Work From Home Homeschooling Mom: How to Balance Homeschool and Business Without Burnout

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If you are wondering whether you can become a work from home homeschooling mom without burning out, you are not alone.

And not only have we wondered if this possible, we worry that we’re selfish for wanting to work to provide for our family. We become anxious that our homes will become unmanageable or that our kids will suffer.

If you’ve ever caught yourself ruminating on these thoughts or you’re on the fence about homeschooling while working from home, I want you to provide you with some very solid advice from an experienced homeschooling mama — Jamie Saechao from the successful blog gingerhomemaking.com.

Who is Jamie Saechao?

Jamie Saechao is a Christian homeschooling mom to four beautiful children ages 11, 9, 7 and 4. She homeschools her children and has created a profitable blog gingerhomemaking.com that houses many simple and delicious recipes for busy moms.

She has an amazingly easy and delicious sourdough sandwich bread recipe that I’ve been creating on repeat in our home lately by the way.

As a newbie homeschooling mama, I’ve asked many of the questions you are wondering. How blessed was I to get the privilege of talking to Jamie on my podcast Time Management for Christian Moms! I had such a fruitful conversation with Jamie and I’m breaking down my biggest takeaways for you in this post.

My prayer is that our conversation will encourage you to be bold about your choice to homeschool and to feel peace about managing a business or side work as work from home homeschooling mom.

Is It Wrong to Want to Work From Home as a Christian Mom?

Let’s address the elephant in the room. Many of us have toiled over this question, self included. We feel this guilt about wanting to work from home while raising our children. Is it guilt or conviction?

For many of us, it’s not wrong to desire to want to work while raising children. The key is putting them first and setting boundaries around our work, so that we keep our value in Christ to prevent work from becoming an idol.

As an encouragement, work does not have to be an idol. Work can truly be a blessing for our children as they observe us working towards a goal. This will provide them with some practical life skills. Being at home with us while we work allows them to see that experience firsthand and even become involved in the process as they get older.

Children seeing their mothers use their gifts from the Lord well is the perfect example of stewardship. This can be done peacefully without hustling.

Setting The Foundation: Alignment with Your Spouse and Clear Priorities

The balance of homeschool and business can easily become overwhelming if we have not set clear priorities and boundaries from the start. The best way to do this is by connecting with your spouse and asking what their expectations are for your home, family, and business pursuits.

Having this conversation from the start is going to ensure you and your husband are a united front. If you’ve both decided that your work is solely supplementary or “fun money” that removes so much pressure. But if you both want this to become a full-time income, he will be aligned to help you create more time for working when he is home, maybe offering to take the kids so you can get out to the coffee shop an evening or two a week.

Regardless of what your goals are with your business, being aligned with your spouse will bring so much peace about your decisions when it comes to prioritization. Being on the same page will prevent resentment and unneeded hustling. It also gives you both a shared vision to work towards, a great example of teamwork that your children will observe.

How Do You Homeschool Multiple Ages Without Burning Out?

The idea of homeschooling might feel daunting or very time-consuming. The good news is that it’s simpler than you might think. One key way to avoid homeschool mom burnout is by leveraging the superpower of reading aloud to your children.

Part of Jamie’s simple homeschool routine is reading aloud to her children everyday and asking really fun and thought-provoking questions. Books are also a very simple and fun way to pull in art, culture, basic math, geography and more.

Books are often underestimated and there is so much that can be garnered just from one story. Reading is an anchor in Jamie’s daily rhythms that simplifies schooling and builds connection across their family, especially as a family with children of varying ages. Stories are something the entire family enjoy.

If you aren’t used to regularly reading a lot as a family yet, start by just doing it in 5-minute increments a few times a day. Because reading is so simple, it can often be undervalued. But reading aloud is life-changing. Studies have shown “a strong, positive relationship between childhood literacy and physical and mental health outcomes in adulthood.”

Prefer to listen to our conversation instead?

Below you’ll find part 1 of our conversation where Jamie and I discuss homeschooling without burnout and how reading aloud is a life changing habit for homeschooling families.

How Do You Actually Run a Business While Homeschooling?

There are a few key elements to making this all work and they all work together to create a home environment that allows your to teach your children well, keep your home manageable, and your business successful.

Become laser focused.

When it is time for school. It is time for school. It is not time to create content, bake for your micro-bakery, or whatever work tasks you might have.

The same goes for your working block. When you have very limited time to work (Jamie usually just has a couple hours in the afternoon), it’s time to work. It’s not time to scroll or declutter the junk drawer.

Be where your feet are planted. Not only is this something Jamie mentioned, but I’ve heard other successful, business-owning homeschooling moms mention this. We have to limit our distractions.

Promotion is just as important as creation.

You may create the best cookie recipes, but if you aren’t taking the time to promote them somewhere (like Pinterest), where they will be seen, then no one will ever get the pleasure of discovering them. If no one gets the opportunity to see your work, you miss the opportunity to get paid.

And this is true no matter what work you’ve found yourself doing — online or brick-and-mortar. Marketing your work is part of the process so you must push your work out to be seen and experienced in order to create an income.

Don’t underestimate simple home systems and routines.

Some of the daily routines and tasks Jamie and I talked about on the podcast sound so incredibly simple. And they are. But don’t underestimate how powerful they are because they oftentimes reduce unnecessary decision fatigue.

• Laundry daily
• Repeat your favorite simple meals (my go-to snack are my PB&J oat bars)
• Reset the kitchen after each meal
• Habit stacking

Boundaries make homeschooling and building a business alongside it sustainable.

As I mentioned, boundaries are crucial to homeschooling success. But one really important boundary to set is around technology — and not just for our kids, but for ourselves.

Jamie’s Secret: She uses a flip phone.

Yep. Isn’t that awesome? I was floored by her discernment and just knowing that having a smartphone was not going to be conducive to a productive life. She didn’t conform to the world and I admire that about her.

She uses an extra iPhone around the house for content on rare occasion during her working time, but otherwise, it’s the flip phone for her. If you want to hear more about her reasoning for that, I’d encourage you to listen to Part 2 of our conversation below where she dives deeper into how she decided that a flip phone was best for her.

Personally, I am not as disciplined to get rid of my smartphone, at least not yet. I’ve been using the Brick phone lock for a few months now and it has really changed my behavior around my phone. Using my link will save you 10%.

And if you really are ready to ditch social media and the internet off your person 24/7 the Wisephone Smartphone is a very practical option! It still includes maps and a nice camera, which is one of the main sticking points for those who aren’t ready to ditch the smartphone completely. (Using my link and code: TIME will save you $25 off the WisePhone!)

Limited screen time lends itself to more creative kids.

As you can imagine based on the example Jamie has set through her own screen habits, her kids have healthy screen habits too. Family movie nights are common, but they aren’t planted in front of screens most of their day.

One of the greatest benefits that Jamie has witnessed so far with her own children is their ability to become so creative. Allowing them to “be bored” and find things that they enjoy doing and creating has been a great blessing. They discover so much about themselves that they otherwise wouldn’t. Her daughter creates award-winning embroidery projects.

Childhood is prime time to discover our talents because our inhibitions aren’t high. They feel more free to experiment, but being trapped by the screen for hours everyday keeps them from opportunities to explore their talents.

Can you run a successful business part-time while also homeschooling?

Absolutely. But we must consider what “sustainable” really looks like for a work from home homeschooling mom.

What it’s not: hustle, chaos, perfection.

Sustainable for business-owning Christian homeschooling mom means creating reasonable anchors and daily rhythms that honor boundaries that are aligned with our families overall goals. The entire family is onboard. The systems in place are not rigid, but foundational.

Homeschooling while working from home requires intention — not hustle. Ultimately, peace in our homes has to take priority over productivity.

Share this post with a homeschool mom friend.

If this advice gave you encouragement as you endeavor on the great balancing act of homeschooling and entrepreneurship as a mom, would you be sure to pin these tips for later and share with a friend who may also need to hear this encouragement today?