Tina's Dynamic Homeschool Plus

Activity, Change, Progress

Organization

The Sticking Power of a Solid Homeschool Schedule

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This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

The staying power of a homeschool schedule cannot be underestimated for the organized homeschooler. It takes time and self-discipline though to stick to a schedule.

POWER OF A HOMESCHOOL SCHEDULE

Too, I have a bit of trepidation in sharing about this topic. 

It has been my experience that homeschoolers obsess worry about this topic more so than some other homeschooling issues. 

Deep down they truly care how to fit everything in a day, maintain their sanity and identity, and strive to make the homeschool journey a memorable one for the right reasons. 

The staying power of a homeschool schedule cannot be underestimated for the organized homeschooler. It takes time and self-discipline though to stick to a schedule. Click here to grab these tried and true tips for planning a schedule!

Sometimes they feel isolated because they think other homeschoolers manage their schedules better.

Doing what I love to do and sharing with you just two points that help me to organize and what sometimes {not always} comes easier for me, I hope to give you a gentle sweet nudge in the right direction. 

You are not alone in your struggle to make it all fit in a day.

Homeschool Schedule Equals A Plan of Action

Visible Schedule.  Achieving success starts by creating a visible schedule.  I know, you may think that is stating the obvious, but I promise there is a fundamental, but powerful point here. 

Understanding that your schedule needs to be visible is the first step to a well-defined plan of action.

This is a very fine and let me emphasize that again—very fine point—that makes a huge difference between the organized homeschooler and the wanna be organized homeschooler.

Having good intentions by going through your schedule in your mind keeps it just that – a thought.

It is not a call to action or a plan. 

Staying in your mind is sort of like keeping it at brainstorming level or at a mulling over stage. 

Too, if you have a creative solution for a hiccup in your schedule, then you want to quickly commit that to a point of action.

When a schedule is committed to paper (or any other location in your house) it becomes a plan of action.  It has gone from abstract to concrete.  Does that make sense?

Paper method is just one way that a schedule is visible.  It is my preferred way, but it does not have to be your way.

Shocking Invisible Homeschool Schedules

Avoid schedule type mayhem. In addition, what type of schedule you create depends on which family members you want to make aware of it.

Don’t just jump out there in your enthusiasm to organize and create something that hems you in. 

Carefully scrutinize the needs and ages of your household.  It will change and your need for different schedules will change.

Homeschool Schedule

For example, when the kids were little and though I hadn’t moved away from stepping in sync with a public school schedule.

I still presented what worked for them at a very young age which was simply something hanging on the wall to talk about each day.

At that time though I still had my schedule down on paper though it was not necessary to share it with my young kids.

Also, having more than one place or location for your plan of action is a recipe for success. 

How? Because you have just doubled your efforts to help you accomplish each task day by day by sharing it with your children.

Many hands do make the work light or in this case, keep all on task.

Children have a natural bent toward routine.  If you want to be more organized, use that natural bent toward helping you to flow through a day with a better plan of action.

Homeschool Organization Means Communication

As your children grow older, they become self-starters and built in motivators when they don’t even know it. 

On more than one occasion when my sons were very young, they would prod me by asking if it was time to start our school or task.

Temporary Command Center

Then last year, I shared my Woo-Worthy Big Calendar by NeuYear that I had visible in my house for a while. 

Even though I had already started downsizing for our move, a temporary command center was a must.

The ages of my children have now changed dramatically, but the need of a visible place to communicate my plan of action has not.

Whether you put your schedule in a student planner, your homeschool planner, on a wall, on your refrigerator, or a central place in your home, it needs to be visible to accomplish your plan of action for that year.

A homeschool schedule is the backbone of homeschool success and a visible schedule has helped me over more than one homeschool hurdle through the years.

However, a common mistake in creating a homeschool schedule that has sticking power is to plan hour by hour, minute by minute and what seems second by second.

Next, I will share a few tips so that your plan of action keeps you organizing instead of agonizing.

How many places do you post your homeschool schedule?

The staying power of a homeschool schedule cannot be underestimated for the organized homeschooler. It takes time and self-discipline though to stick to a schedule. Click here to grab these tried and true tips for planning a schedule!

Want some more tips about scheduling?

Hugs and love ya,

Homeschool Organization The Sticking Power of a Homeschool Schedule

Homeschool Organization – Forget Once a Month Cooking When Meal Planning

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This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

Though I love to cook, I have been slow about sharing my tips about organizing meals only because I would rather organize my kitchen than cook in it.

But this month, my habit of freezing meals regularly paid off because my mom has been in and out of the hospital twice this month.

Besides the trips back and forth to the hospital, and feeding my family, my mom and dad also needed meals.

Simple Meal Planning – Forget Once A Month Cooking

Look at a few easy tips for meal planning that don’t take as much time as once a month cooking and is a great back up system when life is unplanned.

Homeschool Organization - Forget Once A Month Cooking

{I have spaghetti, stew, soup and breakfast frozen back.}

  •  Focus on freezing regularly while you cook.  Though I have done once a month meal cooking a lot more when the kids were young, the truth of it is it takes times.  Though the rewards are huge and I did save on my budget, sometimes I just didn’t have the time to devote to the planning, prepping and preparing.

Through the years, I have found that freezing a meal or two back when cooking regularly proves to be a huge help when you’re sick, when your parents are sick or just when you have the blahs and don’t want to cook or go through the drive-thru either.

  •  Prepare simple meals, include breakfasts.  One of my main go to breakfasts since breakfast is a real important meal to me is what I call a McDonald-like McMuffin, but only healthier because it’s home-made.

I scramble the eggs with whatever I want in them, usually onions and set it aside.  Then I toast the muffins.  After everything is cooled off, I build my muffin with scrambled eggs, add some cheese and cooked Canadian bacon and freeze it.  I use the bag the muffin came in to freeze them.

I make them over the weekend and usually have them in the freezer.  It takes about 2-3 minutes to warm it up (yep completely frozen) in the microwave and so there is no fuss in the morning for breakfast.

You can even bake your eggs ahead of time if you don’t want scrambled eggs.  Look at this recipe;

Homemade Egg McMuffins at the Baker Chick.

You can see one of my freezer packages in the picture above that I took to my parents.

  • Focus on crowd pleasers.  Because my teen boys are big eaters, I find that focusing on casseroles, lasagnas and spaghetti combinations can accommodate even picky eaters.  But too, having one or two meals like that in your freezer can feed another large family and is a crowd pleaser when you need it for an emergency meal.

Though I decided to cook chicken pot pie for my parents too, which is one of their favorite recipes of mine and I cooked more meals for a week, knowing that I had meals in my freezer to jump start my cooking process allowed me to serve my parents when they needed it.

Homeschool Organization & Hospitable

I have been loving reading about Freeze it Forward on Once a Month meals because everybody needs help at some time or the other and it just feels good when you can help out.

An organized homeschooler always has time to be hospitable and you don’t have to do over the top meal planning that might be more stressful than helpful.

Check out some more tips!

Menu Planning – A Lifesaver!

Homeschool Organization : Are you Collecting Cookbooks OR Recipes?

Day 10 1/2: Grocery Shopping, Cooking & Laundry. Oh My! + Free Printables {31 Day Boot Camp For New Homeschoolers on My Blog}

Hugs and love ya,

2012Tinasignature Day 8. Creating a Unit Study Lesson Plan. 10 Days of Diving Into Unit Studies by Creating a Unit Study Together.

Homeschool Organization : Are you Collecting Cookbooks OR Recipes?

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This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

Homeschool Organization Are you Collecting Cookbooks or Recipes

A few years back I wrote an article about organized menu planning for my new bees, but when it comes to meal planning I think anybody can benefit from the tips.

Applying here that small, but significant tip that I shared too in my recent post Homeschool Organization–Where do you begin? when I emphasized the baby step to organization which is to “identify with precision” the need or problem defines the troubled spot real clear.

Here is my answer: When I am meal planning, I am not collecting cook books, but recipes.  And let’s take it one step further to make it even more clear what our needs are if we are struggling to put supper on the table and that is to collect recipes our family will eat.

In the picture below is what my recipe book looked liked back then.  I now call it my main recipe book.

Homeschool Organization Recipes and Meal Planning

I basically took the time to go through most of the cookbooks I had and recipes I had collected online and put them in a 5 inch binder.  I divided it by these sections; main entree, breakfasts, sides, breads, condiments, desserts and beverages.

Recipe Books Left over after homeschool organization purge

The picture above are the cookbooks that I had left to go through at the time.  I do not have any of them now because I finished that project.  I only kept two cookbooks that were of sentimental value.

Unless we are clear about what our goal is for anything that we are trying to organize, then no clear cut plan will ever emerge.

Are we collecting cook books or recipes? There is a big difference.  One we can bring clutter in our kitchen if we collect cook books and the other collecting recipes is clearly defined because that is what we are really wanting to achieve.

Too, with Pinterest now, it is easier to store recipes online.   Still though we want to spend LESS time flipping through cook books and online on Pinterest when it comes to menu planning.

The only way to do this is to take time to print them, organize them and have them handy.  Make a specialized cook book for your family.

I know there are tons of online grocery shopping and menu planning tools, but they never work for me when I about to menu plan or cook.  I like having it all down printed in front of me to flip through or look at while I am cooking.  That is just me, you may do better with something online.  I need to touch and see my recipes in my binder.

But do you know what is the sweetest investment when taking hours and hours to make a specialized recipe binder cookbook? It is filling the binder with recipes that MY family will actually eat.  Avoiding time wasters by flipping through useless pages in a cook book and avoiding spending hours and hours on Pinterest to find something different only to make the same old usual dinner is priceless to me.

Can you see that menu planning becomes a cinch?  Your recipe book should be filled with more recipes that your family eats and enjoys instead of recipes that have not been “field tested” by your family.  More on that in a minute.

Can you menu plan for 365 days and not repeat a meal?  That was my mind-set when I started filling my book and I can do that now.  Of course, I don’t do that because some foods my family really loves and wants to have them a couple times a month.  The point is that your recipe book is not filled with recipes that your family will not eat and you have a variety to choose from when boredom sets in.

So don’t go through willy-nilly sticking all the recipes in your book.  It took me almost 3 years to get the first book done because I would test out a new recipe on my family before it was a “keeper” for my binder.  Choose selectively even if it means having less recipes in your book.  When I started I promise I couldn’t think of more than about 7 -10 meals that I cooked and that my family actually would eat.  I knew I cooked more, but I had to get them all down.  I knew that if my crew gobbled the meal down, it was a keeper.  If they just kind of liked it, but knew it could taste better by adding this or that ingredient, I revised the recipe to suit my family.  The point is it takes time to test each new recipe that you put in your binder.  The basic rule of thumb is to fill your binder with more tried and true recipes than recipes for testing.

My recipe binders have now hit one of my must-haves for homeschooling because when I am tired, I can still menu plan for 30 days because I know my family will not only eat but enjoy just about all the recipes I have stored now.

Homeschool Organization Divide Your Cookbook by Sections for YOU

Today, I have 3 binders (first picture above) because it is the way I prefer to menu plan and organize.  The big binder or 5 inch binder is my main book basically for all my recipes except crockpot meals and I also took out the breakfast section.

In homeschooling we need to relentlessly use our crockpots year round and I now want those recipes to be kept separate so I can find them easier.  So that is my second binder.  And then the meal we prefer to eat together as a family is breakfast, so I collect recipes that are unique and fast and keep that binder easy to retrieve.  Too, though it is called my Breakfast and Lunch binder because it has home lunch ideas in it also because I don’t want lunch at home to become boring so I keep those ideas handy there.

Heads Up: Don’t make too many binders though you may think it is easier to organize this way.  Organization is about keeping things streamlined and you can make this project too complicated by over organizing.  I really only have 2 binders, my main and crockpot binder, that I reach for when planning.   The last binder filled with breakfast and lunch ideas is just that – an idea book if I get bogged down.  Breakfast and lunch are not areas I need help on everyday like my main meal which is supper.

Homeschool Organization - Specialized Recipe Binder for Your Family Now

It’s just about time to update my binders again.  Since we will be moving and because I can’t take the binders with me, it will be the perfect time to update them when we get settled again.

Look at these easy steps I did in case you want to start one now.

  • 1. Go through each cook book slowly or online recipes and decide what your family will “try” (field test) and what they will eat.  Don’t do this in a hurry as you probably, like me, paid good money for your cook books and want to get the full use out of them.
  • 2. Then decide whether to tear out the pages or unbind them in your books.   Keep in mind that organization for homeschooling is not waiting for the perfect looking page.  In other words don’t say I will re-type a recipe.  You can do that later if you want to because right now you may get side-tracked if you try to do that.

And if you do that, instead of completing a specialized cook book for your family, you may create road blocks by waiting to set up a perfect page.   I know, I know, it grinds me also because I like it all matching and pretty pages, but the truth of it is you have time to come back to make those pages pretty after you declutter.

  • 3. Each torn out page or printed page from Pinterest needs to go into a page protector.   Page protectors are good for messes in the kitchen too since your recipe is protected.  Go ahead and put the recipe in the sections you created whether you are know or don’t know if your family will like the recipe.

It is much easier to take the recipe out of the page protector and throw it away than it is to have a big pile of pages laying out, adding to clutter and not usable.

  • 4.   Field test on your family by cooking the recipes you were unsure of and then I put notes on my recipes when I cooked the ones I was testing.  Mark up the recipe, place a check on it or something so you will know if you tweaked it a bit,  will keep it or toss in the garbage if there was no salvaging it.  Basically, mark the ones you have cooked already so you have some record.
  • 5. Throw away all cook books and their clutter.  It feels pretty good at this point.

Did I mention you actually look forward to cooking and you have something treasured that was made just for you and your family?

I have created something unique for my family and you can too! Take from this what you can use and I hope it breathes some help into your cooking routine.

I can’t wait to make another set of binders when I move.  And this time, I may have to create some brand spanking new pretty divider pages for our recipe binders and new covers too.   What do you think? Want to do this now or with me again when I land?

Hugs and love ya,

2012Tinasignature Day 10. Celebrating THE Day! 10 days of Planning A Homeschool High School Graduation

Homeschool Organization Where Do You Easily Begin?

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This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

Homeschool organization is flat out hard work. On top of that tons of organization books and blogs stand ready to take up our precious time. 

The problem with most organizational books is that the tips are normally based on the fact you have all day to organize.

If you already struggle with a starting point on organization then sorting out beneficial tips from hype is not easy.

Homeschool organization is flat out hard work. On top of that tons of organization books and blogs stand ready to take up our precious time. The problem with most organizational books is that the tips are normally based on the fact you have all day to organize. If you already struggle with a starting point on organization then sorting out beneficial tips from hype is not easy. CLICK here to read about homeschool organization tips for beginners!

Doling out or scheduling the time to give to each thing in our life can be flat out stressful.

Surviving and succeeding in the homeschool world depends on organization. 

So instead of overwhelming you with all the areas of your home and school to organize, I want to help you identify your starting point.

Homeschool Organization

1. Determine YOUR trouble spot, it’s not always the learning area. Sometimes it’s the heart of the home, the kitchen.

Those naturally organized know a simple truth that may seem like a secret always eluding people who struggle with organization and that is organization is not a system, but it is about finding a solution. 

That’s it!  Simmer on that a minute and you will see why I always tell you to take from me what works for your family and discard the rest.

That is why it never serves you well to abandon your present method willy-nilly without first determining what is not working for you right now.

Identify with precision what the problem is. Do not group it ALL together. 

For example, if you are struggling with curriculum, then ask: What is not working – SPECIFICALLY?

Is it the order of the subjects, the content matter or the book?

If it is your learning area, then what exactly is causing the stress? Lack of shelves? Too many books?

Identifying precise problems equals not jumping to buying things that don’t work for you.

For example, as tempting as they are, the first step is not buying beautiful bins and baskets to begin any project.

Have you done that before?

Declutter First Then Create a System

Determined that you are going to be organized you run to the store to fill up with beautiful baskets which do not fit your shelves once you bring them home. Don’t do that as tempting as it is.

Identify and sizing up the project is the first step to organizing. 

Sizing up can be measured in time if you need to declutter or it could be measured by how many bookshelves, or baskets you need.

Look at the list below of all the things weighing on our homeschool organization to be organized list.

What is on your mind of things that need to be done and are causing chaos?

  • kitchen clutter
  • craft supplies
  • master bedroom clutter
  • garage/yard clutter
  • record keeping
  • self-care time
  • time with significant other
  • bill paying
  • field trips
  • a toddler on the rampage
  • volunteer time
  • education time for mom to engage with other educators
  • schoolbooks
  • devices, cords, chargers
  • closet clutter
  • menu planning help
  • which subjects to cover first, second, and next
  • making one-to-one time with each child
  • working from home or an outside job
  • house chores
  • lesson planning prep
  • general rejuvenation and/or nature time

2. Divide-Conquer Approach. Create an EASY to do list. One or two things.

The hardest part to an organizational project whether it takes time to declutter or you actually need to measure for a drawer for your books, is overcoming the feeling of defeat in the beginning. 

I have been there too and I don’t like dwelling there. 

It is that feeling that we have so much to do that we are not sure of even where to start.

It is important at this point to divide what is most important to you now and what can be conquered later.

Hear my heart on this one and that is sometimes it is not curriculum that we need to begin with when we make our priority list.

When we ignore that murmuring voice inside which tells us we can’t school each day because we have no groceries, or a menu or clean clothes, we set up our school for stress. 

There is no denying that because we have shared learning and living spaces, we have to address whatever thing is causing our chaos.

Begin with identifying one or two things on your list to conquer and no more.

The Organization Plan. A Flop or Followed?

3. Create a SIMPLE easy plan to be done in minutes, not hours.

This part is the part I seriously get giddy about because organization is fun.

So unless I have projects which can take hours, I begin with the ones which takes minutes.

In addition, when you start with easy projects, you have more room whether it’s physical space or mentally your mind is freed up of the stress.

 No, I don’t like to think about sorting through the piles, but I focus on how the area will be clean and clutter free. 

If it’s an organizing form I need, I am energized to make it specific with details and not just generalizations.

Pssssst..that is how my 7 step diy homeschool planner was born. Out of my need, came a plan.

If it’s a physical area in my home that needs to be decluttered, I get excited thinking about the possibilities of a fresh look for my space.

It’s a win win all the way around.

By taking my list and identifying one or two things I want to change, I have made it a project that I can handle and homeschool too.

Renew your spirit to organize because simple baby steps or changes can bring huge results.

Homeschool organization is flat out hard work. On top of that tons of organization books and blogs stand ready to take up our precious time. The problem with most organizational books is that the tips are normally based on the fact you have all day to organize. If you already struggle with a starting point on organization then sorting out beneficial tips from hype is not easy. CLICK here to read about homeschool organization tips for beginners!

You know I love ya and I am excited to be bring more posts this year on organizing how-tos.

Do you see an easy starting point?

Here are some more tips for homeschool organization:

Hugs and love ya,

Homeschool Organization Where Do You Begin

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Must-Haves for the Organized Homeschooler: What to Keep & What to Skip

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This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see my full disclosure policy.

Must-haves for the organized homeschooler are not the same must-haves for other stay at home families.

Think about that for a minute because priorities become real clear. The point is we share living and learning spaces and what we skip and what we keep are different.

By sharing must-haves for the organized homeschooler, I want to ease organization for you.

Must-Haves for the Organized Homeschooler: What to Keep & What to Skip

I do not want you to create a must-have list of things which don’t work.

Organized Homeschooler

We stop agonizing over organizing and what becomes a hobby for some folks (oh yes, I could so go there but I try to keep myself reined in) and the realities of the things that actually need to be organized becomes two very different things.

When You Homeschool and Agonize  Organize

There is a difference in the ways we approach an idea, task or project IF we want to accomplish organizing that fits our homeschool lifestyle.

Our homeschool lifestyle cannot be dismissed as some small undertaking so it requires  a measure of finesse that a lot of books, blogs and websites on general organizing just don’t understand. We are not sending our kids off somewhere, but we are living and learning in shared spaces.

Look at my list below because we don’t have to give up organization and don’t want to; we just learn how to do it differently.

5 Must-Haves for the Organized Homeschooler: What to KEEP

Homeschool Keeper 1. Menu Planning.

Menu planning for 30 days has grit, it’s the only way I menu plan.

It’s not easy if you normally menu plan for 7 days. However, I encourage you to menu plan for 30 days because you do not have to plan again so quickly.

You get a whole lot more return for your time when you menu plan longer. Taking an extra 15 minutes or so in the beginning of the month gives back more time in the month than it takes up.

For example, I turned this into a year long project. Take one year and plan something for every day of the year for recipes that your family like.

This plan will keep giving back for year after year because you’ve created 365 meals and the best part is that you have meals already created.

I color coded every 7 days so that you can see one glance at a time. I plan for 30 days, but shop weekly. So seeing the whole week at one time speeds up the process for myself.

Grab this editable recipe form on my page DIY Easy Home Management Binder.

Homeschool Keeper 2. Chores Assigned to Each Family Member.

I could not do what I do or even school for the day if my kids did not help. Teaching them requires time, but the payoffs are huge.

Ideally, I would love to tell you that I trained them so that now they do all my grocery shopping, but really they have learned some valuable life skills that I can’t check off in my planner.

Update: Yes, they did ALL my grocery shopping and half of the cooking as they grew older. Now, with so much available on-line they still help put groceries away.

Grab this editable chore chart too over on my page DIY Easy Home Management Binder.

Homeschool Keeper 3. A homeschool planner like my 7 Step DIY Homeschool Planner.

Do I need to tell how my heart goes pitter patter when I prepare the 7 Step DIY Homeschool Planner each year?

There is NOT another like homeschool planner like it because YOU organize it each year for your EXACT needs this year.

Using my printables with tons of options at every step, you create a UNIQUE one of a kind planner.

If you’re not a paper/pen gal, you still want some way to easily track your school work.

Homeschool Keeper 4. Command center. Even if it’s simple or temporary.

It’s one thing to have plans in mind, but communicating to the rest of the family is how to effectively carry out plans.

This area can include all upcoming activities for the family and even a Home Management Binder.

Many plans or routines fail and can be traced back to lack of communication.

A physical place at the house where everybody can see what is planned is useful in keeping my family up to date.

Also, I use and love Cozi, which is a free family calendar app.

Each week the calendar is sent o everybody’s email or phone. I love this now that I have teens because we could be going a lot of different directions during the day. Not just that, but the boys can see what is coming up too and learn to plan.

However, one place in the house where all family members pass by for the day was more effective.

Reminders from apps can be out of sight and out of mind; a command center in the house is a way that all family members can stay organized and be mindful.

Homeschool Keeper 5. Place to organize the overflowing amount of books, supplies, and crafts which come with the full time job of homeschooling.

Though I highly recommend having a homeschool room, I know that is not possible with everyone.

In addition, I was told I would never use a dedicated school room. That was not right either. Look at my tips Dedicated Homeschool Room or Dining Room Homeschooler.

Twenty years later and I’m here to tell you I used it very often. So much advice I’ve learned depends on families circumstances at the time.

When I started all of my kids were preschool. I needed pint sized furniture and I needed ways to train them to a habit and to get them ready to learn and focus.

On the other hand I have also had many years of my homeschooling where I couldn’t have a school room. I loved our homeschooling years just as well.

However large or however small area you have, I recommend that you have a place to corral all the clutter so that your home remains a place for relaxing family evenings.

5 Must-Haves for the Organized Homeschooler: What to SKIP

What to Skip 1. Reading organization books from those who don’t live our homeschool lifestyle.

Skip organization books that do not include homeschool parents as an author. I’m not saying you can’t glean some tips.

But if you are struggling in this area, then a book written for an audience that does not have the same demands we have  on our time could end up discouraging you instead of inspiring you.

What to Skip 2. Extensive record keeping.

I’m not saying to throw caution to the wind, but record keeping for the right reasons is key to being organized.

For example, fear of the homeschool law changing is not a good motivator and we’ve brought undue stress to our organized day.

Trying to keep all records to provide proof when your state law does not require record keeping is undue stress. It’s one thing to keep it for you, but another if you need to meet the law.

However, record keeping becomes important in the middle and high school years.

Look at my videos How to Successfully Begin Homeschooling Middle and High School (facebook or here for YouTube) and How to Stay on Top of Record Keeping – Seriously!

Also, I have some detailed tips here Homeschool High School The Must Cover Subjects Part 1 and Homeschool High School The Must Cover Subjects Part 2.

What to Skip 3. Stressful Schedules.

I’m an organized person, but that still didn’t help me to find a balance until several years of homeschooling.

Some years, I was able to schedule hour by hour because it suited our pace.

However, most years, a flexible schedule was needed to accommodate slower learners, my toddler, and preschooler.

Your youngest learner is your TRUE scheduler.

Skip a stressful homeschool schedule in favor of a peaceful schedule.

What to Skip 4. Perfectly picked up house.

Having a perfectly picked up and clean to my standards mindset was the hardest for me to let go.

Learning to let go of that mindset helped me to stay organized although it didn’t feel that way in the beginning.

Accepting a kid cleaned house was not only key to my sanity, but now that my sons have all graduated it trained them for valuable life skills.

Being an organized homeschooler means knowing when to delegate which is not always easy. However, a good enough picked up house while being clean allowed us to move on with our school day.

What to Skip 5. Overflowing amount of clothes.

Lastly, when my kids were young, I realized the more clothes they had, the more they seemed to plow through them.

This always equaled to not only more laundry, but tiny mounds of messes everywhere.

So I realized less is more; I reduced my kids’ wear to less than half.

As you school longer, you realize that you don’t need as many dress clothes for activities outside the house. Unless, your kid are attending a five day co-op which is more like private mini school your kids need just a few sets of dress clothes each.

Having less helped me to organize more and gave me freedom to do the things we love the most.

Must-Haves for the Organized Homeschooler: What to Keep & What to Skip

Not giving up your homeschool freedom begins by knowing what to keep and what to skip as an organized homeschooler.

What are you must-haves and what have you skipped to be organized?

This is also a blog hop. This blog hop is organized by iHomeschool Network, a collaboration of outstanding homeschool bloggers who connect with each other and with family-friendly companies in mutual beneficial projects.

Hugs and love ya,

Must Haves for the Organized Homeschooler