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How much is too much time outside of home?
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We have been in our current school year for 4 weeks now, but I’ve noticed we have not been home much, and it is only getting worse. Between story time at the library, co-ops, and extra curriculars, we are super busy. So far it hasn’t burned me out too bad, buti was wondering what you all think is too much time away from home.
Every family is different! We do not do nearly that much outside the home but I simply don’t want to run all over creation with 8 children in tow. We gave up story time years ago because, well, we read great books at home and the library selections aren’t always great, usually mediocre. Co-ops never meet the needs of my age range (I don’t want to stick half the kids in a nursery because they’re not school age yet and around here that’s the only option) and it never worked out that the co-op was doing anything related to our current year’s time period or science topics. Extra curriculars: Cub scouts for boys as they turn 9 (part of a church group), activity days for girls as they turn 8 (part of church), and youth group once a child turns 12 (part of church). These 3 activities are all the exact same night, time, and place (at the church). 🙂 I drop off the kids and spend time at home with just the younger 5 for now. Or I hang out there and daddy is home with the younger 5.
Our only during the school day activity is the homeschool book club I started several years ago and it meets once a month.
Like I said, we’re pretty minimal!
I say do less than you think you could handle. Better to say no to good things and have time for the best, than to burn out and struggle. (Burnout stinks. been there.) And if what works for you is something out most days, great! If not, that’s great too!
Just wanted to add that now that my son is actually in scouts… scouting is taking us 2 nights a week (and some weekends…) Scouts is one night and Cubs and Beavers are another. (I’m also a cub leader).
Well….that is a hard question to answer without knowing your family’s personality BUT, I personally am of the opinion that being home as much as possible is VERY important and time well spent. I also try to keep us together as a family away from home as well. I would get very overwhelmed very quickly if we had appointments out of the house every day. I have made it a priority to try to be home with all of us together most, if not all, weeknights and only have classes and extra curricular activities outside of the house a couple times a week at a managable time for us.
-Miranda
I guard our afternoon quiet time carefully, or we burn out fast. Also, we stay home on Mondays and Fridays, no negotiation. Mondays so we can recover from the weekend and get a running start on weekly schoolwork, and Fridays so we can get ready for the weekend. Tuesdays-Thursdays are more flexible; we are part of two co-ops–an arts one during the “regular” school year that covers violin lessons, ballet, choir, studio art, etc; and a group learning one that meets in 6-week stints four times a year (once each season). Then we have a monthly nature walk, and every once in awhile, a special field trip. Overall, I try not to be out more than two weekdays a week, including any errands/dr. appts/etc… that seems to be a good balance for us.
We only do Fridays as our out and about days (no other school work). We do horseback riding lessons and after that it is swim club. My girls do the riding lessons although my two youngest boys are interested, they can do it all at the same time. Swim club is everyone except the 2 year old. Occasionally the local school has a special production or sports day etc. and we join them on these day (only 17 students in the local school).
VikingKirken, I’m curious when you do your activities T-Th. Are they in the morning? Currently I guard our mornings to keep them available for at-home learning and I find our afternoons are unreliable (sometimes out, sometimes folks over, sometimes home). We’ve never been consistent about afternoon quite time but I’d really love to finally secure it in our day. Just wondering the timing of the things you do out of the house.
To answer the OP, in the fall and spring we tend to have more going on (winter and summer less). This fall they will have a piano lesson and chess class Monday afternoon, a friend’s children come over Wednesday afternoon to work on a project the children decide on (some animal activist thing typically) and Friday morning is Team Time at the Y (group games with their homeschool friends). My sons are both 8. Once the chess class is over I (almost certainly) won’t replace it with something else. Then in the spring we may decide to add a short-term class.
This is my first year and I feel like I’m the only one who is actually HOMEschooling. Just hearing what everyone else is doing stresses me out. Between grocery shopping, a trip to target, famiy dinner at my parents one night, church Saturday nights, small group Sunday evenings I feel like we are so busy. My son age 3 does a little sports class through the city Monday evenings at 5, and daughter age 5.5 does ballet once a week (starts in sept) that’s it for extras for the kids. I’m in a co-op but I don’t know if we will actually do any classes, maybe just a field trip here an there. As school only takes us 45 minutes mon-thurs.
Yes, every family is different. With an only child, I am feeling the need to get out more often than I imagine I would if I had several kids. Summer is quieter but come September – April we have a CM group 2nd Tuesdays; Wednesdays are busy morning and evening, so no school; 2nd and 4th Thursday mornings we have an activity, and of course Sunday is church morning and sometimes evening.
That still leaves three days untouched, and I prefer to have 2-3 ‘homebody’ days per week.
We try to stay home as much as possible. I also have a 1yo so I try to guard her precious nap times. We hold off on any activity until they are at least 8 (and ready/interested). My oldest is turning 8 next month but I don’t know if she is interested in anything at this point. We have Life Group staring again in Sept and that is 1 night, Awana is Sun nights and that’s it for activities. I feel like any more than that cuts into our time of hiking, outdoor activities as a family, or time with Daddy. I know as they get older they’ll have more interests so I’m taking full advantage of these younger years! Dc ages 8, 6, 3, 1.
I have limited our outside activities to two day a week. Tuesdays my oldest goes to a drama/theater group in the afternoon, and in the evening my other two will be going to skateboarding classes. My husband can take them to that, so that I can stay home with the soon to arrive baby. Wednesdays my middle child has guitar lessons in the afternoon. I usually do grocery shopping on one of those day. One Friday a month we do have homeschool park day also. We’ll see how it all works out when the new baby gets here.
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