By the end of a long day of homeschooling, you might be glad just to have made it through—until you discover your family waiting for you to serve them dinner! Today on Home School Heartbeat, with HSLDA President Mike Smith, hear practical tips for your home.
Mike Smith:
Vicki Bentley, HSLDA’s Early Years coordinator, joins me again today to talk about organizing your home to serve your family and your homeschool. Vicki, let’s talk about a really practical challenge today. Mom has been handling the challenges of homeschooling multiple children all day. Before she knows it, it’s 6 o’clock, and she hasn’t even thought about dinner. Is it possible to homeschool and get dinner on the table in the same day?
Vicki Bentley:
Mike, the two basic recommendations I have for moms are 1) plan your menus, and 2) schedule time to start dinner, even if you have to do like I do and set an alarm for dinner start-up time. If you’re having trouble coming up with menus, remember that your family is probably more impressed with eating nourishing food at a regular time each day than with trying a vast array of new foods each week.
So to get into the habit of regular, healthy dinner times, consider something as basic as a weekly rotation of the same basic meals—some quick and simple menus that you’re comfortable with. We have suggestions and resources for meal planning and for scheduling in the time management section of our organization tab at hslda.org/earlyyears. We include some ideas for do-ahead meal preparation that will greatly reduce your time in the kitchen and help you get a simple, nourishing meal on the table in less than 30 minutes.
Mike:
Vicki, those are great suggestions, and I’m sure the families of many busy homeschool moms will be grateful for the dinners that get served because of today’s program. Until next time, I’m Mike Smith.
