New Beginnings: Preparing for our New School Year

     I always get excited for new beginnings and fresh starts.  That is what a new school year brings. I love to plan and organize, so this is like my Christmas.  I buy new school supplies for the year, we pick out our curriculum, we get our new planners out and begin to schedule what we will be doing.  So much fun!!!!

     Now some of you are saying "What is wrong with this lady?"  Maybe you don't enjoy planning and organizing, but do you know that it can really help your school days to be more productive and will give you more time for the other things you and your family would like to do.  It's all about time management.  Using your time wisely will give you those much needed hours of rest and relaxation that you need in order to keep up with the demands of homeschooling your children. 

     In my 19 years of homeschooling, I have found that I need to have balance.  I use to schedule every minute of our day, but that wasn't working out for us, so I had to find a way to keep a schedule but not to be too rigid with it.  We have to be flexible enough to do what the Lord would have us do during our school days.  There may be times that we need to put books aside and help others or invite a family in for fellowship.  We must be willing to obey the Holy Spirit's promptings and to let our agenda go for the day.  

     Our family likes using visuals to keep us on track.  We have several places in our home where we write our plans and schedules.  We also have chore charts and vision boards to remind us of what we are working towards.  Our family has a household mission statement that helps us to remember what we want to accomplish.  We post this on our wall to help keep our minds focused on how we want to conduct ourselves.  

     Here is our chart that reminds us that we have choices to make. If you want your privileges, you must be responsible. 

     These are our reminder boards. They are placed around the house with little notes of encouragement or reminders to do a task or work on a certain character quality. My husband has one beside his bed to remind him to take his vitamins and such.  

     

     Here is our new chore chart.  The kids are loving it and so am I.  We have morning chores listed in red and evening chores listed in blue. They are required to check off what they have completed.  This gives them accountability.  Hope uses a pink marker for her checks and Josh uses a blue one. 😊

     

     I hope I have given you a few ideas to get you started on your way to planning and organizing your new school year.  Do you have any suggestions that I haven't mentioned?  I would love to hear from you.  

      Have a great day!!!