Blogging In Between Homeschooling

Today, I am collaborating with a group of mom bloggers to offer you a little insight into how we find time to blog in between life.  My piece of the pie is blogging in between homeschooling!

If you’ve spent much time here at Raising Arrows, you already know I blog about homeschooling.  But in order to blog about homeschooling, I have to actually homeschool occasionally. 😉

{If you’d like to read more about our home school, visit my Homeschooling Mother page}

So, what I hope to offer to you today is a little insight into

• how I balance homeschooling and blogging
• how it has helped our homeschool
• some of the drawbacks of being a homeschool blogger
• my vision for Raising Arrows

I try very hard not to homeschool with blogging on the brain.  Those of you who blog know precisely what I am talking about…

You see everything as a photo op, you consider how you can take what your children are doing and turn it into a post, and you know your blog is sometimes the only motivation you have for doing that really fun thing you’ve always wanted to do but can’t seem to find the time to do.

But homeschooling was what inspired me to blog in the first place!

So, how do I balance blogging and homeschooling?

1.  Homeschooling comes first. I recently did an interview with Making Home Work where I talked about not getting on the computer first thing.  I don’t always hold to this (especially if I am up before everyone else), but generally, it is imperative I get the day started and THEN get on the computer to do whatever promoting needs to be done for my blog posts.

2.  I try very hard not to get lost in cyberspace. When my morning chores are done, I do a quick blog post promotion via Facebook & Twitter and then I scan my emails for any emails that need prompt attention (I use gmail to handle the 3 different email accounts I have).  After that, I’m off again because the day must go on and if I hang around in cyberspace too long I have a difficult time getting my day started.  Typically, all of this is going on while the children are finishing up breakfast and table chores.

3.  I usually blog at night. For one thing, I’m a night owl anyway.  I have always done my best creative work after 7pm.  However, once upon a time, we were allowing our children to stay up rather late, which in turn kept me up rather late working on blog stuff.  I realized it wasn’t in anyone’s best interest to do this and appealed to my husband (who graciously agreed) for an earlier bedtime for the children, leaving me with better working hours.

4.  The blog is NOT my husband. I’m pretty good about not allowing the blog to interfere with my parenting, but there was a time when it definitely interfered with my marriage.  This was not good and I have since learned my lesson.

5.  I schedule in advance. What you see here on Raising Arrows is typically not a quick, randomly posted article.  I use a plugin on WordPress called Editorial Calendar that allows me to put in blog post titles and a few notes and then move posts around to whatever day I want them on.  This has been a great tool for helping me be more efficient.  I also keep a running list of topics I want to write about in my Blogging Notebook.

How has blogging helped our homeschool?

Products – Blogging has become the way companies get the word out about their products.  Homeschool companies are no different.  Our family has been blessed to try out new products, get new products from companies we already love, and go to events we might not have been able to afford otherwise.  If I find I do not like the product I am sent, I either return it or donate it, knowing full well that a company depends on good reviews but that it would be wrong for me to endorse a product I do not believe in.  However, rarely do I work with a company that I haven’t already found to be solid in my own homeschool research.  Receiving these products has been a tremendous blessing to our homeschool budget.

Motivation – Yes, I admit it!  Sometimes knowing my readers are wanting to hear more about something in our homeschool day has been motivation enough for me to tweak it until it really works well.  And sometimes knowing I’m going to be blogging and taking pictures of something we are doing is how the area around that something gets thoroughly cleaned!  It’s kind of like having 3000 guests in your house every day…talk about motivation to create a place that is clean and inviting!  {Thanks everyone!}

Staying focused – I’ve been homeschooling for 9 years.  That doesn’t make me an expert, it simply makes me well aware of the fact that the perfect homeschool does not exist.  I’ve realized there is so much more to homeschooling than the books you choose or the hours you keep.  Blogging the journey keeps that forefront in my mind and keeps me focused on God’s Truths rather than man’s motivations.

And the drawbacks of being a homeschool blogger?

Finding balance – Just like any extra activity that might come into my life, blogging must be kept in its proper place or it soon begins to creep into areas it does not belong.  Blogging must never come before my family or my God.  And God must always be glorified in what I write or I am maligning His Word.  That is a weighty things of consequence and must never be forgotten.

Readers “know” you – The first time someone recognized me at a homeschool conference, I was shocked.  Then I was thrilled.  Then I was scared.  You read Raising Arrows and see my bed made, my hair fixed, and my homeschool all neat and orderly.  I sometimes wonder if my closest friends read my blog and laugh, knowing full well the last time they were at my house my bed was not made, my hair was thrown up on top of my head, and I was asking THEM how to rework my homeschool schedule!  I’m a work in progress, folks, sharing my victories and failures along the way!

I love every single one of my readers – While not a real drawback, per se, it does create an overload for me at times.  I want to respond to every comment, every email, every facebook shout out, but I can’t.  And that bothers me.

My vision for Raising Arrows is this…

To raise arrows for the Lord and to write about it for His glory and the encouragement and edification of His people.

I blog in between homeschooling only because

HE has allowed me to.