I will conquer!

Organizing and keeping my home clean is NOT my strong suit.  In fact, I am quite deficient in organization and cleaning skills.

Over the years, my lack of organization has led to spontaneous and "fly by the seat of my pants" homeschooling.  The lack of cleanliness has led to me NOT wanting to invite people over to our home.  Add both of those together, and  you get an unhappy, depressed, overwhelmed, and over all grumpy mommy with grumpy lazy kids.

Last Thursday, I set out to make a huge change in our household.  Organization, dedicated chores, and strict rules for keeping toys (and those pesky legos) put away when they aren't being played with.

I bought the book Managers of Their Chores last year after seeing Michelle Duggar and some close friends using the system successfully.  If it works for Michelle Duggar who has 19 kids, it's GOT to work for me with my 4 right?  Well... it worked.  But for only a week or so.   My kids HATED having something clipped to their shirts, the cards kept getting lost, and my 6 year old would "accidently" loose her cards between the books on the bookshelf.   So the book went on the shelf, and the chore packs went into a bin.

Skipping forward to last Thursday, I decided to try something similar to the managers of their chores, but in an easier, low key manner.  I made three 3x5 note cards for each of the kids.  One with morning chores, one with a list of the school work they need to get done every day, and one with a list of PM chores.  I put each stack onto a little ring so they could flip through the cards, and laid them out on the island.  The big bonus, was that I made a set for myself. Accountability!!  We have been doing this for a week now, and it has worked beautifully!  The kids aren't allowed to take the cards off of the island.  So they have to come back and check their lists.  Since they are laid out on the island, I can see what is next on the lists.  My house has stayed cleaner, the school work is getting done, and we are all much happier because of it.



The other day when my husband came home for lunch, he asked.."is someone coming over for dinner?" that made me feel REALLY good! I was able to say no, nobody is coming over. We have just kept it clean.  The plan is to slowly add more chores, and more cards into the stacks.  But for now, starting small has made a huge difference.

As for the strict rules, this was what Daddy had come up with.  When  toy is left out, then it is put into Daddy's box.  The only way to get that toy back is to pay a quarter for it.  This was a VERY hard lesson for Ethan who has been saving his money for a long time.  But ever since he had to pay to redeem his roller blades, the roller blades are always put away when he is done using them.

We now have a happy mom, a happy dad (who can invite people over on a whim if he wanted to), and some happy little homeschoolers!

Notice the Teaching Textbooks?  Teaching Textbooks is a homeschooling mother's dream come true!!  I'd be lost without them.