Homeschool Planning Tips - Getting it all done

Honestly? You can do it all but you can do little bits at a time. By accepting some things will never be perfect like having a home that can be featured in a magazine :-) and by doing what we can to train our children with love and grace to work with us.

We do have time pressures that others who do not homeschool do not have. When there is no help in the house and all cleaning and cooking falls to mom, things can get a little stressed at times.

Planning takes care of a lot of these things but life can still hit you a curve ball. This is where a good sense of humour comes in and you learn to take things in your stride.

Homeschool Planning Tips -How do I start planning?

I like to plan from the end to the beginning…I know this sounds weird but I think about where I would like to be and plan out steps to reach that goal. For instance we are planning to grow more of our own food. I looked at what I wanted to achieve and then put down plans to get us to that point. Another example is our daughter’s school leaving certificate. She has told me where she would like to end up and we are now planning short term and long term goals to get her there.

Other ways to start planning is to look at all the areas that need planning – chores, cleaning, meals, work, schooling and set aside a time to plan for each one of those areas. Start in the area that needs your attention the most.

More planning help can be found on these pages:
Menu Planning
Homeschool Planning Essentials
Organized Mom

Psalm 111:10 says: “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom; all who follow his precepts have good understanding.”

Therefore the answer to the question is to discover the fear of Lord and live according to the fruit of wisdom that this relationship yields.

Homeschool Planning Tips -The future

A precious mom spent some time with me yesterday as she shared her heart about her family’s future. She said that sometimes she looks at all the things she needs to do in her home and feels like her time is running away from her. I encouraged her with sharing about how life works in seasons. There are seasons where we have to sow, seasons to weed and seasons to harvest. This is true in our organization and planning as well.

I do not have much time during our schooling times to sort through cupboards and clothes, these jobs I leave for holiday times. My Ultimate Homeschooling Mom’s Planner” is filled with more than 130 templates for you to use to customize your family’s schooling, day to day activities, homemaking, futures and much more. Filled with inspirational quotes and helpful tips the Planner can become the next best thing to a mentor. Perhaps you feel like my friend and need to hold onto the picture of seasons in your home and family. The Ultimate Homeschooling Mom’s Planner is not only about day-to-day disciplines and school – its about your life, your future and your goals.

Homeschool Planning Tips -Dinner Time

One of the best tips I ever learnt and applied, is knowing what to have for dinner. During the week I try and keep my meals simple but I love to cook new and interesting recipes on the weekends when I have more time.

One of the most valuable times in a day is meal times when your family can sit together, talk, encourage and share. A magazine article recently quoted these statistics: “Research in the United States has found that teenagers who have dinner with their families five to six times a week are less likely to take drugs, smoke, abuse alcohol…” While the author of this article may attribute it to the meal times, I believe it is because the teenagers will be encouraged in building valuable relationships within their home.

As homeschoolers we have the wonderful blessing of spending much more time together than meal times. But this does not discount the fact that many homeschooling families are often too busy to make time for decent meals due to cram packed schedules.

My challenge to all on this mailing list is: Make time by eradicating unnecessary busy-ness from your own and your children’s schedules. Assess this carefully by looking at each activity that you are involved in, and then replace it with valuable family times.

Homeschool Planning Tips -Weekly plan

I love to plan...I love to know where my weeks and days are going. This does not mean that I cannot change midstream – if I couldn’t do that I would be setting myself and my family up for failure.

One of the things I do, also as a way to make sure that I can get through all the tasks before me, is to label my days. My week afternoons look something like this:

Monday – library, post office, errands day
Tuesday – Admin, pay accounts day or bike ride
Wednesday – Kids sport and friends day
Thursday – Kids team swimming day and my day at the gym
Friday – Groceries and evening picnic
Saturday – Early morning bike ride or organic markets, house church
Sunday – No drive day, veggie gardening, website work

This simplifies my life tremendously and prevents me always forgetting things or at least trying to remember what needs to be done. Perhaps you could just use a diary for your daily to do’s that you can write up as you need to.

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