Let’s Talk Scheduling – Getting Organized

Getting Organized:
In your home and homeschool

 

How is your overall schedule? Are you finding yourself always trying to catch up with yourself? Do you have a long To Do List that never seems to get done? These are three deep questions. I want to take a few minutes to elaborate on each one. My prayer is that it helps you. I get lots of questions about schedules.

Do you have a schedule? I have a very loose schedule that we adhere to. Most of our day is structured around the daily Routines you see in most of my emails and posts. The boys and I follow the routines, but there are things on the list below that we do in a different order or different time of day. I use the Routines as a check-off to see that we cover these things. I just don’t let my perfectionism rear its ugly head if I don’t get things done in precisely the order below. It is a guide. Nothing more. It is not my master. What I recommend is that you take the Routines and write down a rough draft of what your daily schedule looks like. Then put the two together to make a custom schedule for your family. Remember to include the children, They need routines, too. Having routines keeps me from spinning my wheels. It also gives me a sense of accomplishment on those days when I feel like I haven’t accomplished a lot, I look over my Routine list. Then I review what I did on that list, and I feel better.

Are you so busy with stuff that you feel like you never catch up? For those of us who homeschool, it is so easy to fall into doing activities that we seem to run from thing to thing and try to squeeze in school and house duties. There have been school years where we were doing co-op, 4-H, and homeschool support group activities. While we enjoyed the activities and the learning that took place, it was very difficult to keep up with household routines and get our book learning done. My children were young at the time, and it did not hinder us academically. I just felt a lot of guilt that we did not complete my lesson plans like I wanted. I had to become more selective of our outside activities. Last year and this year, we have not done any co-ops or regular group activities. We have concentrated on our homeschool, and we go on field trips with our homeschool friends when it works in our schedule. Take a good look at your schedule. Are you too busy? Or do you need to add activities?

How long is your To Do List? I enjoy having a To Do List to keep me focused, but I have learned to not let it become an albatross around my neck. I have a Master To Do List. But for my daily activities, I write down 6 things I want to accomplish each day. I keep it simple. If I have a big project, I will write down one step of that project at a time. I found that trying to work from my big To Do List was self-defeating. I could never accomplish it all in one day. I never felt successful even when I marked things off because there were so many more things on the list. To further simplify my shorter To Do List, I use a sticky note to write it down. I can just toss it each day when I make the new list. I use Wednesdays to work on anything on my list that I have been procrastinating. I also delegate things from my list when I can. I don’t have to do it all. I just need to delegate those things that others should do.

If you have any questions or tips, please email me. I enjoy hearing from my readers.

Zone Mission: Zone 3 – Main Bathroom and One Extra Room – Do another 15 minute room rescue in a different room in the house, or you can go back to the room your started on Thursday, if you did not get it finished.

Routines:

 

Home:
  • Make Your Bed (Do this as soon as you get up.)
  • Get Dressed Down to Your Shoes
  • Swish and Swipe
  • Start Your Laundry
  • Decide on Dinner
  • Check Your Calendar
  • Start the Day off with a Shiny Sink. Don’t leave the breakfast dishes sitting.

School:

  • Schedule a field trip for this winter. If you can’t think of one, do some research. See what’s going on close to you.
 Afternoon Routine:
  • Eat Lunch
  • Clear off One Hot Spot
  • Reboot the Laundry
  • Declutter for 15 Minutes (Be sure to have your children declutter, too.)
  • Drink Your Water

Before Bed: (This starts right after dinner.)

  • Check the Calendar for Tomorrow
  • Lay out Your Clothes for Tomorrow (Have your children lay their clothes out, too.)
  • Put things at your launch pad
  • Shine Your Sink
  • Clean Off a Hot Spot
  • Go to Bed at Decent Hour

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About Tami

Tami Fox is a homeschool mom of 6, who in age from 26 to 11. She and her husband have homeschooled for 17 years and have graduated three of their children from their homeschool. They are currently homeschooling 3 boys who are in grades 11, 9, and 6. They use hands-on learning and unit studies to ignite the fire of learning in their children. Tami is a homeschool author and conference speaker. You can contact her by email at Tami@TamiFox.com. Buy her book, Giving Your Children Wings at https://tamifox.net/giving-your-children-wings/.

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