Someone asked me a few days ago how I manage to fit all my students into my schedule, my own family (hubby and two kids), my practise time, composing time, house cleaning, helping the kids with homework, garden work, looking after 4 rabbits and a fish, lesson preparation, repertoire searching and blog time.
Well, I really have no idea! ;D
Actually, I do. I work during the day three days a week and I work in the afternoons/evenings 6 days per week. I’m lucky enough to have a job I can do mostly from home (except at the Music School I work at on Saturday afternoons), I can fit music teaching into my own schedule and my kids are courteous enough to keep their interruptions to an absolute minimum.
Days are easy. Both my kids are at school so it is simply a matter of keeping the same routine for them. I have a whiteboard set up on the wall outside my son’s room so both children can look at it and see what they need to put in their bags for the following day. I have a giant wall planner with 3 months so the family’s schedule is visible to all.
Housecleaning
The housecleaning isn’t too bad. The house doesn’t get very messy during the day when it is only me home, and cleaning a little often seems to keep the workload down. Of course the washing needs to be done at least every second day, if not every day in my place. If I don’t have time to put it away, my kids will sort out their clothes and put them away. Enlist the help of your kids as much as they are able. Mine put their washing away, wipe up the dishes (my dishwasher broke a few years ago, but that was no drama) and are expected to be able to make their beds and keep their rooms tidy.
Homework
My kids are expected to do their homework whilst I am teaching before they can watch any tv or play games. I make sure there is something for them to eat when they get home so that I have 15 mins from the time we get home from school to the time I begin teaching for them to chat about their day, or for me to leave them instructions as to anything I would like them to do specifically that afternoon. I check their homework after they have gone to bed. They are reminded that “if they don’t do their homework, Mum can’t teach and they will miss out on all the extra little things they enjoy” – like Bookclub or pocket money etc. My daughter has reading to do every day, so we tackle that after dinner and before she has a shower. Both my children do their piano practise in the morning before school, and I will give them a lesson once a week (usually on a Friday unless for some reason they are having a shocker of a morning).
Family Time
I finish teaching a little earlier on Monday nights and Thursday nights. Monday nights we spend time together as a family. Thursday nights I needed to make sure I had time to thoroughly go over any homework with my children as it needs to be handed in on Friday. As I teach all day Thursday, it means I make dinner on Thursday night rather than prepare it during the day.
Dinner
If I’m really together, I have a fortnightly meal plan that I write on with a whiteboard marker and the family and I know what we’re having for dinner every night. It’s always something different (ie we don’t do “Monday night is lasagne night, Tuesday is pizza night”). We love variation and my kids (thankfully) are not particularly fussy about what they eat. They have a few dislikes (who doesn’t) but generally they’ll eat whatever is put in front of them. When the nights get lighter, my son helps cook dinner. I wrote him out a recipe book with easy things he can do, and we try to get him involved with cooking at least once a fortnight. Tonight for example, we’re having home-made pizzas. The kids will roll out their own dough and put their own toppings on. So easy.
For my ‘mayhem’ nights, I will makes sure dinner is prepared during the day so it simply needs to either be thrown in the oven, or re-heated. Dinner is generally ready by the time my husband comes home (on his ‘normal’ work days). Not because he expects it, but when I was working as a Legal Secretary, I knew how good it was to come home to dinner just being served. If he has a change to do or traffic is bad, he will call and I will have dinner with the kids and he will re-heat his when he gets home. Generally though we eat as a family.
Garden work
My garden is minimum work for me now, as I realised there was NO WAY I could keep up with the demands, so I hired a lawn mowing/garden maintenance guy. My kids adore him, and call him “Strong Steve”. Am I allowed to say I simply adore him too, as he is so polite and does such a great job that I don’t have to worry about losing students in the grass any more. ;D
Scheduling students
It is okay to tell people you are booked up and that you will need to put them on your waiting list if you can’t keep up with demand. I’m not the type of person who likes to say no to very much, but I had to learn to balance family and work a while ago (I went back to work 6 weeks after my son was born, and that was just nasty). Music teaching was supposed to be a hobby for me, it has turned into a great job, but I’m not going to let it take over my family time. Write out a schedule of your teaching times. Decide what hours you will work, leave slots available if you wish to fill those and grey out the time you don’t wan’t to/can’t teach.
My Practise time, new repertoire hunting and composing time
I must confess, at the moment I feel like I’m lacking in this area. It is the middle of Winter here, and cold and nasty and as I suffer from both RSI and arthritis which likes to rear its ugly head more in Winter, I do the bare minimum. It is this time I use instead to look for new repertoire, to read a whole heap of music blogs to get new ideas rattling around the old nuts and bolts, to make sure I’m on track with up-coming examinations, to plan ahead with lessons and to generally get my studio organised. It is also the time when my credit card gets a fantastic work out from all the Summer sales going on in the States.
I still make sure I know what pieces my students are playing and run through anything I am not as familiar with/anything I have forgotten.
If I have a piece in my head, I use Sibelius to notate it quickly. It really doesn’t take very long to use a fantastic program like that. I also know that I have to set aside half an hour today to write up another scale for my 4th grade violin students, so as soon as I finish this, washing will be hung on the line and Sibelius will be opened.
Pets
Boy are my pets spoilt rotten! They do get fed every day obviously and their tanks/hutches cleaned out regularly. They also get cuddle time. In fact, I have a 3 month old female bunny lying (upside down – feet up in the air and looks quite dead except her nose is twitching – LOL) in my lap right now wondering what on earth I’m doing because I’m doing something else with my hands and not patting her! My giant goldfish is really easy to look after, as he is in a 50 gallon tank all on his own (we can’t find him any friends he won’t eat) with a fantastic filter, so it needs cleaning once every weeks approx.
Lesson Preparation
This is actually the most time consuming thing I have to do. Thirty-six students all need their lessons planned, any extra sheets/music prepared, work marked, games prepared, any notes I may need to hand out to parents (what books to get, exam info etc).
My washing machine is calling, so I guess that means it’s time to finish this post. How do YOU organise your time? I’d love to hear how others manage to fit their teaching schedules around their family time.
