I have three kids, a ten year-old, a 4 year-old, and a 2 year-old. I think it’s important for homeschool moms to purposefully spend one-on-one time with each child on a regular basis. We overburdened homeschooling mothers need it for goodness’ sakes! It can really boost your relationship with your children to step away from the “homeschool mom” mindset and just spend an enjoyable moment with them.
This is a sponsored post. Thanks so much, McDonald’s! As always, all opinions expressed are my own.
I’m not an expert in parenting, I’m deep in the trenches! I only have my own experiences to go from, but my children soak up quality time with me, and I think spending one-on-one time with each child is so important. Homeschool moms don’t always get a lot of “quality” time as they do “quantity” of time. So often as homeschooling moms, I think that we tend to get into such a routine of doing schoolwork, household chores, and managing our children’s extracurricular activities that we sometimes forget to spend quality time with them. So, I try to make a point of at least spending a little bit of time with each of my children, one-on-one, at least once per week.
I wish I had more opportunities than just once per week per child, but gosh, I have three of them. I can’t imagine how moms of more than three kiddos would manage what I’m suggesting! And I can’t say that having just one child would make it easier. I always dreamed of having lots of children, and I am very blessed with my three. We homeschool moms have a LOT on our plates, don’t we? So to suggest spending one-on-one time with each child may seem a little difficult. It’s definitely a challenge to me when my husband works up to 60 hours a week and I’m trying to balance a part-time job at night as well. But it’s do-able! Give it a try. Here’s what I do:
I don’t have a written schedule or anything very structured. I just have a mental note to spend some time with my ten year-old on Fridays, my four year-old on Thursdays, and my two year-old on Mondays. At some point during the day on those days, I know I will take some time out and focus completely on that one child. Sometimes it’s sitting down for 30 minutes to build with duplo blocks, other times it’s renting a movie on Amazon with my ten year-old after the two little ones have gone to bed.
Here’s a photo from a couple of weeks ago when I took my four year-old, Lily, out to McDonald’s to try their newly updated McNuggets recipe – a much healthier option now because they’re updating their menu with more items to attract health-conscious customers. These new McNuggets have no artificial colors, flavors, or preservatives, and are made with 100% white meat chicken. Lily loves McDonald’s happy meals, and the playground, so taking her there made her night with me so special! She had Yoplait Gogurt (my favorite choice for her since it contains less sugar than most other children’s yogurt brands) and of course, fries and chocolate milk (did you know that they are bringing in fat-free chocolate milk now?). We appreciated McDonald’s generosity to us by inviting us to enjoy the foods, and it made for a very fun Mommy-daughter night out.
Fun dinner out with my sweet girl tonight. We love to go out once a week for a little Mommy-daughter time. This girl loves her McDonald’s chicken #McNuggets! And I’m super happy that they are made with all natural ingredients and no artificial colors or flavors! #McDTriad #mcdonalds #ad . #lilyfaiththoseeyes #4yearsold
If I can follow through on my goal to spend time with each child and focus completely, 100% on them and what they enjoy doing, I feel like I’ve accomplished more in that week than I would if I had actually checked everything else off my homeschool curriculum agenda or my household chores. It’s a good feeling.
