N is for nuisances. When you homeschool, the nuisances of daily life become magnified, because instead of taking time away from housework or other household activities, they interrupt your work with your children. All it takes is a badly timed phone call from a long-winded friend to completely throw off your careful explanation of fractions that your child was just beginning to understand.

Try to control nuisances ahead of time by screening your calls, or by asking family and friends not to call just to chit-chat in the mornings, or the afternoons, or whenever you tend to work with your children on their studies. Hang a “Do Not Disturb” sign on your front door if you have to. Nuisances eat up valuable time; don’t let them!

Why should you teach your child to be frugal? Because it’s great preparation for the future: learn more in “Teaching Children to Be Frugal.”