Review: The Busy Homeschool Mom's Guide to Daylight

It's only now, as I near the end of my second year of homeschooling, that I'm beginning to realize what a marathon I've signed up for. I have always known that I would homeschool, and that I would do it for the long haul. With my steady personality, when I committed to homeschooling, I committed all the way. But not having any doubts does not mean that I have no fears. What will it be like to homeschool four boys at once? Will I have what it takes to manage our days? Will I be able to hold on to the priorities God wants me to have? Will we finish strong?

A little e-book from Real Life Press that I read recently for review met me right where I am: “If God has called you to homeschool...then He has already equipped you with everything you need to get the job done.” In her book The Busy Homeschool Mom’s Guide to Daylight, Heidi St. John encouraged me by reminding me that this homeschooling venture will ultimately not be about me and my abilities and energy (or lack thereof), but about God's purposes in each of our lives. St. John also provides a mix of inspiration and practical advice from her own experience on organizing, scheduling, menu planning, homeschooling multiple children at once, and more.

I see myself on a journey as a homeschool mom. I'm learning. Sometimes I wish I was older and wiser right now, without having to go through mistakes and adjustments and a whole lot of hard work. It's just a fact that there will be things that will only be learned by experience in my life. But there are also things that I can learn from the experience of others if I'm just wise enough to take them to heart. This is why I like hearing from veteran homeschoolers, whether in real life or in books like this one. 

The Need for Vision
Three themes really stood out for me in this book: the need for vision, the need for flexibility in our planning, and the need to find encouragement. We all need to take the time once in a while to evaluate how things are going in our home schools, and to consider again what our priorities are and why we are homeschooling.

"Busy homeschool mom, why are you homeschooling? Most moms I know would never, not in a million years, take on homeschooling if they were not driven by something. What's driving you?" (p. 40)

Thinking through our goals and priorities now will help us stay the course when we have frustrating and fruitless days later.

The Need for Flexibility 
The second theme that was helpful for me was that "The key to successful planning is understanding that even the best plans need to be flexible." (p. 43)  St. John reminds us that there are seasons of homeschooling, a sort of natural ebb and flow, and that we need to change our plans and expectations as our lives change. She includes many practical applications of flexibility in planning.

I love her advice to "create some white space" on your calendar. I am a strong believer in white space. I know that right now, with three young children and a baby, I can't handle more than one outing a week (besides church). Back when I had only two children, I remember it was enough to make sure I never went out two days in a row. I anticipate my "white space" needs will change again as my children grow older. That's really what it's all about...taking note of what works for you now and planning accordingly.

I also liked her suggestion that menu planning does not mean that you have to assign days to your meals. I have always found that menu planning works best for me when I plan a variety of simple and more complex meals for the week, and then choose which one to make based on how my day is going.

Flexibility in planning also means changing the plan when it's no longer working for you. I found myself thinking about this when spring suddenly arrived this week. Where last week was cold and miserable (we even had almost 10 cm of snow early last week!), this week is sunny and perfect weather for playing outdoors. My winter routine is just not working for me this week, and I know I will have to change it to allow for hours more time outdoors as the weather gets warmer.

The Need for Encouragement

Heidi St. John speaks of the danger of comparing ourselves with others, and of the impact good friends can have on encouraging us and keeping us accountable. Ultimately, though, we need to find our strength in the Lord.

"I believe that when we find our strength in Christ, we will also find strength for the homeschool years. Is it hard? Yes it is! Do we ever really know what we’re getting ourselves into when we obey the call of God on our lives? I don’t think so!" (p. 193)

I appreciated the encouragement I found in The Busy Homeschool Mom's Guide to Daylight. I would recommend it to any homeschool mom who needs a lift. With its balance of planning and flexibility, I think it will help both the organized and the disorganized to manage their "daylight" better.

This e-book is also available as a physical book at the Real Life Press website.
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Saturday Commonplaces 2

On "Virtuous Womanhood:"
My dryer stopped tumbling last week. I haven't had this particular dryer very long, (I bought it used) so my heart sank at the thought of finding a new one again so soon. Before I sank into despondency, I looked it up on google. There I found a lovely repair video using the very dryer model I own. Following the directions, I unplugged the dryer, opened it up, and retrieved the broken belt. Then I ordered a new one, and waited. The new belt arrived on Friday, and it took me about 15 minutes to install. A real repair person would have taken five minutes, but hey, I did it! I probably paid about $20 in the mean time to dry my clothes at the laundromat, but even with that included in the cost, it was less than $50. I'm sure you'll agree that if the Proverbs 31 woman had a dryer, she would have done the same.

On Homeschooling:
I finished reading Cindy Rollins' "31 Days to Morning Time" blog series this week. It was such an encouragement. Some of the topics covered (Plutarch and Shakespeare) were not applicable for my season in homeschooling, but I know I will go back to this series regularly throughout my homeschooling years. (Here's hoping she writes a book!) I especially enjoyed the last post in the series. It reminded me that though my life with little ones is sometimes crazy, I am doing something of value when day after day, week after week, I spend time every day reading Scripture to my children, praying with them, repeating the 23rd psalm with them (our current memory work), singing the same old psalms and hymns over and over, introducing new ones, reading poetry, drinking tea.

On Cuteness:
JJ was sitting on the couch "reading" Green Eggs and Ham. He did pretty well paraphrasing the content, with slightly more politeness: "No, I don't want green eggs and ham, please."

In Appreciation:
One of my favourite things to do is to sing, especially to sing with my choir, the Good News Singers. I am so thankful for Stephen, who makes it a priority to let me go and sing, and takes care of all the children while I do it. He's good like that...he thinks it's important for me to go to homeschool support meetings, too, and does his best to make sure I get to go. I think he's a keeper!

Day 20 {20 Day Clutter Challenge}

Well, it's the last day of my clutter challenge. I stopped updating about it here mostly because it seemed so boring.
In the end, I achieved 151 points: enough for my date night reward. My biggest accomplishment was digitizing our CD collection. I'm so glad that's done! I also got rid of most of my skinny clothes. I figured if I achieve slimness again, I'm going to want new clothes.
I sorted through the boys' clothes once again. That is always such a big job. It seems to me that I do it more than twice a year, because someone always manages to grow out of their clothes before the season changes. Every time I do it I thin them out more, and it still always takes me about a day to do it all. Now I'm at the point where I try to keep just a core collection of the best clothes in each size.
-If an item is in such poor condition that I would turn up my nose at it if I found it for a few dollars at a second-hand store, it's time to let it go.
-If an item was cheap to begin with and would be cheap to replace, I let it go.
-If I found it didn't get worn unless all the other clothes were in the laundry, I let it go.
-If I got it from someone, but really never liked it, I let it go.
Now I'll have to see if the effort of shopping to fill up what they need will be worse than the effort of sorting through the volume of clothes I had before...

Applying a Growth Mindset to Cleaning

If you've ever dropped in on me unannounced (or even announced, hah!), you know that cleaning and organizing is a major struggle for me. I came across A Slob Comes Clean last week. This quote reminded me of what I'm learning about math in my How to Teach Math course. Now that I've learned about having a growth mindset, I'm seeing it everywhere!
Here's what Dana White says about keeping a clean and organized home:

"As an adult, I have realized that most things in life can be learned. I taught Theatre Arts, and have a passion for teaching people to act. I always had a natural ability in the area of acting, but I remember when my eyes were finally opened to the fact that acting is a skill that can be learned. I have such incredible gratefulness toward the college professor who taught us real, tangible skills. For me, the skills brought me to a new level. But what I love about teaching acting is seeing people who never thought they could act, learn that they can! I have seen kids and even adults go from being shy wallflowers with almost no confidence to being excellent actors, because they learn the skills.

There are people who pick up a guitar and play it beautifully the first time. There are others who take off as soon as someone teaches them how to do it. Then there are others who are terrible at first. It doesn’t come naturally, but they spend hours and hours practicing the small things, until they can finally play a song.

When it comes to having a neat and orderly home, I am the one for whom it doesn’t come naturally. But as I try to teach my children, skills can be learned. I’ve made lots of excuses in the past and felt completely justified because keeping a neat home is legitimately hard for me. But the more I practice the skills I need, the better I become. If I keep practicing, and don’t give up, maybe someday I’ll be good at this!"

Day 5: Baking Supplies and Spices {20-Day Clutter Challenge}

I am back on track! I finished decluttering the baking supplies and spices for 20 points. I'm so glad I decided to blog this, even though people can't be that interested. It is the fact that I had to write about it publicly that kept me going after such a rocky start. I'm still hoping I'll catch up on the days I didn't manage to get done, but if not, the fact that I've kept going means I'm blessing my house, and that makes me happy.

Day 3: Dishes, Cutlery, and Rubbermaid {20-Day Clutter Challenge}

Saturday it was me that didn't feel the greatest. I soldiered through the rest of the paper, though, and upgraded Friday's points to 20 (finished the job!). I did 15 minutes on the Rubbermaid, and didn't get to the dishes and cutlery. I keep all that stuff fairly decluttered anyway, so I'm sure I can finish that job one of these days.

Day 2: Paper {20-Day Clutter Challenge}

Well, yesterday was a challenge, all right! My poor JJ got two bee stings in the morning, and some sort of stomach bug in the afternoon. But once things settled down and everyone was asleep, I spent half an hour filing paper. So that was 4 points for me. I haven't abandoned it, though. I'm trying to finish it all this morning so I can change that 4 to a 20.

Day 1:Shoes and Outdoor Wear {20-Day Clutter Challenge}

I managed to get an hour of decluttering in! Somehow I doubt that's going to happen every day, but the important thing is just starting and sticking with it for at least 15 minutes. I got rid of 8 1/2 pairs of shoes (all mine and the boys'), and I'm still hoping to convince Stephen to part with maybe 2 pairs of worn-out, ratty sneakers. He has a lot of shoes, but I don't dare to get rid of any without asking first. I threw one pair out that had its soles flapping in the breeze once, and of course he was looking for them the very next week.
I didn't even really get to the coats and other things, though I did manage to declutter a purse, a flying saucer, and a couple of dollar store kites that don't really work any more.

My points: 10

20-Day Clutter Challenge

Tomorrow begins a new month! Summer is going by so quickly, and I'm not getting everything done that I had hoped. One thing I'd still like to do before beginning our school year in September is a major declutter. So today I made a plan, one inspired by Minimalist Packrat's 30 Day Declutter Bootcamp. I would love to be able to afford that e-book, but I need to do some more surveys to get some dollars into my Paypal account first. So I made up my own plan. Maybe that will work better, anyway...I don't really need inspiration to declutter, after all. I've always loved doing it, loved the feeling of freeing myself from the mountain of stuff we seem to accumulate.
So here's my plan:

20-Day Clutter Challenge

1. (August 1) Shoes and Outdoor Wear
2. (August 2) Paper
3. (August 3) Dishes, Rubbermaid Containers, Cutlery
4. (August 5) Pots & Pans (including baking pans and casserole dishes)
5. (August 6) Spices, Baking Supplies
6. (August 7) Food (including pantry, fridge and freezer)
7. (August 8) Canning Supplies
8. (August 9) Cleaning Supplies, Personal Care Supplies
9. (August 10) Toys
10. (August 12) My Clothes
11. (August 13) Stephen's Clothes
12. (August 14) Boys' Clothes
13. (August 15) Games, Music Books
14. (August 16) Photos, Notebooks, Stationery
15. (August 17) Tools, Paint, Renovation Supplies
16. (August 19) CDs, DVDs
17. (August 20) Linens, Blankets, Bags & Suitcases
18. (August 21) Children's Books, Novels
19. (August 22) Nonfiction, Christian Books
20. (August 23) Homeschool Supplies (not decluttering so much as finding a home for them for now.)

To make things fun for me, I'm giving myself points:
15 minutes/day = 1 point
30 minutes/day = 4 points
60 minutes/day = 10 points
Finished the job = 20 points

And for even more fun, I'm giving myself rewards:
20-80 points: an e-book
80-150 points: date night without any children along
150-300 points: new slipcovers for my couches
300-400 points: new clothes

I'm going to try to post a short update every day. I'm not committing to before and after pictures. If I can, I will. I'm hoping this will keep me on track. This is going to be fun! (And if any of you want to do this with me, that would be awesome!)

I should also be clear that my goal is not to finish decluttering each of these categories in this amount of time. My goal is to do what I can with the time I have (at least 15 minutes every day), and if it's no-where near done, the little bit that is done will at least be a blessing. The fast pace is really just my way of trying not to get bogged down in the enormity of the task. I can always do this again another month, after all. (Or maybe not...let's see how this works first, OK?)