Once, when this blog was new and I had a preschooler, toddler, and newborn, another mom asked me how I managed it all. Not one to try to keep up appearances, I said, "Well first of all, my house is a mess..." 

This story makes me smile because I've grown a lot since then (and obviously, so have my children). While my house was not a top priority at that point, it has crept into at least the top five more recently. More specifically, when we moved and renovated, I decided that I would need to better my habits so that we could be good stewards of our home and share it with others openly without being terribly embarrassed by the dried spaghetti noodles stuck to the floor. 

I am not one of those “naturally organized” people whom you'd think would be giving you any sort of advice on this topic. No, I'm an outside-the-box 30-something who never quite acquired those good housekeeping skills that I probably should have decades ago. But, maybe hearing from someone who was a hot mess and now does significantly better in this department will be helpful. So here it goes-

How I Improved Managing My Home While Homeschooling

I've used some affiliate links in this post to share a few of our favorite items with you. You can read about them in our policies section. 

1. Paying for a meal planning service.

I'm going to start with this one because feeding our families is something that we as moms and homeschoolers have to do pretty much all day every day. But this is something that used to send me into a panic at about 4:00 when I realized I didn't know what to make for dinner. Even if I did have a plan, I would still panic at 4:00 because "I could have sworn that I had ___________ in the pantry." 

About two years ago, I started using free meal plans to help me plan out our menus. I mainly used the plans from Tastes Better From Scratch, but would search out different plans when I needed to switch it up. When we figured out that our daughter needed to eat gluten free, we decided to buy a one-year subscription to eMeals, something that we had done earlier in our marriage. We get weekly menus and meals plans, and make 4 or 5 out of the 7 meals each week, subbing some nights for leftovers, dinners out, or old favorite recipes. This has been so helpful, especially while homeschooling, because I buy all the ingredients at the beginning of the week and know what I'm going to make ever day. There are different plans available based on dietary needs, so when we had a big lifestyle change, this was a lifesaver. 

Related: A Year of Positive Habits for Moms

2. Viewing Housekeeping Skills as Habits

As a Charlotte Mason homeschooler, habits are integral to what we do everyday. I didn't see why this shouldn't be the case with homemaking. While we were in the process of renovating, I read How To Manage Your Home Without Losing Your Mind by Dana K. White. When we moved in, I worked hard to adopt the habits of homemaking, like doing laundry and washing dishes. One of the hardest parts was accepting that these things were my responsibility, whether or not I wanted to do them, whether or not the kids destroyed the shiny, newly-mopped floor in just a few minutes. These habits have taken a long time to develop, and I'm clearly not all there yet, but I'm not sure I will ever be "all there." My family is my top priority, and chasing them around to make sure they keep the house clean replaces spending actual quality time with them. 

3. Figuring Out The Never Ending Laundry Piles

Our laundry basket feels a little bit like Mary Poppin's purse: just when I think I've tackled it all, more and more keeps flowing out in what seems like an impossible, never-ending supply. When I started viewing housekeeping as habits, I designated one day a week for laundry. My goal was to get all the laundry done in that day. This worked for a little while, but soon we got busier outside the home and I just didn't have a whole day to devote to washing, drying, and folding. 

Recently, I switched to the "one load a day" method. This works great with my approach of housekeeping-as-habits. A daily load of laundry has become a habit. I don't feel overwhelmed by putting away one load of laundry, and no matter what we have going on during the day, I can usually make time for it (popping a load in each morning and making sure it is put away by evening). 

4. Delegating

Delegating is easier said than done for many of us, especially when our kids are young and we're not sure what they're doing will get done, ahem, right.  But I've had to decide that being done at all is better than not. So, now my kids each put their laundry away, and even though it's mostly crammed in their drawers, this is hugely helpful. 

My husband also gifted me once a month house cleaning for Christmas, something I never thought we'd do. Having the house clean all at once is motivation to keep it clean. 

There are other ways to delegate, too. We have a Roomba vacuum that sweeps the floor while we put the kids to bed. 

5. Not Going to Bed Until The Kitchen Is Clean

Letting the kitchen get messy during a busy day of homeschooling and then failing to clean it up after dinner was my biggest housekeeping mistake.  Waking up to a messy kitchen in the morning filled me with a sense of dread, and then I felt overwhelmed by the thought of having to get it clean at some point and would procrastinate. Spending 20 minutes or so at the end of the day making sure everything is put away and the counters are all wiped down has made a huge difference. I also treat running the dishwasher like a daily habit, running it at night and unloading it the next morning- almost every day. 

6. Manage the Clutter

Decluttering goes in cycles for me. I get on a big kick, declutter well, and then feel like I'm done, giving up the task and giving into my shopping habits. Then, I hit panic mode when it feels like I can never get my house clean, and know I have to start over again. Some days, all of us tackle a room together, making decisions about what stays and what goes. Other times, I just have to declutter as I live my life, finding something I don't need in a space and getting rid of it. 

But clutter isn't always excess things that need to be purged, sometimes it's just the things that are in the wrong place, and my over-burdened brain doesn't think to put it back immediately. From Dana K White's book, I learned that it's helpful to put something back where it belongs right away, rather than letting things pile up on the stairs, in laundry baskets, and more importantly, as a stressful, looming task in my brain. 

Related: How Clutter Can Sabotage the Learning Environment

I hope this encourages you that little by little, you can improve in this area. 

My days of reading books with a little one curled up on my lap are numbered. This year, I'm going to be intentional about reading picture books throughout the Christmas season, a way to slow down and enjoy my children's littleness. 

We've collected quite a few Christmas books over the years, at least one for each day of Advent. I've put them in my Amazon Affiliate Store and you can see them here. Keep reading as I share some of my favorites. 

I've used affiliate links in this post. You can read more about them in my policies section.

The Remember Tree- We were gifted this book last year, and it quickly became a favorite. It sweetly tells the story of Christmas through a grandmother’s treasured Remember Tree from her own childhood. Each of the tree’s ornaments is introduced through a riddle. What a creative way to keep children engaged!

The story and breathtaking illustrations make this a book that you’ll want to add to your collection.

Related: Book Treasuries That Make Great Gifts

The Glorious Impossible- A few years, I scoured my go-to used book sites for The Glorious Impossible by Madeline L’Engle. It features the art of Giotto, and is unfortunately out of print. I had ordered a copy and a few weeks later was told it wasn’t coming . It turns out that waiting until July to look again was a good decision, because I found it easily in the off -season. Telling you that story now in case the Amazon price is through the roof!

This book is absolutely beautiful and it is perfect for us because we've studied Giotto in the past. This definitely isn't a book to read all at once- we read a couple of pages at a time. 

Related: Symbols of Christmas Study 

The Advent Storybook- We actually have two books with this name, but the version by Laura Richie is more Gospel-centric. Each day tells a story from the Bible, in preparation for Christmas day. 

If you don't want to buy a new book but like this idea, reading one chapter of the Jesus Storybook Bible each day of Advent is an alternative. 

The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey- This is a book that we HAVE to read every year. It has such a mellow mood, but at the same time it's engaging and everyone gets caught up in the mystery and miracle. We also have the movie, which we make a point to watch every year after we read the book. (That is linked in my Amazon Store). 

Peter Rabbit's Christmas Collection- If you've been hanging around here for awhile, you've probably seen me share this book before. This is the sweetest collection for Christmas, featuring Beatrix Potter stories and art. Some of the stories are in other collections we have, but some were new to us, like The Tailor Of Gloucestor. We don't read the whole thing each year, but a few stories here and there add so much charm to this season!

What will you be reading this Christmas?

As our children get older, we're realizing that games have a huge part in our family culture. We love breaking out a board game on any given evening, and often in the afternoon when everyone is getting a little antsy. Finding games that we all love can sometimes be tricky, and so it has been lots of fun to try out some new games from Bible Games Central. Not only are these games enjoyable for us all, they are centered around the Bible. 

I received product for this review. All opinions are my own. Read more about sponsored content in my policies.

Bible Games Central has offered free Bible games on their website for churches, youth groups, and families for years, and not too long ago ventured out to start making high-quality games for purchase. When we first took the games out of their boxes, we noticed how well the cards and directions were printed, and how sturdy the dice were (for the games that include them!) 

We tried out five games in all, but I'll share each of my child's favorites in this post. 

Bible Animals: Click Clack Match

Our littlest guy is four, and he hasn't really started to participate much in games yet because he doesn't understand the directions for many of them. When we started playing Bible Animals: Click Clack Match, he had a teammate in big sister. Soon he realized that she was cramping his style and that he wanted to go it alone. So, he picked up the animal dice, gave them a roll, and quickly matched them on the playing cards. The objective of the game is to roll the five dice, see if any of them match the animals on the playing cards in front of you, and be the first to complete a card so you can earn points. Apart from adding the points up, my four-year-old was able to play on his own, and even struck up a game another time with his sister, without mentioning it to me (which was a bittersweet mom moment to see my baby act so grown-up!) 

The age range on this game says 6+, but I think most 4 year-olds would be able to play it with a little bit of help, which makes this a great game for preschoolers or families with young children. The Bible learning factor isn't as strong in this game as some of the others, but we were able to talk about what role each animal has in the Bible as we played. 

Emoji Bible Stories Card Game

My daughter, who is 8, was really excited to play this game. It has three types of cards: blue emoji cards, purple story cards with emojis, and green story cards with just words. These options give lots of different ways to play this game. We delved out the green story cards, and then tried to make the story using emojis so that the other person could guess them. I loved how challenging this was! Each card has a reference number so that you can find the story in the Bible, and this helped us dig into the word a few times when we were unsure of the details. Trying to find the cards that we needed, or get creative with the cards that we use was also a challenge. In one game, I retold the story of Joshua and the walls of Jericho without a trumpet emoji, amazingly!

The Good Shepherd

The Good Shepherd is a card game the my middle son just loved! Each player tries to earn the most number of points on their "sheep" cards as they can. Some of the cards have predators on them that can attack the sheep, but if you have a shepherd card, you can prevent your sheep from being attacked. 

This game is so creative, and since it's different, it takes a little bit to understand what each card is capable of. I was surprised, though, that my son seemed to catch on quicker than I did! 

You can play this game with 2 or more players, and it's appropriate for ages 6+. No reading is required, since the cards have graphics on them that are pretty easy to understand. 

Bible Games Central

This is my second time reviewing games for Bible Games Central. (You can find my past review here.) I think this company is offering such great things for families and churches that I am so thankful to get to share about them! You can find free Thanksgiving and Christmas games on their site, as well as all of the games I've mentioned in this post. 

I originally thought that starting a homeschool blog as a licensed teacher would be helpful. Maybe I'd be able to contribute something important, some necessary knowledge into the homeschool realm. 

Now I worry that my voice might actually be detrimental. Am I perpetuating this harmful idea that only certain people are qualified to homeschool their own children? 

Over the past few years, I've realized this truth: 

You don't need to be a teacher to homeschool your children, just a learner.

The word "just" is in no way meant to demean being a learner. It emphasizes this: we all can be learners, therefore we all can homeschool our children. 

This is where I like to throw in the caveat that if you dropped out of your own schooling early, then completing your own education before beginning your child's makes sense. But for most people with a high school diploma or more, educating their own children is completely possible, if they are open to learning alongside their children. 

There are three main reasons why I believe this is true: 

Related: The Complete Charlotte Mason Early Years Guide

1. Education trends are constantly changing.

The education degree I earned more than 15 years ago is outdated. The methods I learned have been disproven with more "research," and approaches to classroom management have now become politically incorrect. A teacher does not rely on their teaching degree alone, but the constant intake of new ideas and information: on learning. 

I started my student-teaching experience in a rural school district in Indiana. I arrived rosy-faced and excited for the possibility of changing the world. Teachers make a difference!!!  But, I was quickly told by my supervising teacher, who apparently wanted a student teacher to ease the long wait until his retirement, that my methods were too liberal for this rural place. Reading real books was too extreme for this school, and instead, I should rely on piles and piles of worksheets to delve out to the class in order to ensure real learning occurred. I quickly had to learn how to appease the old ways of this teacher while hopefully getting something meaningful out of this experience. 

That story illustrates that a teaching degree varies in meaningfulness from place to place. The home is a place where a teaching degree isn't very meaningful. 

Related: Charlotte Mason Reading Lessons

2. There is a lot you don't know

While there is a lot that you do know, understanding that our knowledge isn't complete is key to homeschooling. We don't want to just impart wisdom onto our children, but we want to teach them to thirst for knowledge and wisdom. Having the mindset that you know all that there is to know doesn't model this important aspect of learning for our children. 

When we go into a lesson showing our children that we are learning too, the pressure to have all the answers is gone. If you didn't feel like your own education was complete, now's your chance to complete it. Read a book that you feel like you missed out on. Go to the library and research that economical principle that you never learned in school. It doesn't matter if you haven't learned it before, because you're learning it now. 

Thinking Love Podcast: Wisdom in Humility 

3. You already have the "management" part down

Much of teacher education revolves around managing a classroom. Getting 30 students to stay quiet enough to listen to what your saying, compliant enough to do what you tell them to, and organized enough so that the day doesn't explode into chaos is probably one of the most difficult parts of teaching. But when you homeschool, you've already been doing those things for years with your own small brood of people. 

The systems you use to manage your home have probably been in place since the start. When homeschooling enters the picture, you figure out what changes need to be made to your space, schedule, and discipline in order to make it work. No one can teach you this. Your home is unique, your children are unique, and so are you. Find all the tips and ideas that you can on Pinterest, but no one will be able to tell you what is best for your family. 

Homeschooling isn't easy, just as teaching in a school isn't. Don't let the comments of people who have never been in your shoes deter you from this amazing lifestyle. 

Each year, I search for words or ideas that can guide our homeschool, something to think about, pray about, and enlighten my thinking when I'm running out of emotional steam. This year, I didn't have to think about it too much because an idea wouldn't let me be: 

Education is organic. 

Organic: Related to or derived from living matter. Or, as it pertains to food, produced or involving production without the use of chemical fertilizers, pesticides, or other artificial agents.

We've talked about this phrase on the Thinking Love podcast before. It derives from Pestalozzi, who had a strong influence on Charlotte Mason. Since then, other educational philosophies have adopted it as their motto, but for me, I see it as a perfect idea to guide a Charlotte Mason home. 

Related: Why My Kids Are Out of Control 

Education is Organic

In the context of Charlotte Mason, "education is organic" means that children are born persons who want to learn and are capable of it. Learning can and does happen naturally, and doesn't need to be an artificially contrived event.

There can be outside forces that prevent us from being together and learning for the sheer joy of it. This year, I want our activities, our curriculum, our extra-curriculars, to be a natural part of our homeschool. No more struggling with enrichment programs that feel like another box on the to-do list or groups that have us straining for relationship. I've learned to let go here and there to make room for what is going to feed us spiritually, physically, and emotionally.

I'm letting the idea "education is organic" guide us in these areas:  

Related: Principles of Charlotte Mason Reading Instruction

Activities

We've spent too much time in activities that we wanted to work, when in reality, they actually were huge flops for us. Maybe it was the long drive, the timing, or the lack of connections with others. When I think that education is organic, it reminds me that what we do outside of our home should feel like a natural fit. This year, we switched homeschool enrichment programs from a Scholastic News laden school setting to one that replicates what we do at home, in a beautiful atmosphere with like-minded families. Preparing for a day out of the house no longer feels like losing a day of our week. 

Curriculum

We aren't making any major changes to our curriculum this year, but remembering that education is organic has helped me to let go of the things that don't fit naturally, are too "extra," or that I feel like we should do. I want my children to enjoy what they're learning, and I want to enjoy teaching them. For us, this happens mostly through living books. When we read together, we learn and connect, and it requires very little preparation from me. 

Time at home 

Time spent at home might be the biggest contributor to my vision of organic education. By allowing this time at home, I encourage my children to learn and explore naturally. We so often believe that learning is teacher led, something that occurs when a teacher tells a child what to read, think, or do. It makes no sense that a child will develop a love of learning by having it forced on them. 

A love of learning needs time; not necessarily time to develop, but time to learn. We too often lose our affinities if we don't have time to devote to them. I want to give my children time to explore something that interests them, time to read a book that I didn't assign, and time to meet new people that are treasure troves of wisdom. 

We are a few weeks into the school year, and I can already tell that these changes are helping.  

Related: Building Math Skills With Family Time Math