Working from home is a great way to tailor your schedule around your children's needs. You can still make a hard-earned living, all while being there for your kids. When summer break rolls around, it can be challenging to rework your schedule while watching your children until school starts again. Instead of focusing on the fact that your schedule is temporarily changing, it is important to make the best of each day and fully concentrate on your work during each moment that you can. There are tips to add more work time to your day without sacrificing your children's needs:
Head Outdoors
Summer brings about opportunities to play outdoors that you might not have during cold seasons. Take this school break as a great opportunity to spend time outside with your kids. Let your kids play in the park, your yard, or at a pool while you squeeze in some work time. Ensure that your young children are supervised at all times — do not let them wander around outside while you work inside. You may find the change of scenery can help you focus and get some work done, too.
Enforce Quiet Time
Everyone needs quiet time, and school-age children typically have a good handle on this from their classes. Take an hour each day and enforce quiet time for everyone. Set up art projects for your kids, or have them read books while you get some of your work done. This is usually done in lieu of naptime, which is something that most kids grow out of by first grade.
Exchange Play Dates
Summer breaks might wear your schedule thin, and chances are other parents who work from home — and even those who are full-time, stay-at-home parents — could use a break! Work-at-home parents are glad to help one another because they know how hard it is to balance their jobs and their family lives. Propose play date exchanges with your friends to provide each parent with a child-free work day, or a day "off" from parenting responsibilities to run errands or recharge. Not only will this help you with your work, but your children will also have the opportunity to play with their friends.
Summer Camps
There are an abundance of camps you can enroll your children in depending on their interests. There are sports, recreational, and science camps, as well as vacation Bible schools. Choose a camp with your children to make sure it is something they are truly interested in. Also, make sure it's affordable — you don't want to end up spending more money than you make while they are at camp.
Add Hours to the Day
Although there really are only 24 hours in a day, you can actually add a few hours to a normal work day. If you're a morning person, wake up one to two hours before your kids do to squeeze in some extra work time. On the flip side, stay up a little later if you are more productive in the evenings. Let the longer days of summer be your inspiration to extend each work day bit by bit. Try to squeeze in as much work during your free moments and you will inadvertently free up your weekends to spend them with your family.
