Rhythms Routines and Cleaning
binder, I realized that I needed to put more thought into my daily rhythm and
routines. Obviously, since I have been
talking about finding a better rhythm since the New Year!
and starting b” and more of a “let’s do b after we finish a” kind of
person. That seems to work well with my
kids, especially with homeschooling.
there are days when he will only do one lesson.
I have Emma complete a task before going on to the next one.
schedule with time limits, we like to work with anchors.
over at FIMBY. The premise is
that there are certain things that happen during the day, and they happen at
about the same time. And then we work
everything else around those anchors.
for each group of activities we need to complete throughout the day.
For example, we do all of our schooling in the morning. It is after breakfast, and we are finished by
the time I am ready to start fixing lunch.
The kids know what to expect during this block of time, school. There aren’t any surprises, and so we are
able to easily work through that time because everyone knows what is
expected.
it most definitely is not. But, everyone
at least knows that we will be doing school during that time, and have come to
expect it.
day, it is easier to fill them up with what needs to be accomplished.
sculpt my daily rhythm.
last. This is where the Daily Planning
Sheet comes in handy. I am able to map
out where I want our day to go, and by having it written down, it gives me a
guide to follow.
do that! Whatever works for you is the
important thing when creating a home management binder. What would be the point if it doesn’t work
for you?
during the school hours, so on my Daily Planning Sheet I block off a few hours
as “school” – genius, I know!
with a new baby, and even 4 and 6 year olds, stuff comes up…a lot.
the Daily Planning Sheet is to know what I want to get done throughout the day,
and helps take away the constant decision making process.
think about what we are going to have for dinner. Instead I can use that brain power for
something else. If I know that we
accomplished most of our schooling at the beginning of the week, we can just
spend some time doing read-alouds, and not worry about having a big chunk of
time for school during the day. It also
helps me to have an idea about where and what I should be cleaning during the
day.
doesn’t get done. Or rather, it does get
done, but seeing as how I am at home with three kids, it doesn’t appear that
there is ever anything tidy. I am
working on it, and have been working on it since we brought our first baby
home.
one toy is put away, another is taken out, and since I am a big proponent of
open ended toys – that means lots of little pieces…everywhere.
typically three loads every time. It is
a lot of laundry, part of that is having kids, and part of that is having a
paper free home. We have rags,
washcloths, cloth napkins, towels, and they are used frequently. I joke to my husband that we would have to
buy cases of paper towels each week if we went back to paper.
use. But, they never seem to work for
me. I think that in this life stage, I
am just trying to keep it together!
Making meals from scratch, homeschooling, finding time to pursue my own
passions (reading, writing, knitting), leaves little time for cleaning. As long as there are clean clothes, clean
dishes, and my floors are somewhat swept, then I am happy – just don’t look
under the couch!
binder, just in case I am in a cleaning mood and want to deep clean the house,
it gives me ideas. But, mainly I try to
take 15 minutes here and there, set the timer, and clean as fast as possible, so that I can get back to living.
will never be clean enough; there will always be something else to clean. Instead, I try to look at what is good
enough. Enough to make sure I am not
driving myself crazy, but not too much so that the kids think that all I do is
clean!
Great organizational ideas – I can always use some! I agree – there are ALWAYS tasks regarding cleaning!
Such good organization ideas! Thanks for the inspiration. 🙂