Congratulations! You are moving to a new home! What an exciting time in your life. I know that packing everything seems overwhelming, but it doesn’t have to if you have a little structure and a plan. Here are a few tips to get you started when moving while homeschooling.
Carve Out Scheduled Packing Time
Make time for this huge project. Moving while homeschooling is not for the faint of heart! Try to shorten your homeschool day by at least an hour or two. You can do this by taking 15 to 30 minutes off each subject or dropping a few subjects for this season.
Try to spend at least one non-homeschooling day a week fully focused on packing other than helping the children through morning, meal, and bedtime routines. Saturday may work for you. You may need to schedule someone you trust to help you with small children that day.
If you still do not have enough time, then add more time to each day by sacrificing a little sleep. Try to get at least 6 hours so you are somewhat safe to drive on the roads.
Make a loose daily schedule and write on each chunk of time what you will pack. Think about each room and what is in it. Remember to include the garage and outside buildings.
Plan to have one small box of toys for each child to play with that they help choose. Have one box of games, playing cards, craft activities and puzzles to use until moving day.
Pack all other kids’ toys and games as soon as possible so you will all have less mess to deal with every packing day, and can save you time. Make laundry and cleaning a part of your plan, especially if you are still showing the house!
Keep Up With Your Children’s Routines
Keep your children’s morning, mealtime, bedtime, homeschool, and outside activity routines the same, if possible. This helps them to feel like things are “normal” even during such a stressful time as moving.
During the homeschool day, it is important to keep the order of subjects as similar to your normal schedule as possible, even if you are shortening each one. If you drop a subject, keep the rest of the subject order the same.
If you must drop homeschool subjects, find out what your children’s favorites are. You may want to stop reading the chapter book every morning, but it’s your oldest child’s favorite, so keep it in. Having your children in a positive mood really helps the whole moving experience.
If you normally do science experiments, you may need to drop them until the new home as these can take a lot of time and materials. You can still read the text parts of your science curriculum and mark pages you need to come back to for experiments.
During homeschool hours, really try to motivate the kids to get their work done (maybe offer incentives – sticker sheet, mom will play a game with you if you finish early, special food treat, additional “eye time” with electronics, etc.) so no one falls too far behind.
On the other hand, if your moving date is coming up quickly, you may need to take a holiday off homeschool until after the move. I have done both. I love the flexibility of homeschooling.
Packing The Homeschool Items
Think about homeschooling needs. Do you have everything you need to do homeschool until you move? Have you planned out the next year if you don’t know when you will move?
Be sure to keep needed items out for easy use, but place them in a tote so you can move them easily and use them at the new home until you get unpacked.
If you need the printer or use online materials, leave out what you need, including passwords. Remember musical instruments, art supplies, and other elective items needed for homeschooling.
Moving while homeschooling can be even trickier if you accidentally pack up everything you need for lessons!
Be Positive
Try to keep your patience. Life gets busy, and some days you may have a sick child, special events, club or church events, outings, etc., that will take up time. Just try not to add additional items, if it can be prevented, until after the move.
Always talk positively about the move and smile, sing or whistle as much as possible, even if you don’t feel like it, and never mention any negatives. If they bring up a negative, you respond with a positive. Example: “I understand that you will miss your best friend, but you can still keep in touch with him. Besides, you might make a new friend there, and then you will have both!” If you seem less stressed, so will they.
I hope these tips will help you in your next move!
