Only a few weeks left......

Well summer is winding down. Heat wise it is a rip roaring inferno outside before 10am. We have to really get our bottoms in gear to get outside before it is too hot to breathe. Here in Indy, the kids start going back to school in early August. They do this, in my opinion, to escape the last of the heat wave. No one goes outside when it is like this. A blizzard is more tempting to handle than going out and having your eye lashes singed. I am taking advantage of this indoor time to get myself completely organized before we start back at school. My kids are laughing at the fact that they don't have to start for a few more weeks, while their neighbors are getting up early and being shipped off starting this week.

As previously noted, I have been organizing a few closets and doing things that my schedule doesn't allow during our full time school year. I, in the last two days, tackled the two closets that caused me the most fear. I organized dear husband's and my closets. They were scary. They had things that should have been pitched at least 5 years ago. I had shirts that my mom bought me in high school. I don't know what would make be think that a) they would ever fit after birthing 4 children in 5 years, and b) they would still be in style. Good news, they are on there way to the Goodwill.

I have a few more things to do before I feel ready for our next 9 month adventure. I know what you are all thinking right now. No, the 9 months isn't a signal of me being pregnant. I told you that I am done and I mean it. I am thinking of having my tubes tied to make sure that we have a back up to our other choice of permanent birth control. The 9 months means the length of our next school year.

One of the reasons that I think we are going to be successful homeschoolers is that I keep our schedule as light as possible. If things are organized before hand, the year goes much smoother. I keep all running around outside of house to a minimal. By running around, I mean errands that aren't really needed and too many extra curricular activities.

When we first thought about home schooling, my husband was unsure because of my lack of organization. I truly wasn't mad at this. He had a very valid point. I am totally unorganized, or at least was. If I wanted to take on more work, I needed to find a way to make it happen. My weakness was not going to make decisions for me. It is easy to do things that you are strong in, but whoa nelly is it painful to make yourself strong where you are weak.

What did I do? A few things were changed. I joined an online group that showed me how to clean my house really well in the least amount of time. For those who want this link it is: www.flylady.net She is amazing.

Next, I studied things on how other home schooling families make it happen. I only have 4 kids. This seems to be double the work in some people's eyes, but a lot of home school families are doing great things and they have more kids than me. One of my life savers is our chore system. We use a book called "Managers of their Chores" by Steve and Terry Maxwell. I quickly realized that I am one person and simply could not keep up with everything by myself. It also wasn't my husbands job to come home after working 12+ hours and help clean my house.

Now, with the help of the chore packs, the kids are doing things by themselves that used to take us double time with me watching over them and making sure that I remembered every step. My kids have a list of things to do to get ready for bed which include: picking up toys, PJ's on, put clothes in the laundry, pick out new clothes for the morning, brush teeth, go potty, wash hands, and get drink of water. In the morning, before breakfast, they make their beds, brush teeth, get dressed, put pj's away, and comb hair. It is important to note that they do these things by themselves. Yes, we have to go remind them that they are suppose to be doing their chore packs. They are kids and get distracted. For the most part, they do their chore packs successfully.

I do have a few more tricks up my sleeves that keep our house under control, and will share with you my secrets and laughable failures in the future.