5 Tips for the Extroverted Homeschool Mom
Homeschooling allows a mom hours of quality time with her own kids in her own home. Many days she may not even need to leave the house. For most moms, it’s a fabulous, fun experience.
Unless you’re an extroverted homeschooling mom. Then home education can make you feel trapped in your own home.
Even though an extroverted homeschooling mom spends most days surrounded by her own kids, her desire to interact with other people goes unmet.
Here are a few ways for an extroverted mom to reach out to others during her solitary homeschooling days.
1. Become Tech-y
Facebook groups, Periscope chats, and other online groups provide opportunities to make friends without leaving your house. Imagine chatting with your girlfriend across town while the kids practice their times tables and spelling words. You can have an entire conversation with a mom who is doing the same thing you are—while you’re in your pj’s and messy bun, no less. Just one reason why extroverts everywhere can be thankful for the technological advances surrounding us!
2. Join a Co-Op
Co-ops not only enhance the kids’ social skills, but also provide a huge boost in morale for the extroverted parent. When you attend a co-op, be the one who talks to everyone. Introduce yourself. Work the room. Get to know new people. As an added bonus, the less-extroverted moms will not have to approach people and introduce themselves. You’ll be doing them a favor!
3. Get Rid of Your Kids
Plan a kid-swap system with one or two other like-minded moms. When it’s your turn to drop off your kids, what will you do with your kid-free time? Meet your spouse for lunch. Grab coffee with a friend. Take a class. Strike up a conversation with the cashier at your favorite boutique.
Also, it’s likely that your hubby understands your social needs and may be willing to let you out of the house while he is home eating dinner with the kids and getting them to bed. Those are times when you can stay out late with your friends and enjoy the deep conversations that you’ve missed. One caution: be prepared to kick-off the next morning with a big cup of coffee!
4. Start a Supper Club
Gather a few friends and plan a supper club—with or without the kids. Once a month, the entire group meets for dinner and conversation at one family’s home. Rotate homes monthly. You’ll end up cooking for a big group two or three times a year, depending on the size of your club. Yet in the process, you’ll end up enjoying great meals with fun friends.
5. Volunteer
None of us need more things to add to our schedules. But if you have a free hour or two, think about ways you can volunteer in your community. This is a great way to both help and get to know the folks in your local area.
Here are a few ideas:
- Load the kids up and head to the local nursing home to play board games or sing with the residents.
- Offer your organizational skills to the local library, where you can re-shelve their books.
- Work on a group project with your kids. Then teach your newly learned skills to others, such as the homeschool co-op, the local library, or long-distance friends and relatives via online video chat.
- Clean the playground where your kids play each week. Invite other families to join in the cleanup.
A Word of Warning
It’s natural for the extroverted homeschooling mom to yearn for a connection to the outside world. The drawback is becoming distracted from the essential tasks of homeschooling.
Be diligent in the job you have as a home educator.
Responding to every last minute invitation for a play date, museum trip, coffee run, phone call, or some other exciting adventure is a sure way to avoid getting the day’s work done. Include time for fun, but don’t jump at each invitation. We can model discipline for our kids as we decline invitations or wait to return calls after we are through schooling.
As popular as homeschooling has become, we homeschooling moms are still a fairly small number. Let’s do all we can to help meet each other’s social and relational needs while encouraging each other to keep on keeping on in this wonderful adventure of home education.
Lindsay Banton is a caffeinated mother to three great kids. She never expected to homeschool, but has found that it is a wonderful addition to their lifestyle and wouldn’t change it for the world. In addition to homeschooling, Lindsay works alongside her husband in campus ministry at a large university in Connecticut. She grew up in Virginia but has settled into life in New England, learning to love the long winters, cool springs, green summers and gorgeous autumns- and has built a boot collection to meet all the demands. She is currently blogging at www.oaksreplanted.blogspot.com.