How to Be a Social Media Manager as a Homeschool Mom

If you are a Homeschool Mom that has decided to make some extra income, becoming a Social Media Manager just may be the job you’re looking for. OR – perhaps you are a Social Media Manager ALREADY, and are wondering if you can homeschool at the same time! Either way – Here are my tips for how to be a social media manager as a homeschool mom.

A little background…

As a social media manager, I have worked from home in 3 main life scenarios:

• with kids in school
• with little kids at home
• and as a homeschool mom

I can guarantee you that I have tried every routine and system in the book, and have a TON of tips for you.

Today we’re going to walk through tips for Scenario #3: working from home while you are homeschooling your kids.

If you are a homeschool mom, you have precious little time to put full focus on your social media manager position. Believe me, I understand! 

The idea here is to CREATE time blocks in your days where you can have full focus, and to MAXIMIZE those time blocks.

How to be a Social Media Manager as a Homeschool Mom

Daily Routine Tips…

• Here’s the handy thing – homeschool kids are pretty used to having a routine at home. Whether you think you are structured as a homeschool mom or not, at some point in each day, your kids are used to getting work done at home. They can easily adjust to a new routine – you just need to create one.
• Ask yourself the question, “When can I create a consistent pocket of time each day for uninterrupted concentration?” This is huge. You don’t need hours and hours, but in order to do your social media manager job well, you will need blocks of time where you can concentrate on the tasks at hand. Spend some planning intentionally building space for this time. (Some suggestions below…)
  • Could you become an early riser? Wake up an hour or more before your kids, and knock out some work for the day.
  • Are you a night owl? Put those kids to bed, and hop onto your laptop.
  • Is there a subject where your kids work independently? (or a couple of subjects?) Perhaps they take a class online, or you know they have set reading assignments on their own. Coordinate those times so that each kid is working on THEIR thing while you work on YOUR thing for an hour.
  • Could you put all of your kids in a sport or activity together? This way you can drop them off for practice consistently, while you get some work done. Let me tell you, I have spent countless hours of work, in the parking lot of soccer practice – either sitting at a picnic table, or working in my car. Hey, bring your favorite coffee along and enjoy!

Related posts:
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• Create at least 2 time blocks per month where you are absolutely free for meetings. In some way, you will need to meet with the company whose social media you are managing every so often. This could be a meeting with the marketing manager, or the owner of your company, etc.  These meetings may be in person, on the phone, or on the computer. But in any case, you will need to be present and engaged.  (Some ideas are below…)
  • Can you have all of the kids involved in a homeschool co-op class once a week? 
  • Can Grandma take the kids 2 mornings per month? 
  • Do you have an older child that can manage watching the kids a couple of mornings per month?
  • Does your spouse have a day off during the week to take the kids out or manage school?
• Try to batch EVERY single meeting and phone call into those free blocks of time. Be prepared for all of them so you can pack them in and bounce from call to call.

I do a similar thing right now in our school routine. My husband comes home early from work one day per week (that’s his normal work schedule.) I plan the school week so that we are done that day by the time he comes home. Any meetings that I have are scheduled for that afternoon. I head to my office and Dad’s in charge of the kids.

Also – you may want to make some homeschool curriculum adjustments. For some subjects, you may need to switch to something that is more independent and less hands on time for you – both in the prep and in the daily teaching.

I love using Sonlight curriculum for most of our day. It’s GREAT curriculum, and absolutely done for me. All I have to do is open the binder in the morning and start teaching.

Real life example…We did make one curriculum adjustment in Math. I was doing something that was 1 on 1 with me. I needed LESS of that in my day in order to make homeschooling happen. We switched to Teaching Textbooks online and have never looked back. It’s the only curriculum we do online, and the sanity it has saved has been absolutely worth it!

Tips for Running the Household…

Reality here. There are a limited number of things that you can do 100% in your days.

If you are working from home as a social media manager, homeschooling – and being present with your family at home – you will HAVE to choose some things to NOT be awesome at. You will HAVE to batch some things and get them off your plate.

My tips in this area revolve around MINIMIZING housework and life chores. 

• Do everything you can to minimize errands. Instead of grocery shopping, do grocery pickup (or even delivery if it’s available in your area!) Create an Amazon “subscribe and save” list for all of your vitamins, toiletries, etc, so that those items just magically show up each month.

Related posts:
Simplifying Your Life (so you can get more done!)
Homeschool Tips to Save Your Sanity; my Must-Have Tools and Resources

• See what appointments you can make LESS time consuming. Could you do a teledoc appointment instead of driving to the doctor? Could you batch your whole family’s dentist appointments into one afternoon, so you only have to go once? Think of ways to minimize appointment times.
• Automate every chore in life that you can. Have your bills auto-withdraw so that you don’t have to remember to pay them. Of course, if you have the budget – hire some household tasks out! (Yes, without guilt!) Pay someone to mow your yard, scoop the snow, clean your house, etc.
• Batch life tasks to save time. Plan a freezer cooking Saturday (and get your family to help!) You can take one day and prep suppers for a month at a time, saving hours every week. Also, crockpot meals are your best friend! Plan crockpot or freezer meals for every work day so that as much time as possible is freed up for working your job.
• Involve your kids! Call it “home economics.” My theory is that since we are all a team at home, everyone is pitching in. Give some thought to how you can have a kids’ routine of cleaning, meal prep and laundry. (Their future spouses will thank you for this training, hah!)

Working Hours Tips…

• Decide ahead of time what you will be working on. Make a very focused list. Brainstorm ahead of time if you need to. This way when you sit down to that precious, uninterrupted hour or 2, you are not spending any time deciding what to do!
• Work in priority order. Decide what thing is THE most important, and knock it out first. And so on. This way if your homeschool schedule gets thrown for a loop (as they often do), at least you got the important things done first!

Related posts:
How to Batch Your Social Media Posts (Getting it done in Half the Time!)
3 Different Ways to Batch Your Social Media Posts

• As much as possible, try to laser-focus your work time and also your quality time with kids. The very reason you are home with them is because you WANT to spend time with them and be a part of their school experience! You don’t want to be spending the whole time on your laptop or phone. Set a certain amount of time that you will work and then put the laptop away.

Try out these tips and you can build a thriving business as a social media manager, and also enjoy homeschooling your kids!

If you are considering becoming a Social Media Manager, it can be the perfect work from home opportunity that allows you to make extra income, and also homeschool your kids.

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