is, you can set your own schedule. You don't have to do your homeschooling in the morning.

[elus0814]

I also find that me time is non-existent but with one child you are almost certainly getting way more time than us parents homeschooling several children. I'm with the other posts, do your workout then do school in the afternoon. Here we do school work whenever, sometimes it's early, sometimes is late, sometimes it's during the baby's nap time, sometimes it's on the weekends. I know what needs to get done over the course of several weeks so it doesn't matter what day or time it happens. I'm not sure why you are spending so much time planning lessons for a kindergartener. Kindergarten is all about reading books, learning phonics, basic math, etc. It really doesn't need so much structure that it should take an entire morning or require more than 15 or so minutes of prep work each night. For my kindergartener I spend maybe five minutes preparing for each day, if that, and at most an hour for lessons (not counting read aloud time). She is reading above grade level and is up to second grade math. Think about it this way: you could spend hours teaching something now or wait a year and spend 20 minutes teaching it. It can be easy to burn out if you are spending hours doing school work every day at such a young age.

[pigpokey]

One other idea, if you want to continue the course as you have been, is to switch gyms to somewhere that she can be there waiting for you. At one facility we use (we use it in the summer for the pool, but I could use it year round) my little kids are not restricted in what they can do besides having to keep out of the cardio/weights area. It's a university rec center. So they can check out basketballs, jump ropes, etc and play anywhere in the complex as long as they behave. Of course I could also stick them in front of a laptop on the WiFi or watching a movie and they would behave too... I don't actually work out there except in the summer when we're there to swim, but that's my problem.