With the beginning of a new homeschool year almost upon us, I am once again waving my scheduling flag, trying to get your attention. Scheduling was my key to successfully homeschooling for 30 years while keeping up with my other home responsibilities. I would love to see you achieve that same level of success in your homeschool. What I suggest develops a schedule purposefully designed by you for the needs of your family, considering your priorities, and one that is thoroughly prayed through. “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him” (James 1:5). When would we need God’s wisdom more than with how to assign and manage our time?
Through the years as the Lord allowed us to share what He taught us about scheduling, other families discovered its benefits. Here is one of those stories:
I wanted to take this opportunity to thank you for writing Managers of Their Homes. I can’t remember how God led me to your program, but I can remember what our life was like.
We had a newborn, a critically ill 20-month-old, a kindergartener, and a 2nd grader. We’d been homeschooling for 2 years and had reached bottom. Little school got done, the house was a mess, and I was desperate. I knew I had found a God-blessed product when you directed me to pray about my family’s goals and priorities.
At the end of that academic year, we still had a small baby, a critically ill child, plus two in school. We also had accomplished vastly more at school and in our home. I wasn’t desperate any more. The difference was Managers of Their Homes and my schedule.
Beyond being a better homeschooling mom, we saw many benefits that are less tangible: kids with confidence because they could do helpful chores, kids who (mostly) looked forward to school time, a mother who didn’t yell, and a husband who became a whole-hearted supporter of homeschooling.
By sharing your wisdom through Managers of Their Homes, you taught me so many things I wish I’d known when I became a wife and mother.
Thanks,
Pam
There is no way to truly determine the value Pam received from her schedule. There were not only immediate benefits for her and her family, but also ones that will be with her children for the rest of their lives – education, a mom with a quiet heart, industrial children, a husband/wife homeschool team, and an efficient family life. I want those for your family!
God gives us a mandate in 1 Timothy 5:14: “I will therefore that the younger women marry, bear children, guide the house, give none occasion to the adversary to speak reproachfully.” When we don’t manage our homes, not only are we discouraged, but we give Satan the opportunity to discredit our Lord and ourselves. As you seek the Lord for the details of a schedule for your family, you are purposeful in your determination to guide your house.
For those who consistently use a schedule, you know that each year gets easier to put the schedule together. Your experience from the previous years of putting a schedule together and then following it is the reason. Often, you can use the basics from the last schedule such as bedtime, wake up time, chore time, meal time, and school time while only changing up the specifics of school time for the new ages and grades of your children. May I encourage you to get working on this year’s schedule so that you have enough time to fine tune it before it is the first day of school!
If you haven’t tried scheduling for your homeschool days, why not do it now? Perhaps you have used a schedule in the past but for some reason or other let it go. Are you reaping the negative consequences of not being on a schedule? Is this the school year to go back to a schedule? Maybe you simply need to move forward on prepping your schedule for a new school year.
Managers of Their Homes has helped tens of thousands of moms set up and run a schedule. Perhaps it would do the same for you.
