Well friends, It's a new year, and most of you know that I'm not into New Years' Resolutions. I truly was at a place of desperation. I needed to revamp my schedule because it was spinning out of control. My house was a mess all the time and I either had to clean all day everyday or school and "let it all hang out." 😩😫😱
I prayed and begged the Lord to give me an answer that could actually be done by a real person (aka...me) and waited expectedly for Him to answer. I know He has called me to my lot and I enjoy it. Thoroughly. And then He gave me some answers by way of a new friend named Denise. We go to church together and she has been blessed with a wonderful mentor and resources that I've not heard of, and I am always happy to glean from anyone who offers thoughts on the topic of homemaking
and /or homeschooling. So.... I asked her to give me all that she has learned and made some notes. Here are the notes:
Make lunches for everyone the night before. This sounds dumb, but it has saved so much time. We no longer have to stop, cook, cleanup, and tread back to something. Can I get a 🙌👏👊?
Chore packs. This originally came from the Maxwell Family blog. Titus 2 dot org or something like that. I've always admired them and always debated whether or not to purchase their resources not knowing if I'd actually use them. But again, LIFESAVER! This is where the organization started. Kyle and the kids and I all went to the "white board" literally and wrote out a million things. Here are the categories:
GOALS (monthly, quarterly, yearly ) for all living things in our house, including Copper the faithful pup.
DAILY TASKS ( for all people) even naps people!!
MORNING AND AFTERNOON CHORES. this includes every little thing that has to get done in order for your house to be ready for the next day. Whatever that means to you. Morning chores are done between the time they rise and when they start school. Breakfast is included in this. Afternoon chores are done between free time and dinner. Don't get your chores done? No problem, no dinner for you.😵 Guess what. They want dinner, so it gets done. 😎
SCHOOL ITINERARY. What has to get done everyday or for some, every week. For us, it's CC memory work, Timeline cards for history, handwriting, spelling, math, Christian virtues/ Catechism, Bible memory, and geography. Did you notice they don't have science? We read our science cards once a week. Come on people, me no likey. 😏 I throw in some extra stuff too but those are the basics. After lunch and they are outside for a long while, we read, read, read. I read to them, they read quietly. Canon must do this too even though he can't actually read. He flips through the books we have at home or from current library loaners.
WEEKLY/MONTHLY CHORES extras cleaning/ organization etc.
EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITIES
After that is all up, I wrote out all those things on index cards in respective ring hooks so that they can be accessed easily and we can refer to them easily. ( was my favorite part...dork.) I wrote our school schedule on the white board so the boys can just move to the next thing on their own.
Now here is my sample schedule:
Wake early/ shower
Read my Bible/devotions
Exercise 1-3x per week ( yeah, I'm not a cross fitter)
Be joyful
Breakfast/cleanup
Start laundry
School kids ( around 9 ish )
Love babies
Prep dinner/ eat packed lunch
Free time!!!!!!
Cook dinner/ afternoon chores
Sweep every room
Eat dinner/ clean up
Bathe children/ read with dad
Prepare for next day/ week
Did I miss anything? Do you have questions? Email or text me. Kyleandpaiger@gmail.com
Comment below and tell me your secrets!!!