Tips To Keep a Home Schooling Home Orderly


Keeping an orderly home is not easy for anyone with a job or with children, and even more difficult for the home schooling family. The entire family, with the exception of the father, is home all day. While the mother tries to teach the older children, the preschoolers and toddlers are creating all kinds of messes in all parts of the house. The mother could clean the house all day long, every single day, and never feel like she can keep up with the mess. The house can look like a tornado went through it ten times a day, unless the mother has routines in place to keep most of it from happening.

Keep the House Orderly By Dividing the Day Up Into Small Parts and Creating a Routine For Each Part

The first thing a mother can do top help keep her home and family orderly is to divide the school day up into several small parts. These parts of the day may be called Before School, Morning School Time, Afternoon School Time, Evening, and Before Bed. Each part of the day may be roughly three hours long. In every segment, there may be a regular pattern, such as get dressed, meal chores, or school work, meal, chores. Mentally go through everything that needs to happen during that time period, and write it down.

For instance, if the school day starts at 8:00 A.M., it might start with a 30 minute Bible study while the mother feeds the baby, if there is one. At 8:30, the older children get started on their assignments while the mother turns her attention to the preschooler and toddler. When they are settled, the mother can teach a math concept or give a spelling test. The morning session can go for two hours, until 10 A.M. Then at 10:00, the family can break for a snack and straighten up the house.

Establishing Mini-Routines May Help Homeschooling Mothers Stay On Top of Things

At 11:00, the routine would repeat. The mother would feed the baby again, this time while reading to the children out loud or listening to the children give oral summaries of books they have read, as a suggestion. Once the baby is happy, the mother assigns more seat work for the older children, and attends to the younger children. When they are entertained, she again works with the older students. At 1:00 the family breaks for lunch, then does chores. At 2 PM, the afternoon schedule would start.

If homeschooling mothers can establish small mini-routines, and repeat them throughout the day, they may be able to stay on top of the housework and keep their homes orderly.

Donna Pravel is a 25 year home school veteran. She maintains a blog site for homeschooling women called Donna Rae at Home.com (http://www.donnaraeathome.com). She is the author of Packaging Your Homeschooled Student for College, an e-book detailing the college admissions process for home schools. Ms. Pravel is also a SEO copywriter and the owner of a professional freelance writing business, Donna Rae Online Writing Services (http://www.donnaraeonline.com).

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