DIY Homeschooler

One of the most difficult things to get a handle on when we start educating our children at home is our schedule. There are only so many hours in a day. Along with our duties as wives and mothers, we add curriculum planner, tutor, and a host of other duties related to our homeschool. How do we get it all done?

Manager of Their Homes: A Practical Guide to Daily Scheduling for Christian Homeschool Families (MOTH) by Steven and Teri Maxwell offers a complete and detailed look at a homeschool mom’s schedule. The Maxwells are homeschool veterans of eight children and know something about scheduling!

First, why schedule? There are those of us who believe a schedule would drain the life out of our homeschool. But every homeschool needs some type of organizing framework. For some this will look more like a to-do list or a routine. Others will use a planner organized down to the minutes. Whatever our organizing style, we can all benefit from the authors’ experience (and other pilot families) in balancing homeschool chores, babies, meals and other priorities.

The book includes a scheduling kit that contains all of the forms or worksheets that we need to create a schedule for our families. We begin by determining those activities each person in the family are required to do and the approximate time it takes to do them. Based on those activity lists, we create preparation worksheets by filling in boxes that represent 1/2 hour or 1 hour slots for each activity, a different color sheet for each individual. Then we can move these boxes into an arrangement on a final schedule.

If this sounds complicated, the authors have provided us with a wealth of example worksheets and schedules. Scheduling tips help us plan for those days when things will go awry. There are tips for implementing a schedule to make sure the entire family is on board, revising, and keeping the schedule as a tool instead of a task master. The many, many comments from homeschool moms who have used the scheduling kit gives us an inside look at how it can work in our home.

Although counter-intuitive, a schedule can be very freeing. If you have found your homeschool organizationally challenged, MOTH can help you get back on track.

You’ll find the Table of Contents and sample pages at the Titus2 site.

Highly recommended!