INFP and other disorganized types, how do you function?

[Wee Pip]

INFP, ENFP, and other spontaneous, disorganized moms -

How do you pick curric? Do you design your own or fly by the seat of your pants each day? Or do you go for boxed curric, knowing you need some order?

 

How do you balance high standards (classical ed) with the need for fun, and following your own spontaneous ideas?

 

And, how do you balance housework and daily drudgery with school and your own desire to throw it all out the window and do something different?

Thanks!

[myfunnybunch]

Routine, routine, routine. I say I am the most organized disorganized person I know, because I hate the consequences of not getting things done. So I've learned that I need order in my environment (bookshelves, school supplies) and a daily routine in order to function on the fly.

 

I follow a routine instead of a plan. Everything gets done, but we've still got some wiggle room. The boys have daily subject checklists instead of lesson plans.

 

And I plan(ish...lol) a break week in the middle and at the end of the term. Our mid-term break week was "unschooling" week--my only requirement was that everyone be actively engaged in learning something during school hours, and they had to do music practice at some point during the day. (DS12 was also required to keep up with his study for his outside class, Spanish.) This week is Christmas School. We'll do Christmas projects and each boy has chosen an independent study project.

 

:)

 

Cat

[mommy5]

I'm an INFJ but not as organized as I would like. I forced myself last year to become very organized with my school work (and it truly paid off!) ... I had binders with 9 weeks tabs and every quarter put all the paper work for the quarter in that by week (1-9). I also had a file box that stored all of extra books for the year. This year I'm using a boxed curriculum (HOD).

 

My problem is - I think I have too much stuff (old curriculum and books we've already used ... supplies that we haven't used in a while) and I'm not sure if I should hang onto it or pass it along to someone else.

[poiema]

I plan, plan, plan, but no matter how much I plan I always end up changing things. I am not a boxed curriculum type of person because I don't think my kids fit in the box, but also because I get bored and need to change things up too often for that. I make a checklist every week on Microsoft Word for what roughly should get done, but sometimes they move along faster and sometimes we just don't do things as planned. The checklist is good for that reason because it is easy to edit and adapt to those changes. I sort of swing like a pendulum between having high expectations for my kids (tiger mom) and realizing that they are just little kids that need to have fun (relaxed mom), but it balances out. I set yearly goals and have a general plan for the next few years and we are always moving towards those goals, but not always consistently. The funny thing is that they usually end up there ahead of my plan anyway!

 

Chores are a part of the daily routine and the kids are involved. After breakfast they do their personal chores (get dressed, make bed, clean room, brush teeth) and then they do assigned chores like sort laundry, bathrooms, vacuum eating area, etc. That's when I start laundry, empty/load dishwasher, etc. After dinner they need to clean up their play room. Saturdays we thoroughly clean the house as a family. However, if you walked into my house uninvited, it would probably look like we had been ransacked. We have kids and kids make messes.

 

 

Back to checklists...another reason I like them is because I like getting to check something off and feeling like I accomplished something. Sometimes I make checklists just for me. I think that really helps me to stay motivated to get things done, but also to see that we really did get things done even when we threw some things out the window. And whatever doesn't get done just goes on the next checklist. :laugh:

[SorrelZG]

Now here are my people. :laugh:

 

I'll be listening in and come back later when I can at least organize my thoughts. :tongue_smilie:

[Farrar]

I periodically release my J when I just can't stand myself anymore. :D Then I revert to being INFP.

[imagine.more]

Haha, glad to have found others like me :)

 

I also break out my J occasionally, get a ton accomplished, then revert to my INFP ways. I'm closely following the Disorganized spinoff thread on Getting Things Done and am currently reading GTD since I'm laid up with birth recovery anyway. I make great lofty plans as an INFP but struggle to actually implement them.

[myfunnybunch]

I plan, plan, plan, but no matter how much I plan I always end up changing things. I am not a boxed curriculum type of person because I don't think my kids fit in the box, but also because I get bored and need to change things up too often for that. I make a checklist every week on Microsoft Word for what roughly should get done, but sometimes they move along faster and sometimes we just don't do things as planned. The checklist is good for that reason because it is easy to edit and adapt to those changes. I sort of swing like a pendulum between having high expectations for my kids (tiger mom) and realizing that they are just little kids that need to have fun (relaxed mom), but it balances out. I set yearly goals and have a general plan for the next few years and we are always moving towards those goals, but not always consistently. The funny thing is that they usually end up there ahead of my plan anyway!

 

Chores are a part of the daily routine and the kids are involved. After breakfast they do their personal chores (get dressed, make bed, clean room, brush teeth) and then they do assigned chores like sort laundry, bathrooms, vacuum eating area, etc. That's when I start laundry, empty/load dishwasher, etc. After dinner they need to clean up their play room. Saturdays we thoroughly clean the house as a family. However, if you walked into my house uninvited, it would probably look like we had been ransacked. We have kids and kids make messes.

 

 

Back to checklists...another reason I like them is because I like getting to check something off and feeling like I accomplished something. Sometimes I make checklists just for me. I think that really helps me to stay motivated to get things done, but also to see that we really did get things done even when we threw some things out the window. And whatever doesn't get done just goes on the next checklist. :laugh:

 

I could have written this, except that I've found myself being much more consistent as the children get older and we all see the payoff of steady progress (and the breaks and rabbit trails it allows). We even clean the house on Saturdays as a family. :D

 

Cat

[elegantlion]

Hm, I'm INFP but I'm organized. Maybe it's a habit developed from years of working, but I love to organize things. Maybe it's a touch OCD as I straighten things. I like spontaneity. Dh is always on me about menu planning, but geez, I don't want to know what I'm eating on Thursday when it's only Monday. I do see homeschooling as a "job" and I keep that very organized.

 

I mostly design my own curriculum, I can't stand using someone else's plan. I plan out each subject and then we kind of wing it through the day. I do try to get through a certain amount, but I allow for distractions (if you can't beat 'em, plan for 'em).

 

I worked for a lot of years before ds was born. I think I developed a way to be free within the confines of a job, much of that has transferred over to homeschooling.

 

Housework is a whole other issue. Thankfully ds and dh are neat, they both help with chores, and we have our house set up so everything has its own little place.

 

Hm, interesting stuff to ponder. I can't imagine having a checklist to say clean the bathroom, but I still using a schedule for school.

[anabelneri]

I'm INFP (as is my husband) and I also have ADHD. Woot! He works more than full-time, and I also help run our church's religious ed program. We're busy, high-functioning INFPs.

 

Let's just say that, in our house, chores are the last thing that matter. We've learned to generally keep on top of the dishes, though not to "other people's" standards. They do get done. Cooking is more of a priority than dishes. We've figured out a basic system for laundry that mostly works, which generally amounts to having very small laundry baskets and having a strong no-overflow rule. Most of the toys are put away regularly. Our biggest problem is piles (an ADHD issue), especially of children's crafts, my crafts, and paper paper paper paper paper.

 

For homeschooling I go through intense periods of planning. I try to get things set up so that we can go down the list and check things off. It doesn't always work out that way, but I try. The best thing for us is if my older daughter can do the reading/work herself; if I have to sit there with her we both get annoyed or distracted. I love the idea of making my own projects & plans, but the reality is that we do best with a curriculum that is clear and that we can go through page by page.

 

Our need for fun has been almost entirely sidelined by our need to get academics accomplished. As soon as an art project is inserted into the day, whether for science, history, art, or anything, the day goes completely off-track and I may as well give up on anything of educational value happening.

 

I wish I was more upbeat about it all, but this pregnancy has been rough and I'm currently feeling down about the house. It's a bit of a mess :) and I'm not ready for Christmas.

 

:)

[freesia]

Routine, routine, routine. I say I am the most organized disorganized person I know, because I hate the consequences of not getting things done. So I've learned that I need order in my environment (bookshelves, school supplies) and a daily routine in order to function on the fly.

 

I follow a routine instead of a plan. Everything gets done, but we've still got some wiggle room. The boys have daily subject checklists instead of lesson plans.

 

And I plan(ish...lol) a break week in the middle and at the end of the term. Our mid-term break week was "unschooling" week--my only requirement was that everyone be actively engaged in learning something during school hours, and they had to do music practice at some point during the day. (DS12 was also required to keep up with his study for his outside class, Spanish.) This week is Christmas School. We'll do Christmas projects and each boy has chosen an independent study project.

 

:)

 

Cat

This is me, almost exactly. The only difference is we have a mid-quarter and an end of quarter week and we do unschooly plus one subject. This allows me to ease up somewhere during the rest of the quarter when needed.

 

I do need to work on the fun, though. . .

[SorrelZG]

A little over a year ago I began to commit myself to one household chore at a time, to make a habit of it. I really should have continued that. :laugh: I did get a couple of good habits ingrained in me, however, like getting the kitchen cleaned up and house picked up and generally straighted so I don't have to think about it first thing in the morning. I get the laundry done and folded regularly, also, but my habit training on that one fell shy of getting my and DH's clothes put away so everything is clean, the children's clothes are on their shelves but DH and I are regularly digging through the laundry basket. But it's clean, right?! :hurray: for me. :laugh:

 

My tactic with the house is minimalization (in theory .. it's a constant battlefront and "cleaning" for me is usually throwing stuff away). I just have to be realistic. I could try to decorate my home more to make it prettier but the less surfaces collecting dust, the better. DH and I seem to collect clutter -- like, we have our hobbies and the stuff involved with whatever we're focused on kind of piles up around us. Maybe we both need our own rolling storage carts. Wait .. that's an awesome idea .. if only we weren't moving then I would be right on top of that.

 

For curriculum, my oldest is in first so it's still a work in progress but I'm learning some things. Like, I canNOT commit to a "boxed" program (even by the liberal definition of "boxed"). I've figured out that the Latin Centered Curriculum style schedule as a basic structure to build on works for me. For core subjects, to make sure those academic skills are solid and progressing, I'm best off with something strong, open and go and "do the next thing" (with good supplemental options for switching it up now and then). With content subjects, I only purpose to do them once a week but that's not a limitation. We maintain an educational atmosphere where the content subjects are being explored informally at any time of any day but that one day a week at least, I have something formal planned. I can't have a schedule for it, though. It needs to be sort of "open and go" (the core of it, at least). What I've ended up doing is going for a basic skeleton of memory work and a spine resource upon which to build content as we're interested. Sometimes I can't even commit to what day of the week I'll do a particular subject. I'll just plan a block of time for the daily content subject and wait and see what I feel like doing.

 

So, I find I have to either strictly discipline myself or else I'm flying by the seat of my pants. I've chosen those things to discipline myself to do - core subjects and memory work - and then enjoy liberty to chase the various winds beyond those. I'm hoping to that's a good plan.

[Crimson Wife]

I don't allow myself to dump a curriculum mid-level unless it is meltdown-inducing in a normally reasonably compliant child. Just being bored with it isn't enough. We do take "rabbit trails" but I force myself to make reasonable progress through the curriculum. We HS year-round and most Saturdays in order to make up for the "scr3w this, let's take a field trip" days.

[Chris in VA]

When I homeschooled, I mostly used Do the Next Thing types of curricula. Saxon, Phonics Pathways, SOTW, Omnibus, Sonlight (we didn't like the upper levels), Rod and Staff grammar, SWO for spelling...

I found it difficult to do too much in a row, so we'd take a break around 90 minutes into the day. Science, sadly, did not get done very well in elementary, but dd still wants to be a wildlife biologist, so nature study and just having lots of nature-y stuff around must've paid off, as did having a treehouse and plenty of time to explore the woods.

As for the house, I have never mastered that.