I am 33 weeks pregnant and have five kids 8 and under. I am currently homeschooling my 5, 7 and 8 year old. On top of that I am nauseated pretty much 24 hours a day my entire pregnancy. That’s a little overwhelming for this unorganized mama. Ok, it’s a lot overwhelming.
One time I was whining to my husband about how incompatible my personality is for being a homeschool mama. I am a visionary. A dreamer. A fly by the seat of my pants kind of gal. My husband lovingly looked at me and said: “Take all that vision and cast it into your home.” I will never forget it. I suddenly felt excited about housework and homeschooling and mothering. I suddenly had this new found motivation to be the very best visionary homeschooling mama I could be!
The other morning I was lying in bed talking to the Lord about this very conversation with my husband and asking Him to help give me vision for my home. You know what I got? A vision of a schedule. A schedule?!!! How non-dreamy is that? How non-fly by the seat of my pants is that?! Oh, but how necessary it was! You see, around 5 p.m. everyday I was wondering why only 2 out 3 kids had done their piano practice or why the house was still a giant mess or why one of my kids, once again, had not finished his paces (we use ACE curriculum and it is perfect for our family… at least right now).
I had an idea to break my day down into 30 minute increments. I just set the timer for 30 minutes (sometimes 15) and do whatever is written down for that time. Sounds so simple. Well, it is. And it’s also a total GAME CHANGER! Our house is cleaner, I am less overwhelmed, the kids are consistently getting all their school work and piano done and I am feeling more “on top of things” in general.
Also, as a side note, we do year round schooling. Seems to work best for us for various reasons. I like to be able to take random weeks off during the year and I like to do less work 5 days a week rather than lots of work with a big summer break. I enjoy the routine of a little school work everyday and it helps the kids to not forget things if we don’t take a huge 3 month break.
So here was our schedule for today:
Doesn’t get much simpler than that! The rest of our day is planned out on the back.Notice our day didn’t start till 9:45? I am not ashamed. With my extreme nausea during pregnancy I am lucky to get started on my day before 10 a.m. Even with starting this late we are still able to get lots done! Each day is a little different but something that each day has in common is what I call “12 item pick up”. 12 item pick up makes me happy! 12 item pick up is my favorite! Each of the three big kids know that when the timer goes off that they each have to run around the house and put 12 things away that are not where they belong. It’s kind of sad that we can find 36 things every 30 minutes to put away! I am working my three year old into this pick up time as well by starting her with three items each time the timer goes off.
So that’s it! Nothing too complicated but sometimes complicated just means it’s more complicated. Simple is often best because when things are simple we are more likely to do them.
So what’s your daily routine? What are some your favorite homemaking tricks that make your life easier and your home cleaner?
Rhea working on her PACES. Creative literature writing in this picture. She has a book assigned to her and then has a workbook to fill in to make sure she is actually reading and retaining what she is reading.
Here is Ricky working on his paces with his little sister Chloebug sitting close by.
Johnny doing piano practice. Our three oldest are all taking piano lessons and have all started around the age of 4 or 5.Have you checked out my husband’s book, Marriage God’s Way?
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Welcome to the world of blogging! I think my schedule has changed a lot since we started homeschooling 7 years ago, and usually because my children transition out of a stage into another. I hold my schedule ‘lightly’, and make sure it serves us, and not the other way around where we are serving the schedule! ~ Victoria
I am the same. My schedule has changed with the addition of each baby. Thanks for stopping by!
Thank you for sharing! I so need a schedule. I just have to say this….Paces! I did them when I was in school. Wow! That seems so long ago.
Yep, it’s all about the Paces around here 🙂
I loved this post!! What a clever and creative idea. Our current schedule is kinda-sorta in half-hour segments too, though I don’t time it (yet). I love the idea of 12-item pick-ups every half-hour. Goodness knows, we certainly have that many items to pick up!! I think I need to implement something like that, because our children simply are not good at putting things away, and I end up doing way too much of it. For myself, I use FlyLady’s “27-thing pick-up” idea – which is basically what you’re doing, but parceled out so that the children can help. I think I’m going to use this. 🙂
We’re just trying to start piano lessons around here. I’m trying to teach the lessons, though, and it’s anyone’s guess as to how it’s going to go. This is the one subject that I really don’t want to teach and can’t get into. If we could swing the expense, I would definitely hire this out. Maybe we will anyway!! 🙂
I know we’ve talked lots of pregnancy nausea before, but I had forgotten (or didn’t know?) that you too were one of those lucky women who, like me, remain strongly nauseated and exhausted till the end. It’s difficult, isn’t it?? I keep thinking, each time, “When am I going to get that second trimester energy boost??” Nope. Doesn’t happen. And not in the 3rd trimester, either. The nausea slowly, SLOWLY gets to the manageable state, but I stay nauseated and exhausted till birth. While I’m so sorry to hear that that happens to you, I am overjoyed to hear of someone who understands that! Besides the HG itself, that’s one of the reasons I so fear pregnancy. And being that we’re in that “any time now” land ourselves, I’m spending a lot of time obsessing over that.
Enough bunny-trailing. Thank you for this excellent post! Loved the great ideas here.
I hear ya! Nauseated till the very end… and then there is that glorious morning where I wake up not feeling nauseated and holding my sweet new baby 🙂