Managing Both homeschooling and Housework

[pree]

I am not sure if this is the write place to post this. How do you manage homeschooling, kid's activities, and housework? How does a typical day in your life looks like?

[Plink]

Nothing will ever be perfect. It is what it is.

 

We have a morning, before lunch, and evening routine in which each child is assigned a chore, and for 15 min. We all bring the house back to a functional level. Those 45 min. make a big difference.

 

School starts and ends at the same time every day.

 

Outside activities are only allowed after 2:00 except for rare occasions.

 

Is that what you were asking? I'm not really clear on what you are looking for.

[pree]

 

Is that what you were asking? I'm not really clear on what you are looking for.

 

Yes just little steps and routines that you take in everyday life to make things a little bit more easier. Also if you can share your general schedule for the days it will be helpful. I am new to this and just trying to make my day a little more survivable.

[Plink]

Everyone's day is going to look different, but you can get an overview of how many families' days look in this book, or by simply googling "day in the life homeschooling."

 

My favorite resource when I started out was Homeschooling At the Speed of Life: Balancing Home, School and Family in the Real World. It is full of great ideas and it contains a CD-ROM with useful forms, checklists, etc.

[Ellie]

I started a daily routine when older dd was just 18mos, and it really helped when we were homeschooling:

 

I shower at night, when Mr. Ellie is home and can be with the children (we're empty-nesters now, you understand, but it's easier to use present tense, lol).

 

In the morning, I get up and make my bed as soon as my feet hit the floor. Then I get dressed, which I can do 'cuz I showered the night before. So when I leave my bedroom, I'm clean and dressed and my bed is made.

 

I clean my kitchen completely after every meal. Always. Right away. No exceptions. So, in the morning when I come out into the world, I'm clean and dressed, my bed is made, and my kitchen is clean. Glorious!!

 

We have breakfast, I clean the kitchen, and then I wash my hair. Yes, right in the kitchen. Although my grandmother would be horrified, no one in my house has died because I wash my hair in the kitchen sink.

 

For the first few months after we started hsing, things were a little weird, lol, but eventually I figured out that (1) I needed to stay home as much as possible until at least 3 in the afternoon, (2) I needed to limit the amount of outside activities I did with other homeschoolers, because that was usually before 3 in the afternoon, and (3) it works better for me to have one major cleaning day a week.

 

What that looked like for us was this:

 

Monday and Tuesday: official school days. No field trips, no errands, no doctor or other appointments if at all possible; no crafts for me, no chatting on the phone. Just...stay home and do school stuff.

 

Wednesday: library. All books were returned every week, whether they had been read or not...the only way I could avoid overdue fines!

 

Thursday: Field trip. Usually just us, sometimes a select few friends. No field trips with groups unless they were on Thursday or they could only be done with a group and they were too fantastic to miss (rare, rare, rare).

 

Friday: clean house--all the laundry, move furniture and vacuum, clean the bathroom, change the linens, everything.

 

Homeschoolers hadn't yet organized their owns sports or dance classes or whatnot at that time (1983-87), so my dc did ballet, Highland dance, 4-H, etc., with community groups, not homeschoolers. I like it that way. :-)

 

During the week, beds were made daily, kitchen cleaned daily, some vacuuming/dust-mopping, and so on.

 

I still struggled with keeping the kitchen table clean--small house, no dedicated room for homeschooling, no family room, but in general, I was able to keep the house tidy enough that the dc didn't ask if company was coming when we cleaned, lol, and I wasn't embarrassed if someone dropped by.

 

HTH. :-)

[boscopup]

I'm still working on a routine here, but some routines I have in place:

 

at night, I load and run the dishwasher.

in the morning, the kids empty the dishwasher and make breakfast.

I do Bible and some read alouds during breakfast, then we start school.

I try to throw a load of laundry in every day

I try to have kids pick up toys periodically throughout the day

kids have to clear dishes from table each meal or they don't get the next meal ;)

dishes go straight to the dishwasher, not the sink!

 

[Joshin]

A simple rhythm/routine. Don't try to make it complicated! Depending on the age of your children, they should be doing a chunk of the housework (in my opinion, at least)!

 

For us, messes are cleaned up immediately. Finished with those books? Put them away before moving on. My kids know the expectation so only rarely do DH or I need to remind them, but if it's a new rule it may take a few weeks of reminding to establish the habit. You may also need to establish the habit for yourself. All clutter is put away in the evening. It doesn't take us long, maybe 15 minutes on a super messy day.

 

Finally, we only clean once weekly. I used to clean twice a week, and sure my house looked better, but who has the time? Older DS does bathrooms and vacuums; younger DS dusts and does windows, walls and baseboards; I clean the kitchen and hard floors; and DH vacuums and cleans up the basement. Takes all four of us an hour tops on Sunday morning, then we don't worry about it for the rest of the week.

 

About once every three to six months we dedicate a whole day to deep cleaning -- getting the dust out of corners, cleaning the wooden blinds, dusting the ceiling fan. that sort of thing. It's not on a schedule, we just do it when I notice something is looking a bit dingy.

[tammieb]

We make it a team effort! I tried for the first few years homeschooling to do it all myself. The kids were young and it just seemed easier for me to do it all than "redo" what they had already done as best they could. I quickly learned that was not working for two reasons ---

 

I was NOT getting everything done!! My frustration began running over into EVERY aspect of our home life --- school, my hubby, my home! It was NO FUN!!

 

My children were not being taught responsibility within a family. Even young children can do something --- pick up their toys, put their dishes on the counter, bring the dirty clothes to laundry room.

 

For the last couple of years, we've divided chores. Mom still has a bigger load, but I wouldn't feel needed otherwise :tongue_smilie: ! My hubby works shift work, so we're up at the crack of dawn -- literally!! We get dad off to work, and then we have about 3 hours before we start school. The kiddos time is scheduled within that block of time --- 30 mins for chores, 30 mins for personal devotions, 30 mins for instrument practice, and, if they've done everything in a timely manner, they have some free time before school starts.

 

Our house is clean before we start school for the day. We take an hour break for lunch. We make sure all the dishes are done before we start back to school. During that time I'll swap clothes from washer to dryer to folding, etc. Then, after lessons are done, we do another laundry update and clean up our school area.

 

Basically, you just have to figure out a routine that'll work for your family. Every family is different. I can attest, though -- once you get things running smoother with the household chores, every part of your day just seems to run smoother, too :)

 

Hope that helps!!

[redsquirrel]

wait.. we are supposed to teach the kids AND clean the house?

[SunnyDays]

wait.. we are supposed to teach the kids AND clean the house?

 

That was EXACTLY my first thought, too! ;)

 

Honestly, this is our second year homeschooling and I'm not very good at the balancing act yet. It helps that we don't have a huge place, that my DH is good at helping, and that DS is old enough to start taking on regular responsibility. But I've learned that the clutter will never be all gone, LOL!

 

 

[weederberries]

We went through an intense chore instruction time about a year ago. They learned to do the laundry, load and empty the dishwasher, vacuum, surface clean the bathroom, etc. Then we divvied out all of the chores among the three of them. They each have a list of about 8 chores, ranging from feeding the dog to vacuuming upstairs. It should take about 30 minutes to complete their lists. They must complete the chores by 9am or they may not participate in the activity/privilege for the day (scouts, gymnastics, movie night, etc). This goes a long way toward keeping order in the house.

 

I expect surface cleaning from them, which frees me to do deeper cleaning. Prior to this, I was so overwhelmed by just the surface cleaning, that I couldn't get around to deep cleaning. Now I have the time to do that. They feel proud when they accomplish their chores and we do have battles over chores sometimes, but overall, it makes it possible for our house to continue at an acceptable level. It's never perfect.

 

The kids are responsible for waking up, completing chores, dressing and eating breakfast by 9am. We start school by 9:15 and finish about noon, sometimes as late as 1pm, depending on their level of cooperation. We eat lunch and clean up the school room and the lunch table before our activity for the day. After that, they are free to play and I take time for my specific household, volunteer, and social tasks before making dinner.

 

It is my opinion that it is important for even young children to have a significant role in the running of the house. You have a near full-time job in teaching them, so others may need to step up to make the house run smoothly. Help them see the investment they are making in the home, the family and their education by giving them responsibilities. It doesn't' mean you won't have battles and struggles (oh, how I wish it did), but it does set a standard in your home and family.

[Tracy]

Been doing FlyLady for a while. I had come to the conclusion about a year ago that habits and routines were going to be really important for our family. If it is not routine/automatic, then it doesn't get done. So I clean the toilet and counter in the bathrooms, and I do a load of laundry every morning (takes about 10 minutes), I get all dishes in the dishwasher after every meal, and I clean my sink every night at bedtime. I dust every day while the kids are doing their memory work. I am working at getting rid of all the stuff we don't use or need so I have less to clean. Those steps, alone, take very little time, but they help me keep my house from being embarrassing.

[PachiSusan]

:bigear: :bigear: :bigear: :bigear: :bigear:

 

I need this thread so badly!!! As Ross Perot said, "I'm all ears!"

[duckens]

On a perfect day, I rise before the children (dd6 and dd2).

 

I do something for dishes: either wash dishes or empty the dish drainer from the night before.

 

I do something for laundry: move it along!

 

I take the time to calmly weigh out a healthy breakfast of fresh fruit and eat it.

 

If I don't rise before the kids (up late with baby or insomnia), then nothing gets done. Our whole day gets out of whack!

 

In the middle of the day, we break for a good meal. I aim for one hour to prepare the meal, eat the meal, clean up from the meal, wash the dishes, and move the laundry along.

 

Dinner is usually something that is fast and easy to make, or leftovers that can be heated up in the microwave. I prefer to wash dishes immediately after supper, but sometimes I am too tired, or dd2 asks to nurse.

 

We clean the living room when we have to. I sweep the kitchen/dining room when it is so bad I can't stand it. We talk about having an evening family clean-up time of 15 minutes, but we haven't figured that out yet. It will be easier when dd2 is a little older.

 

I am lucky because Loverboy is so helpful and supportive about the homeschooling, housekeeping, and meals. Most nights he is prepping supper. He helps with the girls in the bath at nights. He vacuums. He also does most of the grocery shopping.

 

Yesterday and today, he fed/entertained both girls for long periods of time while I clean out storage bins in the garage. (Lots of things are going to charity!!!!)

[texasmama]

Well, not very well some days. lol I recently put together a chore chart which has my kids doing more housework. My goal is to have the house in good enough order such that I could host people with 30 minutes notice. How's that for criteria? I work two days a week, homeschool, have a messy dh, a parrot, hamsters, two dogs, and four kids. Things are not ever going to be stellar at all times, but the chore chart does seem to be helping. And Saturday morning, I hosted a good friend with 30 minutes notice, and the house was presentable enough.

[mom2denj]

Here is a great cleaning schedule I printed out off of Pinterest a while ago. I tweak it a bit. This helps me to stay accountable. There are many lists on Pinterest. =) http://pinterest.com/pin/209135976416822319/ HTH, Kristen

[mom2denj]

Here is a page from Pinterest with tons of schedules. http://pinterest.com/angie76/cleaning-schedules/

[Laura Corin]

I no longer home educate, but I work outside the home then pick up the children from school and take them to activities. Husband is away from home Monday to Friday.

 

About four months ago I finally set up a system that works. I have a list of jobs that I do every week (bathrooms, public rooms, kitchen) and everything else gets done in rotation about once every three weeks. Other jobs are done in rotation over six months (window cleaning principally). I do all this cleaning in a couple of hours on Saturday morning, asking for help from Husband and children as seems useful. The boys also have specific chores - dealing with rubbish bins and sorting laundry, as well as packing and unpacking the dishwasher.

 

With the major chores done on Saturday, I have just maintenance jobs to do on Monday to Friday: I wash and dry at least one load a day and make sure that all dishes are washed by the end of the day. The boys also pick up any of their stuff that is scattered around the house every evening before bed.

 

Having a routine like this has been a revelation to me. My mother didn't have any kind of system for housework, and I can't believe how much more calm I feel about it now.

 

Laura

[violamama]

Things that make it possible for us:

*No activities before 2 or so, except swimming at 1:30 MWF.

*Lots of short, timed breaks during which I get done what I can. I used to not want to get started if I knew I couldn't do every possible part of a task, and I'm learning to take what I can get instead. I think they call it prioritizing. It's not my favorite- I'd rather do each thing exactly how I like it done.

*I have three things I want to get to without fail: Bible, Math, Writing/reading.

*First thing in the morning, I take all the books and put them on the table where we work. As we complete subjects I put them away. It sounds silly, but this helps me see what I have left and keeps me focused on what's needed next. If we get sidetracked I don't forget what I had planned.

*The boys know they will have some longer blocks of free play later in the day. I remind them of that when they are whining about working, and I protect that time as much as I can so they do get it. I feel they need that kind of constructive cooperative play almost as much as school work, and I want them to learn that hard work has a time but so does pleasure.

*I keep main areas cleanest. Anything my weekly music students will see is kept tidy, and the boys know what's expected in those areas. The guest bathrooms are cleaned with disinfecting wipes and given fresh towels just before students arrive. My master bathroom is basically clean but not perfect anymore- the mirror needs to be cleaned and the shower could really use a deep cleaning, as could all the moldings/corners (even with a swiffer in that room it gets dusty/hairy almost every day). It bothers me every night as I brush my teeth, but it's just not on my radar right now. I need down time (margins!), too.

 

To be totally honest, I clean really thoroughly just before house guests come, maybe 2 or 3 times a year. The rest of the year I just refuse to let my desire to have things how I like them override my priorities for this season in my life.

[happymomofboys]

I am not sure if this is the write place to post this. How do you manage homeschooling, kid's activities, and housework? How does a typical day in your life looks like?

 

 

I'll be honest. I don't manage it all. :blushing: My kids do most of the day-to-day chores (dishes, wiping and swiping, sweeping and vacuuming, picking up) and I do the laundry. I try to tackle a small cleaning/decluttering project on Saturdays but my house is never as clean and orderly as I would like it to be. If you came to visit unannounced, I'd be highly embarrassed, but I've had to come to the realization that I never wanted to be a homemaker. I wanted to homeschool. Unlike most homes where everyone is gone for the majority of the day, we're here all the time! I've accepted it now and lowered my standards. My full-time job is my kids' care and education. That's it. If they were in school, I'd be getting a job rather than staying at home alone with the housework. If we could afford it, I'd hire a maid in a heartbeat.

[Plink]

Pree, have you ever tried backwards planning? It is a simple way to look at your entire to-do list and realistically figure out what needs to be done, and when. I don't do it every day, but it helps a lot when I can't get out of my own way.

[Ameena]

I don't get it all done either. It's just me and dd, and I try hard but it gets out of hand easy.

 

Things I do that work:

 

I get up before dd, have my PC time, put in either a load of laundry or of dishes, and eat my morning snack. Breakfast comes later when dd gets up {normally around 10-11am as she is not a morning person}. Once she is up & dressed for the day, we have breakfast and then start on school or errands. School takes us maybe an hour or two at most. After that, dd has free time until dinner, and I work on things around the house

[Mrs Twain]

I just figured out how to get most of my housecleaning done. On Fridays after our usual morning work (math, English, spelling, writing), I stack up and cover everything I need to read or teach to the kids for the remainder of the day. After that, the kids finish the rest of their work sitting at the table, which is all independent (workbooks, lapbook activity, art lesson online from Mark Kistler, etc.). While they are working independently, I have the last two hours of our school day (plus extra time after school if needed) to clean the house. Previously, I had tried to clean on Friday afternoons after school was done, but it wasn't working because I was just too tired and usually didn't do it. However, this way I start the cleaning before the time I normally finish with school, so it I feel like I have more energy. Once I get started, I am motivated to get the majority of it done. Having the house clean before the weekend hits has really helped my state of mind. I am not always stressed about having a dirty house, especially if people are coming over.

[Black-eyed Suzan]

This is my first year of homeschooling, and balancing it and all the other responsibilities has been the hardest part for me. Flylady is a great help. I keep a calendar with all activities so (hopefully) things won't fall through the cracks.

 

In February I started using Saving Dinner's menu planning. The recipes are laid out (with side suggestions) and there is a grocery list. This has helped me immensely - I no longer have to decide what to eat and the recipes are easier than what I cooked before. (I love to cook and so got used to making more complicated meals before kids.) Dinner has been much more consistent (and takes less brain power) since I started using it.

 

 

There is a great thread on this board about the book Getting Things Done by David Allen. After skimming the book, I am now reading it a second time to try to incorporate his principles into my life, too.

 

Here's a sample routine for us:

I try to get up before the children. Make bed, get ready, load of laundry in, dishwasher emptied, breakfast made and eaten, Flylady's swish and swipe of the bathroom, etc.

 

The structured part of school is about 2 hours for us. I try to start around 9 am.

Early lunch, then outside time/errands/housework/finish laundry/playdates/nature hikes. Each day is a little different.

 

Home by 3 pm - younger son still takes a nap. I start dinner and do clean up/laundry/computer down time/etc. If we've had errands/doctor's appts/activities in the morning, then we use this time to do an abbreviated school session.

 

If we have evening activities, then dinner is early (4:45ish) so we will be on time. If not, it's later.

 

In the evening I make sure the dishes are washed, dishwasher is loaded, and I have looked at the calendar so I can prepare for tomorrow.

 

Hope that helps!

[Mystie]

Here's what I've worked out: Securing a Reasonably Clean House

 

I'm trying to slowly get back to this plan after a slack pregnancy/new-baby time, but it has worked well when I'm not so physically drained.

[Critterfixer]

I figured out how much time I wanted to spend per day on the house and figured out which rooms could be done in that time slot. I did the same thing for school and for my own time for exercise and reading. It's pretty flexible. I can shift the hours around, I can move the chores from one day to another if I need to, I can do more one day to open up another day in the week for more fun time with the boys.

Flexibility in the routine was key for me. We just roll right along now, even if things shift around a bit for weather, seasons, work, etc.

 

It works out to 30 minutes of chores three times a day, morning, noon and night. We are up pretty early.

I usually exercise for an hour or so before school starts, but I schedule and hour and a half so I can get cleaned up.

School goes from 8:30 to 12:00 with some breaks.

Lunch is 12:00-1:00, and the mid-day chores go in that hour (changing out laundry, loading up breakfast and lunch dishes, cleaning up after lunch)

School starts up and goes from 1:00 to 4:00 with breaks.

4:00 to 6:00 is my housekeeping time. I do set chores per day, but I can change things when I need to. If it is going to pour buckets on Thursday, for example, I might shift cleaning the chicken house, garage and outside work to Wednesday, and then clean the living room, hall and office on Thursday.

6:00-6:30 is Dinner, and then chores from 6:30-7:00.

From 7:00 to 8:00 I usually read or write, and the boys are getting some lessons in keeping assignment books and "homework" right now, so they do their work then before bedtime.

8:00-9:00 we are getting ready for bed, reading, baths, etc.

9:00-10:00 I usually read, get things set for the day and get to bed myself. Which is where I'm headed now.

[ElizabethB]

I have extensive food allergies and have to cook separate meals for myself. More helpful than helping with housework is helping with meals, the children make their own breakfast daily and often make their own lunch. If we have a lot going on, they do extra housework. But, help with meals is more helpful and also saves my hands--I have to scrub after touching milk products and am allergic to lotion, so my hands get chapped if I have to cook too many meals with things I am allergic to in them. (I am also highly allergic to peanuts and fish, but I don't allow those in the house, we have sun butter instead of peanut butter.)

 

They actually prefer cooking over cleaning--I often offer to cook lunch for them if they do the dishes for me, they usually prefer to cook. There are a few meals that my son is not yet allowed to cook that I will help him with or ask my daughter to help him with.

[IrishMum]

I keep my house like a 'show-house' according to friends. I do like it to be clean, organised and looking its best. As soon as my boys could walk they were helping out in the house, now at 13, 11, 10 and 8 they do the majority of the house work. I still do most of the cooking. There are times when things slide, and I need to go on a rant to get things done, but mostly it works. Team effort!

I think I have time for it by not watching TV. I do spent a lot more time online than I should, but not watching TV gives me heaps of time to clean. I DON'T like cleaning, but I love a clean house.

 

Edit to add:

I love a clean house, but it hardly ever took precedence over time with kids. Those with little ones, the house work will always be there. Kids are young once, enjoy them! I don't regret any time I left dishes in the sink, and I'm glad I chose story time over house work every time.

[SailorMom]

I think it is important to decide first at what level of clean are you happy with? Not what level your neighbors like, or what the person who just rang the doorbell likes :)

Now - don't get me wrong, I do think there is a level of clean that no one should go below, but beyond that, I think we should all be comfortable in our homes - and that looks different to different people.

Decide what you can and can't live with on a daily basis, and what can be done once a week or once every other week, and then go from there.

Once you've decided, try living with it for about a month and then re-evaluate.

After that - let go of the things that you have decided can wait for the weekend. Don't let them bother you in the middle of the week :)

My house has gotten progressively cleaner as the kids have gotten older for so many reasons, so my "what can I live with" has changed as well over the years.

Other than keeping the kitchen clean, most of our house work can wait until the weekend now that toys are not an issue. The kids clean up pet waste out of the yard and the litter box every other day, we do laundry as we need it, and they are required to keep dirty laundry off their bathroom floor :) Other than that, most housework waits for non-school days, or after school (post 3pm for us) hours.

[JMDRAD]

I'll be honest. I don't manage it all. :blushing: My kids do most of the day-to-day chores (dishes, wiping and swiping, sweeping and vacuuming, picking up) and I do the laundry. I try to tackle a small cleaning/decluttering project on Saturdays but my house is never as clean and orderly as I would like it to be. If you came to visit unannounced, I'd be highly embarrassed, but I've had to come to the realization that I never wanted to be a homemaker. I wanted to homeschool. Unlike most homes where everyone is gone for the majority of the day, we're here all the time! I've accepted it now and lowered my standards. My full-time job is my kids' care and education. That's it. If they were in school, I'd be getting a job rather than staying at home alone with the housework. If we could afford it, I'd hire a maid in a heartbeat.

 

:iagree: Yep, this is me!!!

[MissKNG]

I manage things very easily.

 

#1 - I have a set routine. I can;'t imagine not having one. I would be lost!

#2 - My girls wake up very early (5:30am/6am) and go to bed around 9pm so my days are long. I have plenty of time to do things.

#3 - I don't stop moving...there is always something to do. This, in turn, eliminates my need to formally exercise because my day is so active and busy.

#4 - Multi-tasking, doing two or more things at once. A big thing is cleaning dishes while cooking. Clean something while waiting for stuff to cook.

[mamamindy]

I started a daily routine when older dd was just 18mos, and it really helped when we were homeschooling:

 

I shower at night, when Mr. Ellie is home and can be with the children (we're empty-nesters now, you understand, but it's easier to use present tense, lol).

 

In the morning, I get up and make my bed as soon as my feet hit the floor. Then I get dressed, which I can do 'cuz I showered the night before. So when I leave my bedroom, I'm clean and dressed and my bed is made.

 

I clean my kitchen completely after every meal. Always. Right away. No exceptions. So, in the morning when I come out into the world, I'm clean and dressed, my bed is made, and my kitchen is clean. Glorious!!

 

We have breakfast, I clean the kitchen, and then I wash my hair. Yes, right in the kitchen. Although my grandmother would be horrified, no one in my house has died because I wash my hair in the kitchen sink.

 

For the first few months after we started hsing, things were a little weird, lol, but eventually I figured out that (1) I needed to stay home as much as possible until at least 3 in the afternoon, (2) I needed to limit the amount of outside activities I did with other homeschoolers, because that was usually before 3 in the afternoon, and (3) it works better for me to have one major cleaning day a week.

 

What that looked like for us was this:

 

Monday and Tuesday: official school days. No field trips, no errands, no doctor or other appointments if at all possible; no crafts for me, no chatting on the phone. Just...stay home and do school stuff.

 

Wednesday: library. All books were returned every week, whether they had been read or not...the only way I could avoid overdue fines!

 

Thursday: Field trip. Usually just us, sometimes a select few friends. No field trips with groups unless they were on Thursday or they could only be done with a group and they were too fantastic to miss (rare, rare, rare).

 

Friday: clean house--all the laundry, move furniture and vacuum, clean the bathroom, change the linens, everything.

 

Homeschoolers hadn't yet organized their owns sports or dance classes or whatnot at that time (1983-87), so my dc did ballet, Highland dance, 4-H, etc., with community groups, not homeschoolers. I like it that way. :-)

 

During the week, beds were made daily, kitchen cleaned daily, some vacuuming/dust-mopping, and so on.

 

I still struggled with keeping the kitchen table clean--small house, no dedicated room for homeschooling, no family room, but in general, I was able to keep the house tidy enough that the dc didn't ask if company was coming when we cleaned, lol, and I wasn't embarrassed if someone dropped by.

 

HTH. :-)

 

 

This is almost exactly what we do! Even the washing the hair in the sink! (But that's actually because I'm pregnant and wearing compression hose as soon as I get out of bed...but anyways.)

 

However, I have not figured out how to fit official school into just two days..... Ellie, would you care to elaborate, pretty please?

[mamamindy]

I will also 2nd or 3rd the FLYlady recommendation. I think her suggestions are fantastic for those of us who just can't wrap our minds around home management, weren't taught any, etc. And since I've added homeschooling in, I love the idea of just doing a little/what I can. It is so much better than doing nothing at all because I want it to be perfect. We'd never get anything done if it weren't for the ideas FLYlady gave me. And I'd be so embarrassed about our home. As it is, my house is NOT perfect, but I'm not afraid to answer the door! Or let someone use my bathroom! Even with 4 children 6yo and under! :)

[Coco_Clark]

My kids and I all have to be up by 9am (a family of late sleepers) I've learned or nothing gets done.

 

We meet at nine for prayers, the kids are sent to get dressed, and then come back for breakfast. By ten we are finished eating and clear the table -Mondays mornings are for cleaning, and Tuesdays are our homeschool Playgroup, but Wed-Friday we do school until noon or one at the very latest. Lunch, Baby's second nap, and big boys "quiet time" aka be quiet enough (or outside enough) to not disturb momma!! At three we have a snack and read aloud and either go out and do things (play dates, errands), play together, or ignore each other while pursuing our own interests, lol. 5:00 is the big hurry clean up daddy is on the way home and I do all the days dishes and start dinner. He's home at 6 and after we eat is when I shower.

 

It will get harder when I have to school more than two hours three days a week and we are adding in activities, but these are our kindy years and I believe in lots and lots of free time at this age.

[Rebel Yell]

I don't keep up with it all.

 

For school, I choose as much as I can that can be done without my direct help. Math is done via DVD, History has CDs to listen to. ALmost everything is done indpendently. I write plans and check work. Oh- and I give the spelling lists.

 

Houeswork? Goodness- don;t ask the last time my entire kitchen floor got mopped all at once. Every songle one of us hates washing dishes, and we have no dishwasher.

 

I DO plan lunch and dinner every day- due to outside activities/classes, I need to know what we're having- some days need a quick hot dog, some days need to sit in the crockpot so people can eat at different times, and some days need a packable dinner-on-the-road.

 

I will say life got so much easier when Diamond got her driver's license! My driving/waiting time has been cut not in half, but maybe I do less than 1/4 the driving I used to! A simple trip to the chiropractor used to take 2 hours! 20 minutes to get there, be 10 minutes early, wait 15 minutes because he;s runnign late, 15 minutes with the doctor, 5 minutes to pay, 20 minutes home, 15 minutes to get resetted and restarted. Not including a run through Chick-fil-A or to the store... now I just send the girl, and sisters that need to go too, a debit card, and the grocery liost. It;s WONDERFUL!

[Koerarmoca]

I am a little OCD.

 

I clean up the kitchen after every meal and snack. I can not have crumbs or dirty dishes laying around. I mop the floor every day sometimes more (muddy dogs...grrr) I clean the bathroom every morning after the PS kids leave, and I Clean it again after night times baths (not a deep clean just a wipe down, put things away, swish the toilet and a quick mop if needed)

 

I wake up around 5 and walk the dog, shower, read, email, blog etc.

 

I will skip the chaos of getting 7 kids and a husband out the door lol

 

I wake the HS kids up at 8 so they miss the madness, we do breakfast, bible and talk about our plans

 

We work till 10 have a snack, work some more lunch at 11:30 (my preschooler niece is home for lunch)

 

We finish off schooling by 2 and from 2-4 NO FEET ON THE FLOOR I don't care what they do so long as its quite, and they stay on their beds. I use this time to mop/vac, prep dinner and still usually have an hour for myself

 

Dinner is served between 5-5:30, bedtime routines (bathing, reading etc) the bedtime schedule is staggered with littles down by 7:30 and orders down by 9

 

I do laundry only for the 5 youngest, myself and dh and only on Thursdays and Fridays. Saturdays we strip sheets and get them all done. The older kids all have shared laundry days and they work out the details of them with out me.

 

Dh's schedule changes next week so I will likely have to change some stuff up :/

 

Oh and some days are a total fail like today...I could not catch up to save my life!

[kiwik]

I would rather spend time reading than cleaning.

[Χά�ων]

I do not a have a set schedule. It is too crazy with medical appointments and such.

 

Our cleaning time generally looks like last night. Last night we got home and I started dinner while DS picked up his stuff, vaccumed, cleaned out the car and gave the dog and cat water. It took him 15 minutes to do everything because the house is small. I did the dishes from earlier and from preping dinner while dinner cooked. We sat down to eat dinner in a clean house, it was wonderful! After dinner DS took a shower while I put away the clean dishes and did the dinner dishes then I threw the days clothes in the washing machine, turned it on and was done for the day. The only thing I did not do last night that I usually do is fold and put away the rest of the laundry. I was not feeling 100% so I slept instead.

 

Schoolwork is done in the morning. We are early morning people and school is usually finished by 10am.