I am normally a person who MUST have a plan. It drives me slightly bonkers to just float along each day. Steve would give a hearty AMEN to that—the bonkers part.
I don’t get much done without a plan. I have various tools I use to plan each week.
TOOLS
Menu planner—for 2-4 weeks on the frig
Homeschool Tracker—enters our work & helps plan for future
Family Calendar—on the frig so I know when an event is coming up
Chore Chart—everyone has jobs & no excuses about knowing when to do them
Routines—we have weekly & daily ones, these aren’t written they just reoccur naturally ie—errand/grocery days, lesson days etc
Off Track Plan
We didn’t do much Monday or Wednesday due to sickness & my recovery needs(SLEEP). But we were productive. The girls keep on working even when I am down so I used some of my down time to grade papers. NOT my favorite chore but it must be done.
It makes me irritable to just sit. That is what I must do on these days of recovery. I walk doing errands and feel good one day & the next is a mixture of soreness & overwhelming fatigue. It is getting better slowly. The lesson that the children & I are learning is that school can be relaxed and still get things accomplished.
1. There is time for games. Mental math gets practiced!
2. I can work with one child on the quality of their cleaning in the zone.
3. Daddy can use their labor at a project. Like cleaning the basement—which I have yet to visit.
4. Its okay not to work as hard as we can EVERY day.
5. On the “good” days I need to work at keeping focused on the job at hand. My habit of doing nothing all the time is hard to break. I like to accomplish things but hey it is easier to do nothing instead.
There are lessons in working hard & giving your all to a job. But there are equal lessons to relaxing and mixing fun with learning. In 50 years, will my children remember if we tackled a math lesson each day or will they remember the time we spent together learning about life when it doesn’t go the way you expected? So I am going to do a little school today and perhaps read on the couch with my youngest & a cup of cocoa! That give us both something that we love!
What do you do when your day gets off track?
