I have been homeschooling my children for 8 years now. I am married, but recently found myself separated. So now not only do I have the joy of raising my children, and homeschooling my children, Now I get to do it alone. At least for now. With this comes the added burden of how to support them, how to keep up with it all on my own. Of course there are new needs for the children now. They are insecure, unsettled, scared, and have many questions. At one point I thought there was no way I could do it all and still home school. As we move through life I find that everything that worked before does not work now. So as we go we change what needs change till I find something that works. For instance before we always started school fairly early in the morning, by 9 AM. We had a set order the subjects were done, time, the whole thing was very organized. We all need some flexibility now. I am working from home. This changes things a lot. So we have to do school, chores, errands, free time, showers/baths, yard work,animals care,and anything else that comes our way around my work schedule. Luckily I found a company that I can set my ours each week, go around my needs for the most part. But if I cant work it during the day, guess what I do that night? Yes you guessed it, I work! So now schooling has changed. Not only do we not have a set schedule, our whole approach changed! The kids must do 1 lesson in Math everyday, they must do Spelling every day, we use Spelling Power and love it! Then we switch gears and move over to the Robinson curriculum, so for the most part the rest of their day is spent reading. I also count it for school if they play educational games, on the Computer or board games, if they write, journal, cook, bake,walk or exercise, park trips, field trips, watch an educational movie, listen to an educational tape or CD. These things all count, and my children d most of those things daily because they like to. The older children help care for younger children while I work. They take turns making lunch. Their chores, well we do them at different times, it depends on my work schedule. Usually in the morning or late afternoon. We read together, play, and try to spend mom and kid time, just playing every day. Does it work? YES! Is it doable? YES it is doable. Any single mom or dad can do it. If you currently home school or want to it is something that yo can do. Does it change things in your home? Oh yes, we have always been a very close family. We find that now we must rely on each other more, pull together to make it work, remember to love each other and give extra hugs every day. I am more worn out at the end of my day, but it is worth it. My house is not as clean as it used to be, but its not filthy. My yard is not nice and neat and mowed weekly, it gets it when we can find time.

I have found I need to prioritize. In order to do this I made a list, I suggest you start this way yourself. My list went like this
Kids
school
church
clean kitchen,
front room,family room,
school room,bath1,2, and 3,
pantry,
hall/stairs,
bedrooms,
laundry
mow,
garden
weed
make bed
shower
dress
eat
feed kids
prayers
fold clothes
grocery shop
read

Then I put them in order of most important, there were many more things on the original list, I had everything, baths, yard,if I had to do it it was there. The list was horrible, it made me feel worse at first. The list above is only a partial list of everything I had. I felt like a failure. I needed to reevaluate and prioritize.

I put it in order I felt was most important. I broke p the cleaning, kids have their part to do, I have mine. I lowered my standards a little. I realized that it cant be spotless, unless I want to be crazy and my children miserable. I cant do it all.
The main things on my list daily they get done are
Feed, dress, shower,kids
school/work
Church related stuff
scripture study
clean house starting with Kitchen, quick pick up every where else, make it so we can vacuum
laundry as we go through the day
fold laundry when I have a minute otherwise it sits and waits, we can dig through piles if we need to.
Everything else is on a separate list. if I happen to have a day or night that I have time and energy I tackle something from the 2nd list. I remember to enjoy my children, not to get so caught up in how to get it all done and getting it all done.

There are days when we don’t get to it all, but I did my best and so did the kids. There are days I say OK we are not doing anything, everyone in the van were going to have fun for the day! We go enjoy the day, each other and just relax. When we get home, I look around I make a mental list, prioritize and go from there. Doing what I can and no more.

I truly believe that anyone who truly wants to, who has the desire to do it can be a single parent and home school. Single parenting is not easy in any way. Keeping my children home with me, where I know they are safe and loved gives them the added security they need right now, when their lives have been changed so drastically, it brings us closer together, reminds us all we love and need each other. We can not do it alone, we must work together to make our family work! My children are learning many things right now. So if your thinking about it, I suggest you give it a try. Go slow, change it as you go so it fits your families needs, it can change from day to day. Thats one of the joys of home schooling! Flexibility! So give it a try!