Um, I'm supposed to organize my day?
What? Why didn't anyone ever tell me that?
Sigh.
Things would have been much easier, if only I'd known!
Actually, they'd be easier if I had this many arms:
Oh, alright. I'll be serious now. Here's how I try to organize my day:
I get up early. If I don't get up early, my day is not productive.
I have quiet time with God, pray and read/study my Bible. This is essential.
I try to exercise some, even if for just 10 minutes.
Kids are up by 7:30 and do chores and eat. We try to get started around 9:00, but that doesn't always happen. As I said Tuesday, our days depend on when my husband is working.
My kids do Bible study and math before lunch, so they are alert and able to focus.
Science, history and such come after lunch.
Chores (kids and mine) get done, if all aren't finished. I do at least one load of laundry every day. I try not to put new loads in until the previous load is dried and put away. That keeps mountains of clean laundry from accumulating in my bedroom.
The kids fold and put away all their own clothes. And I have them fold towels, too. They also each have their own bathroom to clean (with index cards on the wall showing what to do), and they rotate bathrooms weekly.
Each of my three kids vacuum the floors downstairs each week, M-W (one day per kid) and I vacuum Thursday and Saturday. I do not worry about how they are vacuuming. It causes too much strife. I figure, even if they aren't getting close to the baseboards or doing the centers like I would when I vacuum, it's still getting done five days a week. And that's definitely better than me doing it just once.
If it is pretty in the afternoon, we go outside for a walk, or the kids play.
If it is not nice out, the kids help with dinner or play the Wii. But electronics are only allowed if all chores are done and they had good attitudes about their day and toward each other.
I try to make sure the house is tidy and I don't look like a hag before my husband comes home. (Unless I'm up to my elbows in bread dough or something. Then I just make sure I smile and give Glen my focused attention when he comes home.)
Mostly, I let go of perfectionism. It wants a stranglehold on me.
I cannot have a well-organized, perfectly clean home and a well-organized, perfectly planned day and well-behaved children who learn and pay attention perfectly according to my perfect teaching ability.
Trying to was the death of our joy.
So my key to organizing is to have a plan, but go with the flow.
Some days kids are sick. Some days I'm sick. Some days we are all just tired from a late night before. And some days it is just too pretty to stay inside doing math and we have to go outside and do our read aloud.
Or just play.
It's okay. Play is good. They are only little once. And even when they are bigger, they still want to play. (Don't you?)
Yes, kids thrive on routine and structure. I know that. And it is important to have a plan, because not planning anything means you are planning to do nothing.
But it is ever so important to be sure to schedule free play into your day. Your kids need it. And you do to!
Check out what the other bloggers have to say about their day (and see below for our remaining topics on this blog hop):
Clockwise from top left:
Lorrie @ Life and Lessons Learned,
Selena (that's me) at Campbell Clan,
Kathleen @ Positive Adoption,
Audrey @ Everything Beautiful,
Charli @ WV Urban Hippies,
Tracey @ Building My House, and
Maria @ The Joyfully Frugal Home
(All of these moms (except me, of course) are in my blog list at the right.)
And stay tuned! We'll be blogging on Tuesdays and Thursdays in April about these topics:
What? Why didn't anyone ever tell me that?
Sigh.
Things would have been much easier, if only I'd known!
Actually, they'd be easier if I had this many arms:
Oh, alright. I'll be serious now. Here's how I try to organize my day:
I get up early. If I don't get up early, my day is not productive.
I have quiet time with God, pray and read/study my Bible. This is essential.
I try to exercise some, even if for just 10 minutes.
Kids are up by 7:30 and do chores and eat. We try to get started around 9:00, but that doesn't always happen. As I said Tuesday, our days depend on when my husband is working.
My kids do Bible study and math before lunch, so they are alert and able to focus.
Science, history and such come after lunch.
Chores (kids and mine) get done, if all aren't finished. I do at least one load of laundry every day. I try not to put new loads in until the previous load is dried and put away. That keeps mountains of clean laundry from accumulating in my bedroom.
The kids fold and put away all their own clothes. And I have them fold towels, too. They also each have their own bathroom to clean (with index cards on the wall showing what to do), and they rotate bathrooms weekly.
Each of my three kids vacuum the floors downstairs each week, M-W (one day per kid) and I vacuum Thursday and Saturday. I do not worry about how they are vacuuming. It causes too much strife. I figure, even if they aren't getting close to the baseboards or doing the centers like I would when I vacuum, it's still getting done five days a week. And that's definitely better than me doing it just once.
If it is pretty in the afternoon, we go outside for a walk, or the kids play.
If it is not nice out, the kids help with dinner or play the Wii. But electronics are only allowed if all chores are done and they had good attitudes about their day and toward each other.
I try to make sure the house is tidy and I don't look like a hag before my husband comes home. (Unless I'm up to my elbows in bread dough or something. Then I just make sure I smile and give Glen my focused attention when he comes home.)
Mostly, I let go of perfectionism. It wants a stranglehold on me.
I cannot have a well-organized, perfectly clean home and a well-organized, perfectly planned day and well-behaved children who learn and pay attention perfectly according to my perfect teaching ability.
Trying to was the death of our joy.
So my key to organizing is to have a plan, but go with the flow.
Some days kids are sick. Some days I'm sick. Some days we are all just tired from a late night before. And some days it is just too pretty to stay inside doing math and we have to go outside and do our read aloud.
Or just play.
It's okay. Play is good. They are only little once. And even when they are bigger, they still want to play. (Don't you?)
Yes, kids thrive on routine and structure. I know that. And it is important to have a plan, because not planning anything means you are planning to do nothing.
But it is ever so important to be sure to schedule free play into your day. Your kids need it. And you do to!
Check out what the other bloggers have to say about their day (and see below for our remaining topics on this blog hop):
Clockwise from top left:
Lorrie @ Life and Lessons Learned,
Selena (that's me) at Campbell Clan,
Kathleen @ Positive Adoption,
Audrey @ Everything Beautiful,
Charli @ WV Urban Hippies,
Tracey @ Building My House, and
Maria @ The Joyfully Frugal Home
(All of these moms (except me, of course) are in my blog list at the right.)
And stay tuned! We'll be blogging on Tuesdays and Thursdays in April about these topics:
- How do you organize your day?
- Why or how did you get started? (Tuesday, April 9th)
- Homeschooling styles and/or curriculum choices (Thursday, April 11th)
- What didn't work for you? (Tuesday, April 16th)
- My biggest frustration . . . (Thursday, April 18th)
- How do I feel about socialization? (Tuesday, April 23rd)
- Blogger's choice (Thursday, April 25th)
Love the picture! I remember when I would have all the kids out when they were tiny and EVERYONE would say...Boy you've got your hands full and thinking I wish I had another hand! Ha.
ReplyDeletealso--i laughed out loud when I heard you say you have a daily sweeping schedule! How bout I let the kids sweep (when we sweep) which might be once a week or less and I have no standard for it whatsoever--I'm just happy it's done.
ReplyDeleteMaybe someone needs to come and train me...
I have the boys sweep everyday too! I figure over the course of the week, they have to hit most everywhere.
ReplyDeleteI also try not to "look like a hag" when Ronnie gets home.
Selena, you crack me up!