Welcome back to 10 Days of Large Family Homeschooling!
Start at the beginning of the series.

If I could choose the one homeschooling conversation I tend to have over and over with other homeschooling moms, it would hands-down be the “homeschool record-keeping” conversation.  Frankly, it is not my favorite conversation, but it sure does keep a lot of moms up at night.

Tonight, I hope you rest easy…

What are your homeschooling laws?

Before you ever begin to try to keep track of homeschooling, you need to know what exactly you are required to keep track of.  States vary from super strict to super lenient, so be sure to check out your state laws on HSLDA.

By the way, a lot of states have laws that say something like:

Student attendance must be equivalent to the public school’s (i.e. 186 days per year, 1116 hours per year).

If that is the case with your state, then please, read my post on How Many Hours it Takes to Homeschool.

Decide how you want to keep track.

I live in a state where the laws are not very strict, so my keeping track will look quite different from say, homeschool moms living in Pennsylvania.  Once you know your state’s law, you can make a more informed decision about HOW you are going to keep track of your school year.  From one mom to another, my biggest piece of advice is

Don’t make it harder than you have to.

Here are some ideas to choose from:

• Attendance record – Similar to public school, you keep track of every day school is in session, assuming your day is similar in hours to a public school day.
• Homeschool Planner or software – These can be in the form of paper files or computer files.  The best ones are the ones that can be used over and over.  Here is an extensive list of planner pages and software.
• School Binder or notebook – This is an easy way to keep track that doesn’t require any forethought.  After your school day, you simply write down all you’ve done that day that constitutes school.  You WILL be surprised!
• Assignment sheets – Another easy way to keep track is to let your assignment sheets serve as your record.  Put them all into a folder and call it good.

{Note:  If you are looking for help in creating a transcript for your child or for simply understanding how to keep track of it all in high school, I HIGHLY recommend The Total Transcript Solution from The HomeScholar.  Phenomenal product and very easy to understand and implement!}

Now, that we’ve established how you are going to keep track of your year, let’s figure out the day-to-day stuff.

As I mentioned in my Organizing the Large Family Homeschool post, I have adapted over the years, so let me give you some posts from here at Raising Arrows that reflect some of the things we have done in the past to track the day to day homeschool assignments.

1.  Large Family Workboxes – I used a modified workbox method for years, but as my methods of homeschooling began to change, I realized my workboxes sat fairly empty and were taking up more space than I wanted to allow them.

2.  Assignment Binders – These were super helpful when I was pregnant.  One of the best parts was they were color-coded by child – oh, how I love my color-coded children!  However, once they wore out, I did not replace them because my oldest was no longer doing any worksheets and again, my methods of homeschooling had changed to more of a lifestyle of learning rather than textbook oriented.  However, at the time, they were a lifesaver!

3.  Markable Assignment Cards – I only used these for a short time, but thought they deserved a mention anyway.

4.  Quick and Easy Assignment Cards – When my 7th born had colic, this was how we rolled.  Sometimes you just have to do what you have to do.  This is a great method for the morning sickness days as well.

Currently, I do a full-blown planning session on Saturday or Sunday night using planning pages I printed off the internet.  These are also how I keep record of our days.  I’m trying to be a more intentional planner while I can be.

A word to the wise: when you aren’t in the throes of morning sickness or a new baby, it’s a good idea to do a chunk of planning so that when that time does come, you can avoid the Mommy-Guilt and Shame On Me Syndrome.

And now for the Grand Finale…

What do I keep?

Short answer:  Only keep the really important stuff.

Large families often struggle with the issue of how much to keep when it comes to school things.  It would be easy to end up with boxes and boxes of papers by the end of your homeschooling career if you don’t choose now to take the minimalist approach.

Here are my guidelines as to what makes it into that precious “School Box”:

• Was it a momentous occasion? – Was it the first time Junior wrote his name?  Was it the first essay Susie wrote that actually made sense?  Was it a project that had been slaved over and finally accomplished?  Those things are box-worthy.
• Does it show progress? – I try to keep papers and worksheets that show definite progress from one year to the next or from one task to the next.
• Will I be sorry I didn’t include it? – The shapes book my 6 year old made isn’t nearly as important to me as the All About Me book he made the same year.  I won’t miss the shapes book, but I would be very sorry to not have the book that tells me all about his likes and dislikes, dreams and aspirations as a 6 year old.

Another large family tip pertaining to the School Box -
Label everything with a name, age, and date.  I put everything in one box, but even if you separate out into individual boxes, you will want to remember exactly what age they were.

Now, I hope you have a blessed day and restful night!

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In the Subscriber Pack (FREE to blog subscribers – just enter your email in the big blue box below or in the sidebar), I’ve included some resources to help you keep track of your homeschool.  Once you enter your email address, you will be asked to verify your email and the next time a post goes out, you will find a link at the bottom of my post with a password and link to the Subscribers Only Site.  Enjoy!

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Welcome back to 10 Days of Large Family Homeschooling!
Start at the beginning of the series.

I love the concept of cutesy color-coordinated and labeled organizing, but putting it into practice confounds me and feels rather time consuming.  I want quick and simple homeschool organizational methods that will work for the large family household.

So, in this post you will find a smattering of simple ideas based on what we do to keep our homeschooling materials organized.

BOOKSHELVES ARE MY FRIENDS.

I have yet to meet a homeschool mom who doesn’t like bookshelves.  They are an absolute necessity in a large family household!  I have my bookshelves divided up into 3 different sections.

1.  The main bookshelves.

This conglomeration of bookshelves is in our “sitting room”.  My mom and my older kids painted the long bookshelf brown to sort of match the other shelves so it doesn’t stand out as badly as it did when it was a dingy white.  Most of what is housed here are our family’s personal collection of books.  I do keep the Phonics curriculum in here and a few extras like that.  But, for the most part, these are just books that the children can get out any time they like.

2.  The Books of the Year.

This bookshelf sits in our dining room and houses all the books that will be used during a particular school year.  I also put any books I plan to read in this shelf as well.  This keeps everything for the year in one place so I don’t spend precious time hunting down that one book we need to finish our Ancient Egypt study.  This has been a huge time saver and probably ranks right up there as one of my favorite homeschool organizational tips.

3.  Corporate Studies bookshelf.

When I use the word “corporate” I mean anything we do together as a family during our homeschool day.  The corporate bookshelf is home to our Bibles, our devotionals, the read-aloud history books I have all the children listen to, our art curriculum, some audios and DVDs from Vision Forum, and a few of the series books we are working our way through. (Elsie Dinsmore, Little House on the Prairie, and The Boxcar Children)

 THE HOMESCHOOL CLOSET

I have had some type of homeschool closet since the very beginning of my homeschooling years.  In our new house, it literally is a shelved closet in the hallway.  Prior to that, it was a cheapie stand-alone storage closet with doors.  I consider this to be one of the essentials of homeschooling organization.  Homeschool books are not used every year, even when you have back to back to back children.  You have to have a way to store all the unused curriculum.

This is also a good place to put those items you use only occasionally that would be in the way if left out.  Since our new house had so much space in this closet, I decided to use a portion of it for workbooks we use every day as well as scratch paper for the kids to draw and write on.  {If you look closely on that bottom shelf, you will see the bulk box of crayons I bought from Discount School Supply }

MOM’S BASKET

This is the basket of curriculum and extras I am currently using.  The things in this basket are used nearly every day.  It sits beside my chair where I am most likely to be sitting while using these items.  It’s a handy place to put them so that all I have to do is reach down and grab the next thing.  I started doing this when I was pregnant with #6 and our school room was downstairs.  I was too worn out to make the trek down to that dingy, dark basement, so I hauled everything I needed upstairs and put it in a basket by my chair.  Since then, it has become a staple of our homeschool organization!

School Binder for Mom

Not long ago, I introduced you to my revamped household binders.  My school binder was one of these.  This is where I keep lesson plans, notebook paper, pens, any extras I want to use in our homeschooling, but haven’t quite figured out where to put it, etc.  I’ll talk more about planning in tomorrow’s post, so you can see a little better how I use this binder.

LIBRARY BAG

I used to use a Library Box, but it wasn’t very portable.  When my friend , Stacy, started selling Thirty-One Gifts, I got this large utility tote from her and it has been great!  We keep all the library books in here and then just grab the whole thing and go!  It’s tough and holds up to the massive amount of books we bring home from the library.  It’s also a gauge as to when to stop the children from bringing us more books while at the library.  If the bag is full, we leave!

Organizing Extras

Plastic tubs and totes – They make a size of plastic tote for everything!  Currently, I use 2 small pencil boxes to hold crayons for all the kids.  I used to have a box for each child, but decided this year that was a waste of space.  Two boxes have been plenty for all the children to use together.  Besides, they were dumping them all together anyway!

I also use a tub for paints and another for extra supplies like glue, brads, magnet tape, and such.

Metal containers – I don’t use a lot of these, but I do like them for pencils and paintbrushes (see the photo at the top of this post).  We also keep our mail in one and we used to keep our napkins in a couple, but have since started using a basket on the table.

Baskets – Oh, how I love baskets!  They make the ugliest of things look lovely.

Laminator – For a large family, it is imperative you take as many measures as you can to make things last.  A laminator helps with that.  Amazon runs specials on this laminator a couple of times a year or you can buy it at WalMart for a little better price than Amazon’s every day price.

Binders & Page protectors – I love the versatility of binders and page protectors.  Everything from ebooks to nature notebooks can be put in binders.  I even know some homeschool moms who use page protectors as a way to reuse workbook pages.  I actually keep a stash of page protectors and notebook tabs on hand because you just never know when you are going to need them!

Other organizing ideas we have used over the years

Things change and as homeschooling families, we learn to adapt.  Here are a few organizational tools we have used in the past.  Perhaps you find just what you need amongst them:

Workboxes for the Large Family
Assignment Binders
Our Homeschooling Spaces over the Years
How We {used to} Homeschool Preschool & Kindergarten

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 Welcome back to 10 Days of Large Family Homeschooling!
Start at the beginning of the series.

Herding cats.

That’s what my husband tells people we do.  And yes, sometimes herding cats is a good way to describe the large family life.

Every child is unique and homeschooling a large group of children with varying interests and aptitudes can be just as chaotic as it is rewarding.

Today, I want to share with you some tips and tricks for avoiding the chaos!

1.  A Daily Schedule or Routine.

One of the first things you can do to make life less chaotic, is to adopt a daily rhythm to your life that incorporates all the things you need to get done in a day.  If you are a regular reader of Raising Arrows, you know how I love to talk about finding out if you are a Schedule Family or a Routine Family and all that entails.  It is so important to have a clear idea of how your family runs naturally, so you can harness that and focus it into something that works FOR you rather than AGAINST you.

Lists and charts and plans only work when you can implement them.  Sometimes the lack of implementing a plan is laziness and sometimes it is simply the wrong plan.  So, be diligent about finding something that works and trying it for a week or two before deciding if it needs a little tweaking or a toss out the window.

Read what other large families are doing.  There are plenty of large family blogs out there and they almost always share their daily schedules.  But remember, no two families are alike and you will not be able to entirely implement anyone else’s schedule.  I spent many years trying to be exactly like the other large families I knew and failed miserably because we weren’t them and our circumstances were very different.  Glean what you can and then make it your own.

 2.  Plan when you can.

There is a vicious cycle that can occur in a large homeschooling family.  You need to plan your school day/week/year so things run smoothly, but you are so busy running your large family, you can’t find the time to plan.

That’s why it is crucial you plan when you can.

I do a big overview planning of my school year in the early summer, but I plan specifics every weekend.  Truth be told, I look forward to my weekly homeschool planning sessions.  Coffee in hand, books all over the place, and a feeling that I am actually accomplishing something is a very happy place for me.

But, not always can I manage my weekend planning session.  Sometimes the weekend is just too busy or we are out of town, or some other project needs me.  Yet, I know if I don’t plan, I won’t get much accomplished.  Because of this, I know I have to find snippets of time somewhere in my day to plan homeschooling stuff.

One of the best ways to do this is to keep a notebook and pen handy and make a list of what you hope to get done that week in your homeschool.  If you manage to transfer it to an actual homeschool planner template, then great.  If not, no problem…the plan is still there.

3.  A crew of vikings.

Yeah, that was random.  But, allow me to explain.

Years ago, I heard Gregg Harris give a session at the Midwest Parent Educator’s Conference in Kansas City entitled Row Yourself to the Battle.  Vikings never had slaves row them to their next battle, they always did it themselves.  And if one viking didn’t do his job, they all paid the price.  We brought that concept into our home and homeschool by giving our children a meaningful part to play in the family.  Everyone has a job.  Every job is needed.  Everyone in the family rows, we row together.  And if someone is left rowing all by themselves with a project, you will often here,

“Where are the vikings?!”

 

4.  Discipline with purpose.

We’ve all done it.  At some point in our parenting we have dealt a punishment that either didn’t fit the crime or made absolutely no sense at all.  Despite the mistakes, we should all try to be purposeful in how we discipline. We should strive to make our disciplining biblical and relevant.

This If-Then Chart is a great place to start.  It lists the offense with the discipline and the Scripture to back it.  I also really like Wise Words for Moms and Parenting with Scripture.

5.  The little things that matter.

What are the little things that matter?  They are your little people.  Your babies and toddlers are a super important part of your day and without a plan for them, you will either spend all day putting out fires or all day playing.  There are tons of posts here on Raising Arrows pertaining to homeschooling with toddlers.  Do a quick search in the sidebar search box for “toddlers” or Google something like “homeschooling with toddlers“.

6.  Free yourself from distractions.

You already have a lot going on, why add to it?  My two biggest distractions during school hours are the computer and a messy house.  I call it Brain-Clutter and Eye-Clutter.

The computer is my main researching tool and it keeps my always-thinking brain quite happy with information overload.  But, this is not a good thing when I should be teaching school.  I avoid the bedroom where my computer is until AFTER school hours.

Before we went to a One-Day Home Blessing, I required our weekly chores to be done before school hours for the simple fact I needed a clean home (no eye-clutter) in order to be my most productive.  However, I would be more likely to recommend you go to bed with a clean house rather than what I was doing…letting everything go once supper was over.

By the way, if going to bed with a clean house seems like an impossibility to you, may I gently suggest this ebook:

7.  Stay calm.

This may sound trite, but if mama is calm, life feels more manageable.  Here’s a prayer just for you, homeschool mom!

To download a full-size copy of this prayer along with many other free printables and forms relevant to this series, enter your email below.  You’ll find the link to your Subscriber Package at the bottom on my emails to you.

And don’t miss the FREE ebook, Homeschooling with Purpose – a limited time Facebook offer!  Go to the Raising Arrows Facebook page and click on the Only Likers tab to snag your free copy!

The 10 Days Series is organized by iHomeschool Network, a collaboration of outstanding homeschool bloggers who connect with each other and with family-friendly companies in mutually beneficial projects. Visit us on Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter. Click the image below to visit all the 10 Days posts!

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Back in 2010, I decided the Household Binder system I had been using was too huge and overwhelming to really be helpful.  I separated everything out into smaller binders and found them to be much more manageable.

However, they were lacking 2 things:

1. Beauty
2. Cohesiveness

I’m a visual person who craves efficiency, so these two faults made for a system that didn’t meet my needs, and when a system or method doesn’t meet your needs, you end up not using it as you had intended.

A couple of weeks ago, I sat down with my binders and a pen and paper and brainstormed how I could transform these much-needed binders into something that would work better for me.

Here is what I ended up with…

1 binder for Home Blessing and Maintenance
1 binder for Food and Special Events
1 binder for School
1 binder for Bible Study
1 binder for Blogging

Let me break these down a bit for you, so you can see my reasoning and perhaps find direction for your own household binder system.

Home Blessing and Maintenance Binder

This binder is pink and contains all our cleaning schedules (including our One Day Home Blessing).  It also includes any warranties and maintenance related items.  I do not get this binder down very often because our most used cleaning schedules are on the refrigerator door.

Food and Special Events

This binder is green and contains the heart and soul of our kitchen.  My master grocery and meal lists are, my coupons, my recipes I want to try, my eCookbooks that have been printed out all reside here.  This binder also contains any plans I need to make for special events in our household because as we all know, special events often involve food!  This binder gets a lot of love and a lot grime and splatters!

School

This binder is white and contains our weekly lesson plans, any interesting articles I’ve gathered, and a lot of scratch paper for me to pour my thoughts onto.

Bible Study

This notebook is black and contains a lot of scratch paper, my schedule for reading through the Bible in a year, and any eDevotionals I’ve printed out.

Blogging

This notebook is purple and contains anything internet and blog related. I have 2 separate folders within this notebook for each of my blogs: Raising Arrows and Homeschool Blogging.  It contains numerous lists for projects, posts I plan to write, income/expense sheets, ads/giveaways, and other notes of interest (like the fact that this is the last week you can take advantage of the 10% off coupon code – ramarch – for DrinkBands).  When I attend conferences where I will also be working as a promotional blogger, I take this binder along for notes as well, because honestly homeschool conventions inspire much of what I write.

In addition to having different colored binders for each notebook, I also added spine labels and front covers that were pretty.  That was one big gripe I had with my old binders.  They were thrown together hastily and were downright ugly.  These binders makes me happy.

It’s the simple things in life, really.

So, I want to know…

Do you have a binder system?
Do you have a homemaking post that might be of interest to Raising Arrows readers?

Time to link up!

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I’ve been using that schedule for many years and for the most part, it was a good way to do things.  However, I found as my children got older, it became increasingly difficult to get all the day’s cleaning in and all the homeschooling in as well.  When I wrote my post on keeping the house clean while homeschooling, I had done one week of afternoon cleaning instead of morning cleaning and thought this was the answer, but the next week did not go nearly as well and I found myself reverting back to old habits because I really cannot stand to homeschool when things are left undone.

Another thing I began to notice as the children grew older was that there were several days in a week when we just couldn’t do the cleaning.  Things like piano lessons and outings with Daddy took precedence.  There would end up being a month of certain weekly chores left undone.  Knowing this was unacceptable, I tried to catch up the other days of the week, but when you are constantly playing catch-up, you eventually grow weary of the game.

I’ve also mentioned here how every time we move, I have to revamp some things.  The revamping always includes laundry and this time I decided I would do something drastic with the cleaning schedule as well.

However, I was NOT going to tell all of you about it until I had tried it for MORE THAN one week.  I wanted to know if it was really going to work.

So, after an entire month of using this cleaning method, I feel confident in telling you all about it because yes, it is actually working!

Here’s a breakdown of what we are doing…

The One Day Home Blessing

1.  The Home Blessing now happens on Friday rather than all throughout the week.  Our foremothers did this and it truly does make sense.  It gets the house ready for the weekend and any guests that might be coming.  I’ve also found it is helping make my Sabbath more a day of rest.

2  We do not homeschool on Fridays.  (at least not the planned-out book kind of homeschooling).  I decided we could manage a 4 day school week quite easily since we homeschool year round.

3.  Each child has a list of what they need to do displayed on our refrigerator with our other lists.  It is labeled Home Blessing and serves as a master list for all of us to reference while we work.

4.  A general tidy happens first.  We all work through the house just picking up.  Even though we tidy up every single day (sometimes several times a day), in a household with children there will still be messes to clean up before you ever get to the deeper cleaning.  This was always one thing that bothered me about doing the chores on different days.  It never really felt all-over clean.

5.  After the general tidy up, we go our separate ways with mommy overseeing it all.  The 1 year old and the 3 year old pitch in where they can, while the 6, 7, 11, & 14 year olds are expected to work through their lists with only brief reminders from Mommy.  I work through my chore list as I can, but often I end up finishing up after all the children’s chores have been completed and inspected.

6.  I inspect their chores and make them do it again if need be.  I’m not looking for perfection from the younger two helpers (ages 6 & 7), so if they made an effort with their work, yet it needs a touching up, I do that.  The older two children (ages 11 & 14) are expected to complete their chores fully…even if that means doing them again.

7.  We are usually finished by lunch time.  It just seems to work out this way.  Typically, we are started by 9:30 and it’s all over in 2-3 hours.

8.  The weekend starts as soon as we are finished!  This is THE BEST part of it all!  Our entire family values our weekends greatly.  Weekends are when we get to watch movies, sleep wherever in the house we want to, and relax and celebrate with Daddy.  Once the weekly Home Blessing is over, you can feel the excitement in the house as we admire our diligence and hard work and look forward to the fun of the weekend!

Planning for One Day Home Blessing

Since we had moved, I needed to re-plan what our cleaning needs were.  One afternoon, I sat down and listed out all the chores that needed to be done on that day and assigned those chores to a specific child.  I wrote these in pencil on scratch paper and posted it on the refrigerator.  When Friday came, I told the children this list was NOT the final list because I was working out the details as we went.  And that’s exactly what I did.

I watched each child do their chores to make sure they were capable of the task at hand.  I checked to make sure no one had too many chores and thus ended up working much longer than the other children (it’s natural that the older a child is, the more extensive his list will be; however, the burden of a chore list should not fall to one person simply because of his or her age).  I also made sure I had listed the chores in an order that kept the flow of the cleaning going.  Once I was confident I had a list that was working, I put it on the computer and posted it on the refrigerator.

{To see our Home Blessing Chores click here!}

Daddy has been super-pleased with the state of our home as well!  He even said to me after last Friday’s cleaning that he felt the house was staying cleaner throughout the week as well because of this new schedule.  It always thrills me when my hard work on the domestic side gets a thumbs up from my husband!

In case you are wondering what cleaners and tools we are using, here’s a quick list:
Shark Steam Mop
2 Brooms & dustpans
Lint-free dusting rags and generic dusting spray
Lambswool duster
Baking soda
Windex (I have yet to find something I like better – natural or not)
Paper towels
Pine sol (yeah, I know, but my husband REALLY likes the smell)

To be frank, I am so surprised at how well this is working!  I really thought there was no way I could ever again do a one day Home Blessing.

Now, I would love to hear your thoughts on doing it all in one day or dividing it up!  What working for you?

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This time of year everyone is focused in organizing and decluttering. It’s a new year with a fresh start and we want to make big, lasting changes.

But will the changes really stick?

Not likely.

I’m not here to rain on your organizational parade because I believe organizing and decluttering are incredibly important; however, we will never be able to truly release the clutter and get our house in order if we don’t have the right attitude about our possessions.

We are a society full of stuff and there’s really no getting around the plethora of things available for us to acquire.  For many people, this means buying more containers and dividers and baskets and bookcases in order to house the stuff they own.  More often than not, they have acquired so much there is no way they could ever use everything they own.  Their stuff owns them instead.

As I am beginning to pack up my home for the 10th time in 15 years, I am reminded of something I learned long ago about possessions.

I don’t need them.

That’s why I’ve written a FREE ebook entitled:

Let Go of What You Own
a Biblical approach to decluttering

How can you get a copy of this free ebook for yourself?

Like the Raising Arrows facebook page, click on the Only Likers tab on the left sidebar and grab the download!

I wanted to start the Welcome Home Link Up with this post because I truly believe we must have the right attitude about everything we own before we can create a welcoming home we enjoy caring for.

Won’t you join me on this journey?

Remember, you can get your FREE copy of Let Go of What You Own by liking the Raising Arrows facebook page, and then be sure to join the link up below!  You can grab the link up button in my sidebar.

This post is brought to you by Victorian Rose Soap – we love these soaps and we know you will too! And all this month, you can take 15% off your order using the coupon code: Raisingarrows – Enjoy!

This post is linked to The Better Mom.

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For several years I have used this 12 week Holiday Planner to plan my time from shortly before Thanksgiving to New Year’s.

I had listened in on a conference call with Marilyn Moll {then of the Urban Homemaker} and two women I had never heard of.  The first was Sheri Graham, who had co-authored the 12 Week Planner, and the other was Ann Voskamp, who’s Jesse Tree devotional at the time was being included as a bonus with the Planner. {yes, there WAS a time when Ann Voskamp wasn’t a household name…at least not in my household!}

I decided this was exactly what I needed to stay on track during the holidays, so I purchased it that night and downloaded and printed it off immediately.  I took their advice and slipped each page into protective covers inside a notebook (Jesse Tree devotional included) and sailed through the holidays despite the impending birth of our 6th child {a large factor in my needing this planner!}

Now, some people can plan their holidays just fine without a planner.  I am not one of those people.  And I’m also not someone who can come up with everything I need this time of year on my own, so I am truly grateful for people like Sheri, who put together materials like this!

Now, you might be wondering why you need a “well-planned” Christmas?  And what does a well-planned Christmas look like.  Well, let’s just say, I got the planner out late this year and it shows!  Without planning, your gift giving is haphazard, your meal planning is over budget, and you feel more stress than peace during a season that ought to be full of peace and thanksgiving.  I am so glad I remembered to get my planner out, even if it was late in the game…better late than never!

So, if you are looking for order this Christmas (and the next and the next), I highly recommend the 12 Week Holiday Planner!  I’m sure there are others out there, but this has worked for me for several years now and I don’t plan on changing.

And if you are looking for peace in the weeks to come (and long after the Christmas decorations are put away), check out my ebook 10 Days to a Peaceful Home.  Only $1.99!

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It’s Cyber Monday and here I am telling you to get rid of stuff! And not only am I telling you to get rid of stuff, I’m also going to tell you that you probably don’t need to replace all that stuff with more stuff!

You see, come February 1 (that’s not all that far off!), we will be moving…AGAIN. So, my admonition to you to clear the clutter and make wise buying decisions is really an admonition to myself. {and this post at The Better Mom cheered me along!}

So, I am being brutal!  I’m working through my tried and true decluttering methods (someday I’ll let you in on those, but now just isn’t the time!) and really focusing on getting rid of things!  So far, 10 (yes TEN) bags have gone to the thrift store and just about that many have hit the trash!  Even though I’ve done this before (see my Half My Stuff posts), clutter never really is conquered until you learn to not allow it in.  And even then, it still accumulates because we are not able to control what others bring into our homes.  It really is an ongoing process.

This holiday season, you won’t see a lot of posts here at Raising Arrows about the best holiday deals or buying more stuff to add to the stuff you already have.  In fact, what we will be doing is sharing our family traditions and the things we do during the holidays that have become near and dear to us.  We celebrate Christ and the family of God this season…not stuff.

So, buy less, declutter more and join us for a Raising Arrows Christmas!

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Have a tip you’d like to have featured? Email it to me!

Today’s Large Family Organization tip comes from Erin, mom of soon-to-be 5 and Stacey, mom of 7.  Erin blogs at Filling Quiver.

The reason I combined both these tips is because they were so similar, I thought they nicely complemented each other.

First, Erin:

I have all boys and one thing that helps streamline our laundry time is to buy all the same brand of socks (same color, same markings etc) but in the respective sizes for the kids.

Sock matching time then is just matching sizes (although sometimes daddy gets a little boy sock in with his mix). It makes it much easier for little hands to help match socks. They can lay one on top of the other and see if they “fit” together. My 2 year old helps match socks and loves that he can be helpful!

and Stacey:

I buy 6 bags of  unisex white socks for all the children to share and I put them in a plastic bin near their shoes near the door.

No time matching they just go from the washer into the bin.

Every six months or so I throw all of the old ones away and buy six more bags that way they always match and there is never an old sox with a new one.

I have 4 pairs of black dress socks the same kind that I put in a box with their church shoes that we get down on Sunday.

**********

Now, it’s your turn!  Your link doesn’t have to be about socks!  And you don’t even need to have a large family!

{RSS & Email Subscribers, click here to join the link up and see the entries!}

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A short time ago, I found an old notebook that I used to make notes from audios I had listened to or from homeschooling and homemaking ideas I had as I read books or listened to conference speakers.  The notebook was old and falling apart, so I pulled out the notes and decided I would start looking through them and see if there was anything worth adding to OneNote or blogging about.

One page caught my eye because at the top was written my oldest daughter’s name with a curriculum we never used scrawled next to it.  As I looked down the rest of the page, I realized it was followed by all sorts of notes to myself…

goals I wanted to accomplish…

five years ago.

It was a fascinating blast from the past as I realized some of these goals have become second nature and some of these goals never happened…yet.

So, today I share with you my goals from the past and commentary on those goals because it is just as good to look back and see where you have been as it is to look forward and see where you are going.

1.  No phone calls in the morning – make calls at rest time. I don’t heed this, but truth be told, as I have aged and had more children and my circle of friends have aged and had more children, the phone calls are fewer and further in between.  We are all simply too busy to sit on the phone all morning long and chat.  The occasional days I do take a phone call in the morning don’t end up being a big deal in the overall scheme of things.

2.  Breakfast:  Winter = hot, Summer = cold – Hmmmm….Breakfast has always been a difficult thing for me.  I did not get this one down and I’m not sure I want to.  I did however recently decide to add Green Smoothies {thanks Erica for making it super simple!} to our list of breakfasts.

3.  Write out a few simple goals for each day the night before. Most of the time I do this, if not the night before, then the day of.  I even wrote a post about making simple goals when I have morning sickness.  In fact, I was thrilled to see Sarah Mae talk about this in her ebook 31 Days to Clean.  It really does help to have something to shoot for and something to cross off throughout your day.  Now if I could just remember to make this same kind of list every time I sit down at the computer…can you say rabbit trail?!

4.  Start trying to cook bigger batches and freeze the leftovers. This one made me laugh since bigger batches 5 years ago would have looked like our normal batches now.  This is a goal I would like to work toward and do occasionally accomplish, but not consistently.

5.  Schedule a little bit of housework every day. Let me take you back…I had just had #4.  Remember, my Crossover Baby?  Prior to his birth, I was doing FLYlady with success, but then I hit the wall and could no longer accomplish a full day of cleaning and one day of laundry and manage to keep the house clean for more than a few minutes at a time.  This goal must have been made shortly after finding out about Large Family Logistics (when it was only a website and not a book).  I didn’t end up adopting Kim’s exact days, but I did take her concept of bite-sized pieces and ran with it.  You can see our Weekly Chore List here.

6.  Be in bed by 11 pm and up by 7 am. This has translated to an hour later on both ends.  And for me, that is actually a very good and doable goal.  And yes, you may all now gasp at how late we get up around here.

7.  Have a routine, but not a highly scheduled one. Way to go, Amy!  You’re learning, girl!  And guess what…you end up writing an entire series on this and making it into a homeschool conference session!

8.  Start school with a book. I do start school with a book…the Bible!

9.  Read outside when possible, learn outside when possible! I do this, but not enough in my opinion.  This time of year is absolutely beautiful for learning outside, so note to self…GO OUTSIDE!

10.  Plastic dishes for breakfast and lunch. I actually did do this for a time, but the reason it didn’t stick is because I really do not like plastic dishes.  I use plastic only for my youngest 2, but everyone else uses regular ole plates.  Now, my reasoning behind this was so that my then 5 year old could help with table chores (a newly instituted event back then).  Instead of using plastic, I now have all the plates, glasses (yes, REAL glasses too) and silverware in a cupboard next to the refrigerator where the younger children can easily access them and help out with my supervision.  Typically, it is the 7 and 10 year olds who set the table and put away dishes from the dishwashwer, but back then I didn’t have anyone over 8, so plastic made sense.

11.  Easy lunch, bigger dinner. Five years ago my husband worked from home.  Although I do not remember the circumstances behind this goal, I imagine I was trying to have big meals all the time and was burned out.  This is a goal I hold to even today.  Our lunches are fairly simple most days and our dinners are typically the largest meal of the day because Daddy is home at that time.  Recently we pulled out of the Feast or Famine cycle (thanks Sherry for opening my eyes to this!) and when I made my last Once a Month Shopping meal list, I made sure we had both Feast Meals and Famine Meals intermixed throughout the month, rather than all the Feasts at the beginning and all the Famines at the end.

12.  Take a short walk each day with the kids before lunch and then come home for lunch. I don’t do this, but it sure does sound like a nice idea!

Well, that was fun!  Thanks for sharing in my blast from the past.

How have your goals changed over the years?  I’d love to hear about it!

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