This post has been sponsored by Sonlight^®. The opinions are my own and have not been swayed in any way.

My home is certainly not always clean. I'm sure that there are some perfect homes out there, but I can't pride myself on creating one of them. 

Know that if you come knocking on my door unannounced, I sure hope that you can avert your eyes from the child-led mess. 

I have my moments of a clean and sparkling home, but most days, it's just a home I would rather not discuss. 

My best advice on managing your time as a homeschool mom is that you shouldn't expect your home to be sparkling clean and spotless all the time. Because between you and me, it will make you, and your children both miserable trying to keep it all together.

But, the good news is that getting yourself on a cleaning schedule can help. This homeschool mom's cleaning checklist is a gamechanger for productivity!

Managing the Homeschool Home
A Weekly Cleaning Schedule for the Homeschool Mom

Don't let the household management duties overwhelm you. Use this cleaning schedule and management tips for Homeschool Moms help! 

Home Management Tips for Homeschool Moms:

Make chores part of your homeschool day

Chances are, your children hate cleaning as much as you. Moreover, your children do not see the value in keeping things clean or organized as much as you.

Teaching your child valuable life skills is just as important as teaching them academics.

Having children complete chores teaches responsibility. They learn to appreciate and value hard work. It also helps to encourage an empathetic attitude.

Keeping a clean home is a blessing to those who live in it and those visiting. Do not expect them to be excited about chores, yet don't allow them to grumble. 

It's important to remember, and enforce, that there are consequences for our actions. We don't want our children to become ungrateful or allow sin to grow in their lives.

If your child grumbles about doing dishes, then have the attitude that your child just volunteered to do dishes for the next two nights.

A family that cleans together stays clean together

I have found that my home stays the cleanest when we all do chores at the same time. The momentum is up, and it is easy for you to be on top of having your children perform to expectations.

If you like rewards for chores, then that's a great idea. If not, you can also make a game out of it like Mary Poppins- except without the room cleaning itself.

You could do something as simple as a race to clean a room, or the last person done doesn’t get the choice of chores the next day.

Remember that it's important to teach our children the value of staying tidy. It speaks to your character, as well as teaches empathy when others are in need of help or assistance, responsibility.

On the plus side, they are more apt to continue to keep tidy and so it's not so much work the next time when you keep it up!

Midday clean up

A great technique is cleaning up and organizing in the afternoon just as school is wrapping up. A busy school day takes its toll on the house but nothing that a few can’t clean up in under an hour.

Take that time to have your children clear things up while you start dinner. This will make your evening flow much easier.

Creating a routine, or even scheduling clean-up times, make it easier to stay tidy because no one is overloaded with cleaning at the end of the day.

My personal experience

It can be easy for homeschool to be pushed on the backburner when unexpected things happen in life, but how many times have we allowed little things to derail our days?

The housework piled up after a long weekend. Vacation messed up your system. Sickness, field trips, day-to-day. 

I had to learn how to stop being a perfectionist. I had to learn how to let my children do things because it's the only way they'll learn. I had to learn how to let them take some initiative.

My children are all under 8, but I would find myself being overwhelmed with everything on my plate, not realizing that they were well capable human beings who contributed to the mess and could also help clean it up. Even if it isn't to my standard.

So they have responsibilities each day; cleaning their rooms, taking out the trash, emptying the dishwasher, cleaning their table space. It helps them to learn ho wot be responsible and it helps take a few things off my plate too!

Because I found myself encouraging my kids to keep practicing those math facts and working on that handwriting, but I wasn't teaching them how to be responsible in a way that benefited them. In the life skills department, I just thought I could do it better. 

Sonlight has been our curriculum of choice and it's really something the kids look forward to each day. So, I turned to them to help guide this mama once again and here's what I found.

1. Deana Wood wrote this post about 5 Systems for Putting Your Household on Autopilot and it is great! She gives some great tips on managing your house as a homeschool mama and why it's important to do so! 

2. How My Home Routine Fosters a Peaceful and Productive Homeschool was written by MJ Sherwood and it lays out the benefits of a home routine. And coming from a homeschool mama, you know it's good!

3. These Homeschool Resources from Sonlight are a true asset. Videos, podcasts, posts, printouts; they really have a treasure trove of information that can help you create that Homeschooler's Home Management Schedule that works for you! 

If you’re interested in trying out Sonlight, head over to the Sonlight website and get $5 off of your $50 or more order using my referral code: BP20470714

Cleaning Schedule for the Homeschool Mom:

This is just an idea, you can change and/or edit this list to make it work for your own days/month!

• Make the beds
• Wipe down the bathroom
• Do a load of laundry
• Wash dishes or load and unload the dishwasher
• Light sweeping where necessary
• Straighten up living and dining room