Read the entire series here!

Don’t miss the Scholaric Online Homeschool Planning Giveaway!
We LOVE this tool!

Since we are talking about Home Management for the Homeschool Mom in this series, we cannot ignore the fact that we need to manage our school day.  In many ways, how we manage our school day will affect every other area of our home management.

Can’t get the school work accomplished?
Good luck getting dinner on the table!

Stressing over the homeschool year?
Good luck getting a good night’s sleep!

Wondering how you can possibly give every child in your home exactly what he or she needs?
Good luck tackling other areas of your home that feel overwhelming!

I truly believe if you can get your homeschool under control, you will see that success spill over into the rest of your day.  I also believe homeschooling is one of the most rewarding and most difficult things a family could ever do.

One reason it is so difficult to manage your homeschool is because there is no one perfect method of homeschooling.  But, there is one singly perfect Foundation of homeschooling and that is Christ.

We must be convinced to homeschool for the glory of God rather than the glory of random human standards or the glory of our own aptitude as a home-educating mother.

Once we have established why we homeschool, the HOW ends up in its rightful place – secondary.

Let Scripture be your standard.  Study Proverbs as an educational manifesto.  Then stand every curriculum you encounter next to it and use biblical discernment to choose what is right for how your family will be glorifying God through the endeavor of homeschooling.

Now to the nitty-gritty of actual homeschool management.

First off, when you purchase A Homemaker’s Guide to Creating the Perfect Schedule, you will be getting the bonus of a thorough step-by-step guide to scheduling your homeschool day.

However, because I could never flesh all this out in one post, I’m going to give you some basics on how to get your homeschool day on track.

1.  Prepare without overplanning.  I use pen and paper when I’m doing my long-range planning and later I transcribe it to Scholaric (you can enter to win a 12 month subscription to this awesome online homeschool planning site and get a great deal exclusive to Raising Arrows readers!  CLICK HERE!)

The name of the game here is to give yourself flexibility.  Don’t let the plan lock you in!

2.  Make the day to day easy on yourself.  Again, Scholaric is a favorite tool around here because even the children can take care of inputting assignments and such.  Additionally, I choose to take each day as it comes.  I have a overview of what I’d like my homeschool day to look like, but I refuse to race around completing an arbitrary agenda when God might be leading us elsewhere that day.

And don’t forget to make meals easy on yourself during homeschool hours!

3.  School the littles first!  If you don’t purpose to teach those littlest ones first thing in the day, it just doesn’t seem to happen.

4.  Teach toward independent learning.  I cover this extensively in the ebook, but suffice it to say the sooner you teach your children to own their work, the better.  They will develop a desire to learn that supersedes anything you could manage to spoon-feed them.

5.  Work from essential to non-essential.  Always order your homeschool day starting with the things you feel you absolutely cannot miss to the things that can be put aside if need be.

6.  Plan a fun day.  Never seem to get those “fun” homeschool moments in?  Plan it all into one day!  Your children will declare it the best day ever!

Ultimately, the goal of you homeschool day should be to bring honor and glory to God.  Pray about what the Lord would have you do with your day.  Bring your questions to your husband and work through this together.  And then, as with everything else we’ve talked about in this series…test it and tweak it!

Read the entire series here!

The word “schedule” has always scared me.  It feels boxed-in, confining, rigid, and nothing like the free-spirit I fancy myself to be.  But over the years as I’ve gone from foot loose and fancy free to floundering, I’ve realized that schedules can actually give you the very freedom you desire.  I’ve also realized schedules do not have to be measured out in 15 minute increments from sun up to sun down.  Schedules only work if they work FOR you, not against you.

Here is a quick start guide to creating a schedule that works…

1.  Decide what kind of person you are and how your family functions best -

Tight schedule?
or a
Loose schedule?

Do you like to get up at the same time everyday?  Do you prefer flexible times for meals?  Do you feel your family needs plenty of flexibility or do you need the structure of a solid schedule to keep your family on track for the day?  Do you need a mix of both with part of the day scheduled and part of the day not?

2.  Write down the natural rhythm of your day as a starting point.  Every family naturally follows some sort of rhythm.  It will work best for you to harness this as the starting point of your schedule.

3.  Analyze what works and does not work in your current routine.  Is your homeschool day too haphazard?  Are meals not getting prepared on time?  Do you like having afternoon free time?  Are your evenings a wonderful time of family togetherness?  Keep what works, tweak what doesn’t.

4.  Write it down and try it out!  but don’t be discouraged if it doesn’t go exactly as planned every single day.  If you consistently see problems following through with the schedule, then revamp.

Now for some exciting news!

You can get all the scheduling advice you need in one place!

The Homemaker’s Guide to Creating the Perfect Schedule
is now available for only
$4.99!

This ebook is the Deluxe Edition because not only does it contain step by step instruction and help in creating the perfect homemaking schedule, it also contains the same help for creating your perfect homeschooling schedule!

Here are just a few of the topics this ebook covers that makes it a steal at this price!

• Learn how to work with your unique family dynamics
• How to make a schedule stick
• How to get your children to do chores
• Step-by-step instruction on how to put together a workable homeschool schedule
• How to teach your children to work independently

So, grab your copy today and get started organizing your day!

This post is part of the Fall 2012 iHN Hopscotch.
The Welcome Home Link Up will return next week.

Read the entire series here!

Don’t miss the Homemaker’s Planner Giveaway!  Click here to learn more!
Have you ever watched an abandoned house quickly fall to ruin with no one caring for it?  It is easy to spot vacant homes because they look as if no one cares.  Grass grows in cracks, shutters hang cockeyed, and the entire place takes on an air of sadness and despair.

Without effort and care, your own home can easily begin to resemble a dilapidated vacant home full of sadness and despair.

What needs to go into the care and upkeep of a home?

1.  Regular cleaning
2.  A general tidiness
3.  Occasional deep cleaning
4.  Regular maintenance & repairs
5.  An air of peacefulness

Next week, we’ll talk more about schedules and using them to stay on task, but for now let’s just talk basics of each of these 5 points.

Regular cleaning
I’ve done everything from a one day house cleaning to an everyday chore board to a mix of both.  Each of these methods have fit perfectly with a particular season in my life.  The bottom line on keeping your home clean on a regular basis is not the particular method you use, but the conscious choosing of a method that works for you!  Don’t be afraid to try something new, but also don’t be afraid to ditch it when it doesn’t work. (note: be sure to give it time to work!)

The other part of this equation is consistency.  Do the cleaning on a regular basis, so it never feels totally out of hand.  Again, we’ll be tackling this more next week, so I won’t go into too much detail now.

A general tidiness
There is a difference between a clean home and tidy home.  You can have a clean home and also have a home that is in total disarray.  In fact, as a homeschooling mom, this is going to happen every single day, several times a day!  The worst part of this is that it creates “eye clutter” and makes it difficult for the family to function at its best.  It’s one thing to have your home cluttered for a period of time, but to live in constant disarray only serves to create a very unproductive home because you have to sidestep messes and search long and hard for the things you need.

The best way I’ve found to keep up with the messiness that is homeschooling is to implement several 15 minute Tidy Up Times throughout the day.  To get you started until you find a groove that works for you, try putting one right before lunch, one right after school is over, and one right before bedtime.  All you have to do is set the timer for 15 minutes and everyone in the house works as fast as they can to pick up.  We like to put on music so the children know exactly how long they have before time is up and they can race against the music.  Also, don’t be afraid to exempt yourself from actual cleaning in order to follow everyone around and point out the things that need to be picked up…especially for children under the age of about 6.  Trust me, folks, they just do not see what needs to be done and need mom’s eyes!  Of course, I do not advocate not pulling your fair share of the weight, but they really do need your help to actually be productive.

Occasional deep cleaning
This one is difficult for me.  I just don’t seem to find the time to really deep clean twice a year as I would like.  In the “olden days” it was a necessity because of the way people heated their homes and the need to clean the winter soot from the walls and linens, etc.  Today, we don’t have quite the necessity our ancestors did, but it is still a good idea to get your home really deep cleaned once or twice a year.  Here are a few suggestions for making this happen:

Delegate.  Write down all the deep cleaning chores you think need to be done and delegate them out to whoever might be capable of handling them.  Baseboards can be wiped down by the 4 and under crowd, fans can be dusted with the help of a duster and a step stool, cabinets can be wiped down by just about anyone over 5.

Get help.  If you only have littles or you are not able to do it on your own due to physical limitations, get help.  Enlist family, friends, maids…it’s ok.  Reciprocate in whatever way you can, but let go of the pride and let others bless you.

Stretch it out.  We’ve gotten in our heads that you can only Spring Clean in the Spring.  Wrong!  Take all those deep cleaning tasks you’d like to have done and spread them out over the year.  One a week or even two a week will give you a huge sense of accomplishment.  I’d also suggest writing the task of the week on a piece of paper big and bold on the refrigerator and then enjoying crumpling the paper up and throwing it away after the task is complete!  (yes, I’m sort of preschooler-ish about such things!)

Be inspired!  One of my favorite things to do is read a blog like OrgJunkie and then get so inspired, I just have to go clean something!

Regular maintenance and repairs
Here’s where a planner comes in handy (like the one I’m giving away!)  Write down in a planner all the regular maintenance that needs to be done throughout the year on the calendar pages and then as things come up that need repaired, you can also add those in.  By the way, if your husband is not much of a home repair sort of guy, teach yourself what you can or make it part of your son’s education!

An air of peacefulness
If you never pick up another broom or dust another shelf, this is the one thing I would suggest you not go another minutes without…peace.

In my book, 10 Days to a Peaceful Home, I give you some tangible, practical steps to follow to gain peace in your home.  I cannot stress enough how important it is for mama to have peace in her heart.  We have to not just know, but believe and live in a way that exhibits that peace that passes all understanding that is Christ in our lives.  Get yourself in the Word, mama and cry out to the Lord for wisdom and understanding and His merciful peace in your life!

This post is part of the iHN Hopscotch.

Read the entire series here!

While I’m sure many of you do not need me to convince you that being an organized homeschool mom is a good idea, you may need that good strong shove over the edge to force you to begin.  Today is your shove…

Imagine Helen Homeschooler, if you will.  She is your age and has the same number of children you do.  Some days she is a stellar homeschooler and some days she is a stellar housekeeper, but those days are few and far between, and more often than not she can’t finish a lesson plan or put together a meal plan to save her life.  Her homeschool days are random and confusing.  Her home is a cluttered stressful place to be.  She rarely manages to throw together a decent meal and she calls for takeout more often than she cares to admit.  At night she drowns her sorrow in the internet or the television or the occasional organizational book (because she’s determined to keep trying), but the next morning as she hits the snooze button, she feels the weight of the world waking her up to yet another day of barely surviving.

Sometimes Helen thinks if she quit homeschooling all would be well, but she doesn’t really want to do that.  She wishes someone would tell her how to be the homemaker/homeschool mom she’s always wanted to be.

I’ve been Helen.  In fact, I’d venture to guess if you are reading this you might be Helen too.  And what you really want and need is for someone to tell you how to break this cycle.

The over-simplified, super boiled-down answer is to get organized and stay organized.  However first, we have to stop seeing the word organization as something only hyper Type A people do and out of our commoner reach.  We also have to stop seeing it as constricting and confining and start defining organization in terms of what we need it to be for our lives.

My mom’s organization as a widow living in a 2 bedroom home is not going to be the organization I need as a pregnant homeschool mom with a busy household.  I can’t compare my life to hers because its apple to oranges.

As homeschool moms, we have to look for ideas that other homeschool moms (preferably those with similar circumstances) have tried and found to be helpful.

So, what will being organized your way give you?

• time
• energy
• confidence
• vision
• rest
• peace

Write down why you want to be organized and what that looks like in your head…then be realistic and start writing small goals to get you there!

Download Day 2 Worksheet

This series is part of the Fall 2012 iHN Hopscotch.