Quite a while back I wrote for an online homeschooling magazine called Heart of the Matter. I thought that I would share this article I wrote for them. It is several years old and a little outdated but still very timely for anyone looking to manage their home and their homeschool. I hope you enjoy.
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For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven. Ecclesiastes 3:1

Time management is one area that greatly effects my ability to teach my children at home. I wrote in an earlier post about prioritizing. Once you have prioritized and weeded out activities having a plan of action to carry things out is of great importance. One of the best ways to manage your time is in my opinion with a working schedule. I will readily admit that this is an area that needs continual work in my household.

Schedules must be revamped often. As the scripture above says, for everything there is a season. There are different things that happen in our lives that will interrupt your plans and schedules and these call for adjustments. In our home we are going through a few of those “seasons”. We have the season of an upcoming move and the season of morning sickness. Once your schedule is in place, try not to be so rigid that you cannot adjust for a change in season or a surprise storm or two.

A schedule is simply a written plan for ordering those things you deem as priorities into your day. You designate blocks of your time for specific activities. It helps you to find the time to accomplish the tasks you have before you. It can also relieve some of the stress of life because you have a plan. It is a way to direct your children to the next activity for the day without constantly being interrupted with questions about what to do next.

Everyone has a different comfort level when it comes to how much structure to put into their day. I find that with the larger my family becomes the more structure the better. There is simply more to get accomplished than before and I need to have a plan of attack.

I came across a great book that has been a tremendous help. What first caught my eye was the fact that the author was also a homeschooling mother of eight. She is someone who can relate to the sheer volume of things that pertain to a large family. I thought that if this worked for her large family then I could implement some of her ideas and have them work for me too! Her book would even be helpful for smaller families.

I ran into a friend who also used this book to organize her household. She is the mother of seven. She uses this plan and it is what enables her to manage her time wisely. When I received my book, I read if cover to cover in the first day. I was so excited! I pulled out the toolkit that comes with it and began to put our schedule together. After three days of trying to make this schedule work, I called my friend crying. I simply could not fit everything into our day. Her words of advice were to remind me that I could do all that the Lord desired me to do but that I could not necessarily do everything that I desired to do! I needed to prioritize and cut out some things. I simply cannot do everything that a mother of two has time to accomplish. I have more children with many more levels of educational needs. After prayer and discussion with my husband, I cut and cut some more. At last I had a working schedule.

It takes time and effort to implement a schedule and to get the family started. Once you have committed to it and worked at it for a while you will begin to fall naturally into a routine. You learn what takes longer and what is done more quickly. You simply adjust your schedule to fit your family. I found that I needed several schedules, almost one for everyday. Some days we had piano and other days we had to finish early for AWANA.

I do not currently have a written schedule. We have not used one this past year and I feel as if we have not accomplished nearly as much as we should have accomplished. After we are settled into our new home, a new schedule will appear and be implemented. My life is simply easier when we have one.

I suggest sticking as closely to your schedule as possible when you first start. This will help you to develop the habit of “running a tight ship.” Once you have that, make more adjustments. You can determine then how strictly to follow your schedule. It will differ for all of us. My friend I mentioned above followed hers to the “T.” Her life was extremely structured and her family thrived under that structure! I am a bit more relaxed. As an example, I do not schedule my nursing babies and needed some flexibility. The main idea here is to have a plan, a written plan. Not just to have a written plan but one that is actually workable!

Take some time and schedule your priorities and see how much more you will accomplish. Do you currently have a working schedule? Have you ever used this book? What have you found are the benefits of scheduling? Leave me a comment and let’s have a discussion about it to encourage each other in our efforts!

Here is that wonderful book I mentioned.

This book is written by Steve and Terri Maxwell.

I highly recommend this book for those looking to manage their home in a more effective way. There is such great information and the toolkit is included. If you look on their website you will find testimonials, information on what else is included, and schedules from other moms.

MANAGERS OF THEIR HOMES

Not enough time in your day? Is your clock moving in fast motion and the hours slipping away? I am often asked how I manage with such a large family. How do I find the time to do all that needs to be done? After all there are only 24 hours in a day! “By the grace of God and day by day,” I reply. I must remember that I have been called to do this and that God will not ask of me any more than I am capable. My capability however does not rest on my shoulders alone. In fact, my capability is not worth much at all but I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.

We can accomplish so much more if we rely on God; his guidance, His strength, and His might. He provides the tools we need to accomplish the tasks He places before us. One of those tools is the ability to prioritize. We must not get caught in the trap of taking care of the urgent before the most important. This is a habit into which we can easily fall.

For those with larger families this task of prioritizing can seem a more daunting task.This is not necessarily because we have more things to accomplish (though sometimes that is the case) it is usually because of the volume of those things is greatly multiplied. I can say this because I have been there. When our family was smaller we had fewer things to pick up and A LOT less laundry to wash. There were not as many dishes to clean and diapers to change. I could vacuum less often because there were not as many feet tracking in dirt. I could go on and on. It is very easy to get caught up in all of this to the point of neglecting the most important things, our time with the Lord and the training and enjoyment of our children. This is not glorifying to God and glorifying God is the reason we are here.

The Westminster Catechism question #1 asks, What is the chief end of man?
The answer is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.
(1 Corinthians 6:20, 10:31, Revelation 4:11)

Prioritizing is the one of the best ways to address this problem. To prioritize simply means to assign priority to. Priority is, according to Webster, precedence in place or rank. We must, through prayer and discussion with our spouses, determine those things that are most important and those things that can be removed from our plate. We need to determine what all of those things are that we have to accomplish, or think we have to accomplish, and rank them. We often read about the picture perfect homeschooling families where the children excel in everything and have a dozen of extra curricular activities at which they also excel, but this is not what every homeschooling family looks like or even should look like. We are all different. Can we accept that we do not have to look like that perfect homeschool family? Can we face the fact that there is such a thing as being too busy and doing too much? You will find that 24 hours in a day is more than enough if priorities are set, unnecessary things are let go, and a good plan is implemented.

If you find you do not have enough time in your day or you are meeting the urgent before the important, I would suggest reevaluating priorities. List them. See what can be let go. Do first things first, in order of importance. Accomplish the primary before the secondary and see if things fall into place better than before. Trust in the Lord and His might.

One of the ladies who writes for the Heart of the Matter Online homeschool magazine is in need of prayer. Her name is Marsha. Their three year old son, Christian, went missing. Two and half hours later divers pulled him from the pond behind their home. Marsha, her husband, and two other children need prayer. Please lift them up today and in the coming days and months ahead
(even longer). Heart of the Matter is celebrating little Christian’s life today, stop by and let Marsha and her family know that you are praying for them.

There are many different reasons people decide to homeschool their children. I would like to share with you today why our family homeschools. Being fully aware of our reasons propels us forward and it gives us purpose. Placing these reasons ever before us pushes us on toward our goal.

Deuteronomy 6:4-7 “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.

This encompasses every aspect of life, at all times and in all things. I do not believe this can be fully accomplished if the responsibility is abdicated to others and children are put under the authority of those who disagree with the biblical approach to every aspect of life or are obligated to teach using a secular curriculum with a humanistic and atheistic approach. There truly is no real neutrality. Here is a quote from a book I have read recently, it gives a good summary. This is enough to propel me to move forward and count the rewards when I am feeling overwhelmed. It is what God has called me to do as a Christian mother.

The biblical mind is not compartmentalized into two distinct areas of though: secular and sacred. All of life is under the authority of God’s revealed Word, and children were to be taught in terms of this comprehensive authority all the time.

from: Standing on the Promises by Doug Wilson

I acknowledge that all will not agree with my reasons for homeschooling. Many will have other reasons and some will just flat out disagree and that is ok. We have our reasons and they are grounded in the Word. These reasons as propel to continue on our homeschooling journey. When we have a frustrating day, they urge us forward and help to keep us focused.

The May edition of The Heart of the Matter homeschool magazine has been published! You can catch me over there today! Stop by, read, and leave some comments! Have a terrific Thursday.

Main Page

Direct Link to my article on schedules.

Today I am posting on two other sites. Stop by and check them out. Leave me a comment so I know you were there; it is always great when others add to the discussion!

The Heart of the Matter Homeschool Magazine March issue is up and running. There are a lot of wonderful homeschooling articles. This month in my column Ducks in a Row, I write about five ways to make school run more smoothly.

Come on by and see how we organize our homeschool….HERE…

Over at The Well Drained Mind I write about struggling with the “perfect homeschooler syndrome” and how the Lord gives us little glimpses to encourage us as we teach our children.

Head on over and read about my Boggle Blessing.

I remember the very first day that I started homeschooling twelve and a half years ago. I was so excited! I had my curriculum picked out and all of the supplies I needed gathered and set out on the table the night before. Things went perfectly! After all, I had read and reread the lessons like twenty times already. I was going to be the perfect homeschool mom and things were always going to be sunshine and rainbows. What I didn’t allow to enter my mind was the fact that in order to have a rainbow, there has to be rain! My perfect homeschool experience lasted three whole days and when day four hit I became, what I thought, was a total failure! I have grown a lot since then and realize that having unattainable goals will always leave me feeling like a failure. Why set myself up for that? Here is one thing that I have learned along the way and tried to apply to my life.

BE FLEXIBLE! Planning is a good thing, be prepared, but be flexible! Babies will cry, children will get sick, mom will get sick with 102 degree temperature, the dog will get sick, the bird will break free from its cage and the cats will go nuts! All of this will happen when hubby is out of town. Oh, did I mention mom is due in 3 weeks and always delivers early(can we say stress & fear?)?

YES, this is an actual week of my life. Guess what, no one can have a perfect school day when this is your week! Be flexible and remember things do not always go as planned. Remember your reason for being: to bring glory to God. Sometimes our plan is not His plan. During this week (several years ago), we did not get through our ABC’s but we learned a much more valuable lesson, to lean upon the Lord. If we learn to lean upon the Lord we will find things flow more smoothly even as we ride along all the bumps in the road.

Proverbs 16:9 The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps.

Today is the launching of the new The Heart of the Matter online homeschooling magazine. I have a monthly column there entitled, “Ducks in a Row.” Below is a brief excerpt of this months column.

For me, keeping in mind why I am doing what I am doing is a necessity. Why do I keep my children at home to school them? This may seem simplistic but I believe it is a necessary question to ask ourselves. There are many different reasons people decide to homeschool their children. What is yours? When we are fully aware of our reasons it propels us forward and it gives us purpose.

I believe that as a Christian parent it is part of my duty as a mother. Parents are responsible for their children and their training. Christian parents are to raise them in the training and admonition of the Lord.

Click to Read More…………..

Pop on over and check out the new magazine and my column, please come back and let me know what you think or to recommend it to others! May you be blessed by this new venture all of us at The Heart of the Matter have undertaken.