Daily schedule during the school year question

[Peaceful Isle]

I am the type who really works best when the house is clean. I am distracted very easily and find myself cleaning, when I should be teaching. sigh. 

I do not have a designated homeschool room, so I will always see the mess, if it is not cleaned up. ( I don't mean the school books and such)

 

My girls do the dishes after dinner, and the boys help with dusting and vacuuming, but only as good as little boys do. ;) The kids also keep their rooms clean. 

 

My girls help me tons with laundry and bathrooms during the summer, but during the school year, I really want them focusing on their school and music lessons.

 

 

Here is the question:

Does anyone here organize,clean, and do laundry after everyone goes to bed, for the next day? IF so, how does that work for you? does it help you not clean during the school day, and pay more attention to teaching? 

 

The thought of...let the little messes go, doesn't work for me because of my personality of seeing all that dust, and little pieces of legos in the corners of my living room. It is just who I am , I guess.

 

Any tips would be great :)

[AnnaM]

Maybe you need to try having 5-10 minute tidy ups throughout the day? This way you can teach, but can also know that at such and such time you can get those little things done.

[Critterfixer]

This summer I actually got up and did the housekeeping before we started school. I do the chores (about 30 min of laundry, dishwasher unloading and animals) and then I do the housekeeping (sweeping, mopping a room or two, takes about an hour to hour and a half). Best thing ever. Nothing like starting the school day with everything done!

But I only have the two boys. And dust, and the occasional floating feather or dog hair drifting around doesn't bother me, since I know that I'll get it the next time I run the vacuum.  Things stay neat, tidy and reasonably clean for me. One positive of cleaning before school has been knowing that I can press the boys into service if needed. They have some control over whether they do their room on Monday morning or afternoon, and so far, morning cleaning has been embraced as a way to get done and have the afternoons off to play. I like doing my cleaning before I'm exhausted from teaching. I like having my afternoons to work on dinner free and clear of housekeeping concerns. Because chores are done twice daily, I can count on having the dishes and laundry all ready for me to put up and fold up in the morning, and nothing more to do except just keep up by putting things in the baskets or in the sink or dishwasher. 

It's been great. I'm planning to see how I do with that schedule this fall.

[J-rap]

Our routine was:

 

During the day, I'd clean up the kitchen after breakfast and lunch, usually when kids were doing school work.

 

After dinner, once the kids were old enough, they'd clean the kitchen together.  (I would have made dinner.)

 

Before bed, the kids would do a quick 10-15 minute pick-up in the main living areas.  (We didn't have a school room either.)

 

After bed, I'd go over the two connected rooms my husband and I hung out in in the evenings, the dining room/living room (also the rooms in the quick pick-up!), but touch up a little more and vacuum.  This only took 10 minutes or so.   So, we'd have the rest of the evening in a sort of clean house.  (But probably not bedrooms, and bathrooms would only be tolerable!)

 

Once every week or sometimes every other week, the whole family would pitch in to do a deeper cleaning, and everyone would have jobs.  (usually a Saturday morning.)

 

Now and then, I'd get it in my head to clean a bathroom mid-week or something like that, but it wasn't a priority.

[Monica_in_Switzerland]

Another vote for mornings over evenings.  I am just tired and needing some down time by evening.  Waking up earlier has been very productive though.

[lllll]

nm

[MEmama]

I clean as we go, little bits here and there. There's never much to do at any one time. But with only one, fairly independent kid it's easy to keep up while he's working. I suppose if I couldn't I would spend a few minutes at night tidying; I don't do well in clutter either and I don't like to wake up to a mess.

[JustEm]

I start laundry first thing in the morning, then do phonics with whatever kid is awake. Dh make breakfast and afterwards I immediately do dishes. Then we send dh off to work and start what little bit of school we do. After lunch kids spend 15 minutes cleaning up downstairs so I can quickly dust and sweep after lunch. I also do dishes again and keep laundry moving immediately after lunch. The upstairs is maintained by just picking things up as we see them out. Bathrooms get cleaned on the weekend by dh or myself. Kids pickup their room every night before bed. At the end of the day I will quickly pick up downstairs but that takes maybe 5 minutes. I then sit in bed and watch a show while I fold and put laundry away.

 

 

All in all i probably do an hour of cleaning a day but it is broken up throughout the day. This is when my house is in proper order.we had a lot of house construction going on the last few months and now I'm scrambling this week to get it back in maintenance mode before we start school on Monday.

[Squawky Acres]

I run the laundry during the day, but tend to fold and deliver it once the kids are in bed.  I also do most of my cleaning at night.

 

It helped tremendously once my husband started doing the dinner dishes and putting the kitchen in order while I did violin practicing with the kids and put them to bed.  After that I usually put my feet up and read in my room for about thirty minutes, and tend to get a tremendous burst of energy in my calm, quiet and kid-free house to clean a few bathrooms, wash a floor, or organize something for an hour or so.  Or sometimes I don't.  

 

I did find that trying to maintain a clean house throughout the day cut into my focus on our schoolwork too much, so I just try to ignore the chaos, knowing that I can put things in order at night.  I also have the kids do a quick pick-up in the late afternoon, so that I don't have to spend my evening cleaning time putting away toys.

[FriedClams]

I've engineered chores for the kids to help...

 

Every morning one kid empties the dishwasher/dish rack and feeds the dogs. The other gathers the laundry and vacuums the major carpets. I straighten, make breakfasts, etc.

 

Before the kids head to bed we all do a quick pick up, and I start the dishwasher. That way, I'm not doing it all and we start the day fairly straightened.

 

Another rule, "If schools not picked up, then school's not done."

 

Our house is far from perfect, but it works for us. Whatever you do, please find a balance (even if it's getting a maid). The one person who I really thought was neglecting teaching was because she had to have a perfect house before they started...they rarely got anything done other than cleaning and outside activities and ended up years behind. I'm not saying that's you - I'm saying you're awesome for seeing this as an issue and taking it on because it can be a real issue. I hope you can find a good balance

[Ellie]

I am the type who really works best when the house is clean. I am distracted very easily and find myself cleaning, when I should be teaching. sigh. 

I do not have a designated homeschool room, so I will always see the mess, if it is not cleaned up. ( I don't mean the school books and such)

 

My girls do the dishes after dinner, and the boys help with dusting and vacuuming, but only as good as little boys do. ;) The kids also keep their rooms clean. 

 

My girls help me tons with laundry and bathrooms during the summer, but during the school year, I really want them focusing on their school and music lessons.

 

 

Here is the question:

Does anyone here organize,clean, and do laundry after everyone goes to bed, for the next day? IF so, how does that work for you? does it help you not clean during the school day, and pay more attention to teaching? 

 

The thought of...let the little messes go, doesn't work for me because of my personality of seeing all that dust, and little pieces of legos in the corners of my living room. It is just who I am , I guess.

 

Any tips would be great :)

 

I don't think it's necessary to let the little messes go. I just don't. I think we need to be more purposeful in our homekeeping, instead of letting it happen to us.

 

We had a small house and only two dc, and we're all pretty tidy, so I don't have much to share from personal experience. :-) I dedicated Friday to cleaning house--the whole house, including dusting furniture, moving the furniture and vacuuming, the bathroom, even the car, and all the laundry.

 

There is nothing wrong--in fact, it's a good thing--to continue having your dc participate in homekeeping. That should be part of their general upbringing; IOW, it doesn't interfere with their Official School Work, which itself is not more important than learning how to be a responsible grown-up person who will some day have his or her own household to run.

 

Perhaps it would help if you started your Official School Time later in the day, and take care of homekeeping first thing in the morning--start a load of laundry, a quick vacuuming/sweeping, etc.

 

Some of my friends with many dc take 15 minutes each hour to do a pick-up of little pieces of Legos, take clothes out of the dryer and fold, and so on.

[73349]

Laundry takes long enough to do that I wouldn't try it after DS is in bed--then how could I put it in his room without disturbing him? I start a load before I eat breakfast and move it to the dryer at lunch time (and start a second load in the washer then, if I want). Then it can be folded and put away before dinner (and the second load moved to the dryer; I can fold that while DS showers).

 

When we start the new stuff in September, I'm implementing a "Clean Before Screen" policy: we have to spend a few minutes cleaning/picking up before DS can turn on the TV. (Because I tend not to be consistent with building habits like that at first, I'm actually going to tape a paper to the television to remind us.)

[KrissiK]

Well.... my laundry used to be folded every Monday when my dear mil would come over for the morning. Now, while she comes, her health precludes her from folding my laundry. For laundry, I bought each of the kids a small laundry basket. They are lined up against the wall. I do laundry and sort each kids' clothes into their basket. They can't have screen time unless that basket is empty.

 

Housework... Wednesday afternoons I do bathrooms. Saturday mornings the kids clean their rooms, and each have several other chores like dusting, cleaning out and vacuuming car, cleaning the sliding glass door. During the week, our main living space is divided into zones. Each kid has a zone. Ideally, they can't have screen time until the zone is cleaned. My house still feels like it is always a mess, though. But I do refuse to clean at night. I am usually so beat that I just want to sit and do nothing. So, I do.

[Hobbes]

I'm very much the "works best in tidy environment" type as well. Am also pregnant with my 4th and will continue to HS my oldest 2 in the fall... so I'm trying to streamline all household management as much as possible!

 

I tidy as I go and have done my best to teach my 7yo and 5yo to do the same. They typically are asked to tidy the playroom, etc, before a meal or before we go somewhere. They are good at it. One of them can tidy a small mess while they wait for me to help another with schoolwork, as well. I feel this is a reasonable part of family life for every person.

 

I've pared down toys and given everything I can a bin of its own so it's easy to tidy. They each have a 'treasure bin' in their room, as well as shelves for their items, so they know things have to go there if important to them. This also protects their things from the toddler, which prevents angst.

 

They each have daily and weekly jobs, so they do all the dusting, some sweeping and vaccuming, wipe sinks, and fold and put away their own clothes (I run laundry one day a week and then sort it into separate baskets for them). This is immensely helpful. Their chores typically take them 20 mins and they do them after quiet time and before supper at some point.

 

The rest, I do after school is done. I do a final tidy in the evening before bed so that we start the day fresh, or I get sidetracked with cleaning in the morning and delay everything else.

 

That being said, I'm more tidy than 'clean' and I have to push myself to keep up with toilets, etc. Most of my tidying ideas and rhythms come from my childhood, so that probably helps me to implement them... it just feels normal.

[Guest baltieniterte]

I am just tired and needing some down time by evening.

[mommy5]

I tried doing an assigned day for each task - and do most of it during the morning and school during the little one's nap.  I wrote about it in detail here: http://suchatimeasthis.com/2015/06/29/cleanups-more-for-the-large-family-large-family-cleaning-schedule-family-closet/

 

If I do not have a plan, I will lose my mind and get very distracted.  I need to follow a routine or the "things to do" overwhelm me.

[ScoutTN]

I can fold laundry at night because it is quiet and I can do it with my brain turned off.

Other things are too loud or I am too tired to do at night.

 

We generally clean as we go, focusing in the public rooms once (sometimes twice) a day and on kids rooms once a day. We clean up a bit before lunch, after school, before dinner.

 

I am working on instilling the idea of leaving it tidy when we leave the house for the day too. I really like to come home to a picked up house. We clean once a week, usually Friday afternoon or Saturday. Small house and everyone helps so it doesn't take long.

[SkateLeft]

I've always expected (and needed) my kids to pull their own weight and help out, so there's no way I'd try to do things after they go to bed.

 

We've always had routines. Morning, afternoon (after schoolwork is done) and evening. Generally, we clean up whatever we use when we use it. Laundry and dishes get switched over in the evening. In the morning, clean laundry comes upstairs and gets folded and the dishwasher gets unloaded for the day. My older kids do their own laundry, which cuts down on folding now. (I teach them how when they're about 11 or 12). Bathrooms are wiped down by whoever showers last. Kitchen gets wiped down by whoever just used it. Dirty dishes go right in the dishwasher and it gets run when it's full. Beds are made as soon as people get up. Books are put away as soon as schoolwork is done. We vacuum daily. The kids take the garbage out whenever it's full. On the weekends, sheets get washed, floors get mopped, etc.