How To Establish And Defend Time Boundaries In Your Homeschool

Hey homeschoolers! When you've made the decision to homeschool, one of the next important steps to take is to define and defend time boundaries in your homeschooling life. In this episode I will share what time boundaries are, how to protect them, and which time boundaries you should consider. Before I do that, however, I want to share resources I've created that are powerful in establishing and defending time boundaries. They are The Organized Homeschool Life book and planner and A Year of Living Productively. As a beginning homeschooler, I just had no firm time boundaries. As a result, nothing got done. I wasn't teaching preschool to my oldest. I wasn't doing laundry. And I had no idea what was for dinner. I was overwhelmed and sure I could not in good conscience keep homeschooling. I was also sure I could not have any more children than the three boys I already had. That's when someone told me about a woman who calls herself FLYLady.  Her emails helped me understand that I needed routine in my life. Routines and 15 minute missions changed everything for me. I had time boundaries for myself and my children. But as the years went on, I realized I needed something more. I wanted to have boundaries around the other areas of my life that needed organization as a homeschooling mom. For example, I wanted someone to tell me when it was time to get my used curriculum ready to sell. I wanted to know that I needed to get fall activities on my calendar. And I wanted to take time to get good meals in the freezer. I couldn't find a resource like that, so I created one. I divided all of the areas of my life that needed organization and into 52 areas, one for each week. Then I broke those areas down into  four 15-minute missions that could be done each weekday or an hour on the weekends. Many homeschool moms found that they were able to establish time boundaries using just The Organized Homeschool Life book. But some moms told me they didn't know how to fit even 15 minutes into their busy days. That's when I created The Organized Homeschool Life planner. It's a life planner that guides you into establishing time boundaries for your month, your week, and your day. Everything that's important to you is included in your daily planning form. Some homeschool moms are working or running a business as well as homeschooling. They wonder about advanced time boundaries and how to create them. I wondered about them, too. I started experimenting with a different productivity approach every week. My results with them are now in book form. The book makes your process of experimenting much faster. You can quickly find your own productivity formula in the book A Year of Living Productively. Defending Time Boundaries Now let's talk more in depth about time boundaries. To understand what a time boundary is, imagine that your country tells a foreign power not to cross its boundaries by land, air, or sea. The boundaries your country establishes are much like the time boundaries we devote to specific activities. Defending time boundaries is like what a country does when a foreign power violates its borders. If there is no response, the country's defense is weak or nonexistent. The results will likely be that the foreign power invades. Your country is now at the mercy of the foreign power and its goals will not be achieved. In the same way, if we do not respond to violations of our time boundaries, our goals for homeschooling in our lives not be achieved or at least will not be achieved quickly. Before I share with you what I think appropriate time boundaries are for you and your family, I want to talk about defending them. There's no point in a country creating a long l...