Back-to-school: Our schedule this year

When I was in college and pursuing a degree in Home Economics (which I'm pretty sure is obsolete anymore), one of the courses I took was entitled "Personal and Home Management."  Loved the course, but the detailed homework was a bit mind-numbing.  In an effort to get a picture of how much time we waste every day, we were required to chart minute-by-minute what we did through-out our day.

 I learned several things from this:
 1.  I have WAAAAAY more time on my hands than I think I do, 

2.  I could fill in some of that wasted time with something profitable, and 

3.  It helped me pinpoint where in my day I had extra time that I didn't think I had.

I started out homeschooling this way.  I made a schedule (albeit NOT minute-by-minute), and did pretty good to stick by it.  But over time, it got too complicated, and I started feeling almost compelled to stay within the confines of this schedule lest I stray due to something unforeseen (usually by the toddler) and I was running the rest of the day to keep up.  I highly recommend coming up with something on paper that you can post in your home somewhere to help keep on track and to help you figure out where you can fit in the mirade of things you need to do everyday.

But over time, my daily schedule has evolved somewhat.  Now, instead of putting everything down on paper at a specific time, I split up my day into 3 parts:

Morning activity  8:00 am - 12:30 pm

Afternoon activity 1:00 pm - 5:30 pm

Evening activity 6:00 pm - 10:00 pm

I then make a list of all the school subjects we have to cover for the day, meal times, clean up times, and household responsibilities that need to be completed each day.
Then, I can decided in what part of the day each thing will fit, without having to have it done right at
a specific moment.  I have tried that many times, but after getting thrown off by the unexpected EVERY day,
I got tired of either getting frustrated and angry or thrown off the track completely without hope of ever recovering.
It's much more realistic and relaxing to know when something will get done, even if it's later than I would really like, and not having the pressure that the schedule is so tight we'll never fit in something we missed.

Here is what our daily schedule looks like most days:

I have this strategically posted in the kitchen area, so everyone is not surprised at what is happening next.

After we have family dinner, each of the children take care of their "cleaning chore."
I like to refer to it as an "opportunity for helping with a servant's heart."
Super easy.
Each child is responsible for a room (or couple of rooms) in the house each night.
I wrote their names on a piece of sticky note paper, and each Sunday I will
rotate who does what so they all learn how to properly clean each area of the house.
We even get the toddlers involved too.
They especially are excited to be helpers too!!
The rotation schedule is great for the older ones too because if they complain about a
certain area being too "hard" or time-consuming, they know it will only last until Sunday.

This also is strategically posted in the kitchen area right next to our "daily schedule."

We are entering our 3rd week of following this routine, and it has taken every bit of the last two weeks
to get everybody used to this.  We've been patiently walking the family through the daily schedule and teaching the younger ones how to do each of the household responsibilities, and we're slowly seeing some good results.
The hardest part of setting up any routine though is CONSISTENCY.
It takes discipline and perseverance on my part as the mom not to slack off and skip something.
If I do, it's like we take 3 steps backwards!!
But slow and steady wins the race!!
This race called life.
Life in my shoes.

Faith

Although I do not adhere to Catholic theology, I certainly did enjoy this article. Great answers to

the "environmentalists" who criticize large families for their carbon footprint!!

Faith & Family Magazine: Big Families Are the New Green


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2nd Annual Brough Family Bonanza

This past Friday night, our family hosted the "2nd Annual Brough Family Bonanza." I will be dedicating most of my blog posts this week to this fantastic event. This is an idea that we were exposed to from a couple of different places (one from this family, another from my dearest, long-time friend, Tiffany!), and after our first try at it last year we were HOOKED!!!

Here are a couple reasons why we love doing one big birthday party for all our children at one time:

1. We only have one birthday at the latter part of the year, with all 7 of the rest of us between January and May. We have 3 birthdays within 2 weeks in April. It is exhausting to try to have this amount of birthdays with all the friends, cake, and hoopla in that amount of time.

2. It saves us a tremendous amount of money when you average about $100 per child's birthday (food, decorations, gifts, rentals, game supplies, etc.) times 6, and I daresay that for some families that would be frugal. We save roughly $200 a year or more!!

3. We have so much MORE fun with nearly 40 children at an event than with just 5 -10. The games are better, the bounce house makes more sense, and everyone has SOMEONE to play with.

4. It takes so much pressure off of me to have to plan only one big "friend" party rather than 6.

5. On their actual birth date, we reserve that for family members only. We have a special breakfast in bed, presents from family, and then a fun activity with just our family. The children are learning that their turn is coming, and to treat each other special at least ONCE a year :)!!

6. I LOVE event planning, and have worked as a wedding coordinator in the past, so this kind of thing allows me that creative outlet without burning me out throughout the whole year.

7. This year, my husband took the week off of work, and we took our spring break the week before the party, so it freed up a lot of time for making things, and shopping, and the girls LOVED helping with this.

I could go on and on about how this "system" of birthday celebrations has benefited our family, and how it is now one of the highlights of our year!!

Stay tuned for how we planned our party, and how a little bit of preparation time every day this last week helped us put this together in a very short amount of time!!!

More children = Less Suicide? Really?

The More Kids, the Lower Moms' Suicide Risk - Mental Health | Illness | Disorders - FOXNews.com

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Why large families just might be a little easier....

Now I hope you're not going to be annoyed that I'm going to include a link to someone else's thoughts. I know you came here to hear MY thoughts, and here I am sending you away. But it will be worth it. I couldn't put all this together. Let me share with you a few highlights:

Humility. My children have learned it’s not always their turn. They’ve accepted they can’t always get their way because other people have to get their way sometimes. They’ve learned that some children are better at certain things than they are.

Foreign language skills. You can learn a lot of Spanish by watching ten years of Dora the Explorer that you just can’t pick up in two. And now with the Diego spin off I’m practically fluent.

Laughter. The children have learned to laugh at the insane non sequiturs of younger siblings. They’ve learned that laughing just feels better when seven people are doing it along with you.

Competition. Do I really need to go into this? Everything is a competition in big families. The children compete over who reads faster, who drinks their milk faster, who gets to the bathroom first…etc. Everything is a competition and they’re all keeping score.

Balance. The floor of the front room of my home is a minefield of toys and childhood paraphernalia. Just walking through the room requires great skill and balance. I’m absolutely convinced my two year old will be a favorite for Gold on the balance beam in the 2016 Olympics. (She might have to lay off the cookies a little but I’ll deal with that later.)

Life isn’t fair. Sometimes you just give it to the baby because you want a little quiet. Not all the time. But sometimes.

Just say “No.” Being able to say “no” may be the most undervalued skill in this world. The need to be liked is pervasive. The need to be cool even more so. Having brothers and sisters teaches children to say “no” about 143 times a day. It’s a good skill.

Praying. They learn that nothing beats praying together as a family.

To read this great article in its entirety go here.