If you've recently made the decision to take charge of your child's education by homeschooling, you're likely enjoying the independence and self-direction both you and your child are enjoying. Despite these benefits, you may not feel like you ever have enough of a break from schooling and parenting to do more than keep up with your regular errands and housework -- let alone deal with the hassle of cleaning, packing, moving, and unpacking to move across the city (or even across the country). What can you do to successfully continue your homeschooling during a move? Read on for some tips and tricks on best minimizing the potential upheaval of this process.

How can you prepare in advance to continue your child's lessons while getting ready for a move?

While facing the moving process while homeschooling can feel overwhelming, with some thoughtful preparation it doesn't have to be. 

• Investigate co-ops

Many areas have strong homeschooling networks that emphasize the variety of paths to education. These networks or co-ops often offer a variety of outreach services designed to supplement all types of homeschool curriculum. These services can include everything from group field trips to science museums to guest lecturers from nearby businesses or colleges.

If your child is too young to do much assisting with the moving process, you may be able to send him or her to a day camp, field trip, or other homeschool-oriented outing while you and your spouse meet with a real estate agent or do some deep cleaning of your home. This can ensure that your child is still actively learning, even while you're not able to be an active teacher. Older children can also benefit from the socialization and educational aspects of these community events.

• Make moving its own lesson

The process of selling a home, moving, and purchasing a new home can be rife with learning opportunities. Unless your child is very young, you should be able to incorporate some aspects of the move into his or her daily learning agenda. For example, if you're trying to find a suitable new home for purchase, your child can help calculate the price per square foot, property tax rate, or other useful measures. Purchasing a home can also provide you the opportunity to explain the concepts of interest, compound interest, and amortization. 

• Look into online courses

For those facing a lengthy moving process -- for example, cases in which one spouse must relocate for work immediately, while the other spouse works to sell the home and wrap up other arrangements -- it can be well worth it to investigate online courses or classes that will help supplement your homeschooling lessons without requiring as much parental involvement in lesson planning and evaluation.

What may you want to do to assist with the moving process?

Even with a variety of ways to keep your child involved in the process (or out of your hair), paying for additional services to streamline your move can be money well spent.

• Packing services

By taking away the pressure of packing (and unpacking) all your belongings, you could find yourself much more at ease with the idea of moving an entire household of belongings and people. Even if you're planning to perform the move yourself, by utilizing professional packers from a company like Bekins Van Lines Inc, you'll be able to focus more energy on the parts of the moving process you can't easily outsource (like selling or purchasing a home). These services are relatively inexpensive -- you'll find yourself paying less than $1,000 for the labor and materials to fully pack a 3-bedroom house.

• Container shipping

Another way to make your move easier can involve the use of a container or pod to ship your belongings, rather than a moving truck. By renting a shipping or cargo container, you'll be able to pack on your own schedule, moving items into the container as you no longer need them. You'll also be able to avoid the labor costs inherent in hiring a crew of movers to truck your belongings across the city, state, or country -- instead, a truck will pick up your shipping container and place it on a train, cargo hauler, or other heavy-duty vehicle.