May 29 2009
Organize your homeschool (and your life!)
I’ve realised, quite quickly, that if we’re going to homeschool, we need to be organized. No matter what kind of system or curriculum we decide on, whether it be unschooling or school-at-home, homeschooling is going to be hard, and probably very messy. There’s no respite for me for a few hours during the day while the children are out to “get stuff done” – even at this age Jude would have a free nursery place for 15 hours a week.
So, I bought Managers of Their Homes: a practical guide to daily scheduling for Christian homeschool families, from Titus2.com. This is written by Teri Maxwell who is a homeschooling mom of 8 children, and is all about scheduling your day – every single aspect of it. She wrote it with large families in mind, but, even though I “only” have two children, I found it absolutely brilliant.
The chapters include (among others) scheduling quiet time, children’s days, school, babies, chores, and in the kitchen. Teri also tested out this system with 24 other families before the book was published, and so their experiences are included as well, along with a huge appendix of everyone’s schedules, and extras like chore charts. Once you’ve bought the book there’s also a forum that you can join for extra support and info.
It’s a bit of work to set up, to pray and think through your day and then fill in the blank scheduling kit included with the book, but I can personally vouch for the huge difference that it’s made to our days. With very young children I still go out quite a lot to play groups and to the park, so I’ve only really scheduled the morning, but even setting out times and a routine for breakfast, teeth, getting dressed and organised for the day, has meant that I’m a lot less frazzled, I know everything is done, and somehow magically done a lot earlier than it used to be! And I’ve also used it for my evenings as well, after the children are in bed, to portion time for the computer, housework, projects and reading.
This might seem really obvious and like something which you could do yourself, which it probably is. But Managers of Their Homes sets it out so well and with so much great information and resources that I would say definitely treat yourself and ease your workload a bit!
PS - if you’re in the UK, you can get a copy of this book from Rainbow Books.
Hi Donna, thanks for reading!
Managers of their Homes has a chapter on implementing the schedule - starting very slowly, with only the basics (i.e. waking up, mealtimes, bedtimes) for the first few weeks, and then gradually building up to the full day.
Teri Maxwell also talks about how a schedule will flush out child character issues, i.e. obedience, diligence and responsibility, which can then be worked on. She says that “the main goal with our children is godly character”, and that a schedule will come second place to training and disciplining as the need arises.
I think Teri Maxwell recommends ‘Shepherding a Child’s Heart’ by Ted Tripp, and I also really like ‘Don’t make me count to three’ by Ginger Plowman for books on child training and discipline.
Good luck with organising your days!