This Is This Week

This week, I am reflecting back on the first month of homeschooling.

Back-to-school always marks the start of a new season for us. We reign in our beach/sun/pool/summer-loving selves and return to a season of routines and schedules.

This year, I am homeschooling three children – 1st, 5th, and 7th grades – while also grappling with a super talkative “threenager” underfoot at all times.

After spending the last 5 months at my in-laws’ house (see my previous post on how we were uprooted when my house flooded) where the kids were fairly well spoiled, I was particularly eager to return to our normal rhythms and routines.

I am personally very laidback and tend to go with the flow, but I have learned from experience that my children do much better when we have a clear routine for the day.

However, it can be challenging to figure out the right balance between schedules and free time for kids. Here’s what we’ve done this fall.

Finding our Flow

When we initially returned home, I resurrected our previous chore charts.

We needed to ease into having scheduled chores again after having much less structure and more freedom at my in-laws’ house.

After a few weeks adjusting to a daily routine with household chores, we then added in our homeschool schedule. I did tweak the chore charts a bit when we added school to the mix, and we may need to change up each child’s responsibilities again before the end of the school year; for now, though, the structure is working!

Because it is the beginning of the year, school has been lasting from about 8:00 a.m. to noon if we don’t have to run any errands or encounter distractions. For my first grader, his schoolwork takes only a little over an hour, so I like to review his lessons with him as soon as breakfast is over.

What do our chores/household expectations look like?

Chores in our household vary by age, ability, and household needs.

I know many people have differing opinions about chores for kids, but this is what works for us.

My two oldest children have before and after school chores.

The oldest kids start the day unloading the dishwasher and taking care of the cats.

In the afternoon, chores may include vacuuming (we do this daily to stay on top of cat fur), laundry, bathroom cleaning, and sometimes a second round of dishwasher emptying. We also empty the trashes and our compost bowl on some afternoons.

Depending on the season, the kids may also have outdoor chores like mowing, weedwacking, stacking wood, etc.

One Tweak: Big Results

The one issue that remained in our daily schedules after getting into the groove of chores and schoolwork? Meals.

Or rather, meals, snacks, second meals, second snacks, quick bites, and lots of whining about food.

Though the kids were adjusting well, my personal morning routine felt pretty “meh.” It felt like I was rarely making it out of my kitchen.

My kids will eat all. day. long.

It makes me crazy because I am forever cooking, meal planning, prepping, and cleaning up. I love a good meal prep day – but I dislike when every day feels like meal prep day.

This fall, Sarah shared a minimalism challenge from Elle over at Modern Minimalism with me. I love a great 30-day challenge, and while I didn’t plan to complete the full challenge just yet, I glanced through the post.

She talks about having a morning “ritual” and also mentions the idea of a nightly “reset” to prepare for the next day.

I generally complete the nightly reset, but I decided to try “closing the kitchen” after breakfast each day as well.

Closing the Kitchen

One day, after breakfast, I cleaned the whole entire kitchen.

I mean everything.

Dishes, counters, table.

Every surface was cleared and wiped down.

And then I left the room.

It was amazing.

My kitchen stayed clean until lunch.

See, if my kids walk into the kitchen and I am making something or there is food out, then they want to eat. It’s almost like a Pavlov’s dog situation.

Cue? Reward.

Remove the cue? No reward needed.

Because the kitchen was clean and I was elsewhere in the house, my kids were all generally more content to carry out their morning without a snack.

BOOM. My morning routine has been established.

I don’t necessarily keep this schedule over the weekend (especially considering that my meal prep day is usually Sunday), but this one small tweak has been a game-changer on weekdays.

Do you have a morning routine? How do you feel about 30-day challenges? I’d love to hear any suggestions you have to share or about a daily routine that works for you.

Stay tuned – I’m planning some October challenges!