The Benefits, Blessing’s and Blissfulness of a Schedule!
I will be going into my second year of homeschooling full time. Before our big move to Texas Zach and I shared the responsibility. We never really could set a schedule because our schedules always changed.
Now that the boys are getting older we are so glad we made the changes for me to be home full time. We have made a lot of sacrifices and I will tell you every bit of them have been worth it.
Now that the boys are getting older we are so glad we made the changes for me to be home full time. We have made a lot of sacrifices and I will tell you every bit of them have been worth it.
For the last year I have taken the schedule suggestions from the book called The Well-Trained Mind . I have at some points failed miserably trying to stick to it this first year. I’m sure moving here and getting situated in a new house didn't help because it was a little chaotic at first. I don't get to down on myself and I realize I must keep working at it. We are all living a new life here in the country so I cut myself a lot of slack!
I have implemented another method to help me with our schedule and that is the Google calendar. You can look at the calendar on my home school blog. http://andersonsyearntolearn.blogspot.com/ . I put it up there to share it and once I learn more about it, I will share what I learn. I have only used it this month and it is proving to me to be better then a written day planner. I plan on printing it out each week and keeping a print out for my home school records. I also can write notes on it if we didn’t finish a certain lesson or if we need to finish a few more tasks I can write those down for the next week calendar. I do our schedule for 3 weeks straight and the last week of the month I prepare the next months lessons. Right now it is fairly simple because the kids are young and finding stuff to do is so easy. It is keeping to the darn routine that I find challenging!
I have implemented another method to help me with our schedule and that is the Google calendar. You can look at the calendar on my home school blog. http://andersonsyearntolearn.blogspot.com/ . I put it up there to share it and once I learn more about it, I will share what I learn. I have only used it this month and it is proving to me to be better then a written day planner. I plan on printing it out each week and keeping a print out for my home school records. I also can write notes on it if we didn’t finish a certain lesson or if we need to finish a few more tasks I can write those down for the next week calendar. I do our schedule for 3 weeks straight and the last week of the month I prepare the next months lessons. Right now it is fairly simple because the kids are young and finding stuff to do is so easy. It is keeping to the darn routine that I find challenging!
Benefits:
1. There is more order in my house, less fighting and no boredom.
2. The kids know what is expected of them and I know what is expected of myself.
3. The baby always gets his nap/bedtimes occur on time
4. The meals are always healthy and well prepared (sticking to a meal plan).
5. My house stays clean.
6. My kids learn discipline and a routine (which amazes me how fast a kid can learn a routine).
7. We get more accomplished.
8. We feel rested, energized and healthy(because we went to bed on time)
9. We feel good when we set goals and reach them/ I don’t feel like a fish out of water!
10.We appreciate our free time so much more
Blessings:
1. Self discipline has a lot of rewards spiritual and physical
2. There is something miraculous when you can act on what you say you are going to do.
3. Choosing to live your life to the fullest(that means get up when the birds do!) and realizing the liberty we have in this Country to even make our own schedule.
4. Accomplishing what you intended brings great joy and happiness.
5. We make sure the days aren’t wasted and that idleness in thought and deed does not become a part of our daily lives.
6. We set goals and reach them and then we reap the benefits and blessing’s
7. The content of our character is usually more perceivable by our actions and deed.
8. Striving to be something more by striving and pushing ourselves
9. I love it more and more each day teaching my kids at home. I love it more when I follow our schedule.
10. The bonds created when I set aside the proper time for each child is surely a blessing! Making memories they will never forget!
In the dictionary benefits and blessings are similar and I could really call all my trials with a schedule a blessing. I feel good when we are sticking to it and I try not be hard on myself when things sometimes don’t work out that day or week.
Some days I don’t feel like it. Some days it is hard when you are lacking sleep or when your body is just so worn out. It only takes one snooze on the alarm to send my day in to a swirl. As a home school Mom we have our kids 24/7 so that means you do everything with them under your feet. Well not literally but some days I wonder what it would be like to keep a clean house for more than an hour. I realize I cannot do it all and I have started this calendar to try to help myself and my kiddo’s get more organized.
Blissful!
Friday, Sat, and Sunday are what I call my blissful days! Well not literally. Because technically Mommy still has to cook, clean and do other daily tasks to keep the house functioning.
Fridays are the days we can sleep in, eat Popsicle's for breakfast or maybe chocolate ice cream (just kidding) Giving my twins chocolate ice cream for breakfast would be mere suicide he,he but I can still eat right.
Friday is what I call our free day! I try to cook stuff that is simple. The kids can watch movies after 5:00 p.m. I can play on Photoshop. Write on my blog, play my guitar, read one of the 10 books I’m currently reading and the list goes on.. It is a free for all and I love Fridays! Saturdays and Sundays are spent with family or friends or working on house projects. I also love the blissful days because Zach is home from work and we get to spend time with him!
Even though our schedule is not followed perfectly we try our best each week (yup that’s right even over the summer). It never fails that one of the kids has to go potty in the middle of math. Or one of them stubbed their toe on the way to their workspace. Or my 3 year old is screaming his head off (while I’m teaching phonics) because the buzz light year fell and stopped making loud obnoxious noises. The fed ex guy shows up early and the list goes on of what gets in the way.
As I was revamping the schedule and implementing it into my Google calendar. I came across a very funny post from a blog that makes me laugh and is constantly inspiring me. I also can relate to not wanting to fold laundry at a certain time of day. So I wasn’t so specific on my schedule for what I would be cleaning. I just put my cleaning into fly lady zones and I’m working on which zones I do each day. Here is the post:
The morning after reading this post I had a few cute incidences with Keynan that reminded me of PW's post. One day I might be like Ree/PW and wipe my baby’s butt with our schedule but for now I’m trying my best to stick to my plan!
This might just be the reason I home school! :)
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| I turned around after photographing the garden and this is what I seen! |
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| Hi, Mom," look at me"! |
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| There is evidence that he was dressed before this with a pair of undies on the ground! |
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| I happened to have these photo's of me around the same age I think! |
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| I guess I have the same no shirt trend! |
