Set your priorities. The first milestone was the realization that teaching my daughter to read was the most important thing to focus on at that time. Her two big brothers could afford to take a break, if necessary, while I concentrated on her for awhile. I found that my children who are not struggling can catch up in a short time. You may decide that it is necessary to ease up on the amount of curriculum you cover with them during the school year and spend some of the summer break working to pick up the slack.
Realistically look at your daily schedule. What activities could we drop, or at least put on hold for a while? Music lessons, sports, field trips, even extra church activities may need to be set aside. Remember, this is not a permanent situation. It is often more difficult for us as mothers to give the extra activities up than for our children.
Extend your teaching time. For me this meant getting up earlier in the morning. It is much more productive for me to get myself to bed earlier and have more hours in the morning than to plan to get things done after the children have been put to bed. The energy I hope to have in the evening hours is somehow nonexistent. As for my children, I began making sure they were up, breakfasted and ready for the school day by 8. Look at your schedule to see what works best for your family.
Delegate within the family. My husband encouraged me to look at my daily tasks and determine which of my responsibilities I could turn over to the children. For example, we set up a simple breakfast and lunch menu and my three older children (10- and 8- and 7-year-olds) were each responsible for one day a week. As a mother, your time is more stretched. It is important to free yourself from some of the more repetitive tasks. Generally, our children can take on a lot more responsibility than we give them credit for. Once the initial (rather messy) training period is completed, this turns out to be a real blessing.
Delegate outside of the family. Recently, someone suggested hiring a homeschooled teen in the area to come over for an hour a day to do some of the teaching with the other children. It is important to note that I, as parent, am the one who needs to be focusing on my struggling learner. If funds are tight, consider instead checking history, science, and literature videos out at the library to keep your other children productively entertained during the tutoring session.
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