Schedules

I ordered the book, Managers of their Homes by Steven and Teri Maxwell because a bunch of bloggers posted their so-called MOTH schedules. I have been feeling a bit overwhelmed with the house and school. We do alright, but I would like to do so much more and I thought this might help. It was a good reminder for me about how important it is to have a schedule. The authors brought up some good ideas like having older children play with younger children to free up time for working with other children and how that is good for everyone involved. Also, she talked about scheduling babies, so I think I'll try harder to get my babies on a schedule although I will use it more as a guideline. But the most value I got from the book was motivation to schedule and plan our days better. I spent quite a few hours on my computer today doing just that. I didn't want to use the enclosed kit. I need a different schedule for each day!! Then I needed to make sure we got each subject on the schedule enough times each day so that the kids will be all done with everything by Friday afternoon. I've got our field trip day and the park included, so I'm pretty proud of that and I think it will be a lot of fun.

I also have scheduled cleaning times for everybody. I've been having the kids clean up certain zones and that helps a ton, but we've got to start folding clothes everyday and following up on the dishes better. I do about 3 loads of laundry per day, and leaving it to be folded once a week is just overwhelming!!

The schedule is pretty close to what we've been doing. The biggest difference is that I am going to have to get up much earlier if I want to exercise, which I love. The kids were looking at the printed schedules and I think they are pretty excited. They all went to bed at 8 and I checked on them and turned the lights out at 9.

Now I just have to schedule and plan our meals and food prep better and get our music and Spanish lessons better planned. Right now though I think I'd better get to bed so I can get up at 6!!

Step by step-- one thing at a time!!