WHEN CHAOS ENSUES...

My friend and fellow homeschooling mother to 6 children, Heather S, started using a pretty strict family schedule for her household recently. She says it has been working wonders for her homeschooling/family days, and I believe her. When I read her post on facebook, I immediately remembered the days when we used to use a family schedule and praised God for this precious reminder.

Just a note here: I'm a fairly laid back homeschooling mom. I'm not a "schedule" person, per-se.  There have even been times in our homeschooling journey when the words "Unschooling Family" have been uttered about us...but that is not exactly true. We're "relaxed"...and for much of our journey, life has been quite blissful in that mode....but....the kids are getting older and...well...Now....THERE ARE SO MANY OF THEM! :o)

Let me add here that the past few months have been less than a joy in my parenting journey. I've noticed some rude behavior from my children and I have had a bit of a struggle reeling them back in. Once I gave them an inch...well...they took a few miles.

So, after reading Heather's post, I drug out my old "Managers of Their Homes" book and found our OLD homeschooling schedule...from when our now married son, Kazz, was still homeschooling and our twins were babies. I tailored our new schedule to fit our family needs now...for a family of 5 children ages 14, 11, 7, 7 and 6.... and it worked like a charm yesterday. Chores, homeschooling and all...

People…Listen...Our bathroom and kitchen floors got swept AND mopped yesterday! What?! Oh yes they did.  I know that there are many moms out there who mop on a regular basis, but I'm not one of those moms.  Mopping is wayyy down on my list of priorities. So this is huge!

Our whole family gladly pitched in with chores.  Gladly! What? 

We cleaned their rooms, made their beds, wiped down cabinets and the kids did their homeschooling work, in small increments, without whining.  There was much helping of this child and that child to teach them how to do certain tasks.  The older kids helped their siblings.... yes...they were even helping each other!

Why?  Because they were all "in on the plan."  They were given the schedule and I talked to them about expectations the day before. I let them know that our day was going to "feel" different and we would be busy bees. I think the anticipation of "something new" really got them in the mood to try this thing.

They really enjoyed all of us working together and that everyone had a place to be at a certain time. That's important you know...because it's TIME to do this or that...it's on the SCHEDULE...very important stuff here.  :o)

Our twins, Kole and Daxx, actually asked to to extra work on their math computer program! Man…now I remember why a schedule is important.

I'm going to add a star chart, "our last name" Money Rewards and a "Dad-Looky-At-This" chart on the refrigerator. If they get 3 tally marks... (bad)... dad will “see them” when he comes home…and NOBODY wants dad to see tally marks...BUT... EVERYBODY wants dad to see stars. :o) See how that works? Ahh...yes. Now I remember how to keep peace in our home.  It's all coming back to me.

When the kids earn a certain number of stars they can trade them in for "money" to do something special like have a later bed time, invite a friend over for a sleep-over and things like that...

Next week will begin the FULL MONTY baby! Momma needs some sanity in this house and I do believe this is our answer.  More to come as we implement the rest of the plan.  Please wish us luck. :o)