We seriously want to homeschool the boys – at least through elementary school.  I’d be happy if Kaylee would want to be homeschooled, but she doesn’t and since she’s thriving in public high school we don’t see a reason to remove her (although, I did spend several weeks this summer trying to talk her into it – lol).

I’m a busy person.  I tend to have several irons in the fire simultaneously.  I’m great at multitasking and quite capable of juggling.  However, I realize that if I want to homeschool the boys, I need to be able to stop everything around me, end the outside distractions, and just teach.  This is my trial year.  Scott just turned 5 and we are “Redshirting” him – so we’re going to work with a 4K program.  If I can do it full time this year, then we know we’ll be able to continue doing it.  If not, then we need look at our other options.

It’s taking completely restructuring my schedule.  While I was working all of this out, Gregg and I found out about his new job!  (Yay!)  That was a HUGE relief for me – what a load of weight off of my normal day just having my mate, my partner, my other part of my “one” home every night — which made me have to rework more things.

Here are the changes to my schedule that really stand out:

• The Homeschool day is now worked into it.
• I no longer have someone coming in to help me clean.  For the last several months, I was helping a family who needed the financial assistance.  But in a move to be more frugal, I’ve made some household cuts.  So, I’ve worked the major housecleaning back into my daily routine.  Honestly, that makes me happy.  I was not happy letting someone else do it, and so much wasn’t getting done the way I wanted it done.  It’s a relief to just have it all back under my own control.
• I am writing two days a week.  I have a babysitter coming from 8-2 on Tuesdays and Thursdays.  My blog work will take about 2-3 hours each of those two days, and then remaining 5-6 hours will be spent writing books or marketing my current books.  My babysitter is amazing and has about ten years of preschool work under her belt.  She will be doing an hour of phonics and reading work with Scott while Johnathan naps.
• I will no longer be volunteering at the soup kitchen – for now.  In order to do homeschool, the blog, and writing, I had to give up something.  There was absolutely no room in my schedule for it.  However, there has been a lot of restructuring there, they have several new cooks, and I am “on call” in case they find themselves in a jam and need a cook temporarily.  I am, however, still volunteering weekly for the Glen Eden Youth Center.
• I have WAAAAY less computer time.  Computer was the primary source of communication for Gregg and me.  By noon most days, he was in his room (8½ hours ahead of us) and we would spend several hours chatting online.  That gave me several hours a day to correspond, write, blog, Facebook, Tweet.  I am quite happy to be exchanging that time for teaching my boys and will do the bulk of my writing and correspondence on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

I finally have all of the kinks worked out of my new schedule, and we started implementing it yesterday.  Here is the link to the schedule tab.  It may be that Gregg’s job will require some adjustments.   I’ll make changes as they become apparent.

It looks a little intimidating at a glance.  But, there is a lot of downtime worked into the schedule to accommodate a boy’s need to move and play instead of sit and learn.  I’m a schedule girl – if I’m strict and stick to the schedule, it will all go smoothly.

Here is a copy of the schedule –and below it is my new chore chart.

And the weekly chore/laundry list:

Day	Task	Laundry
Daily	Sweep main floor including kitchen and living room Dishes Make beds Straighten bathroom Straighten toys/books
Monday	LIVING ROOM & DINING ROOM Sweep & mop Windows/glass doors Wash walls Dust Vacuum furniture	White bleach Red Tan/brown
Tuesday	MASTER BEDROOM Dust Sweep/mop Change bed LAUNDRY ROOM Mop Change cat litter Wipe appliances Straighten shelves	Jeans Towels
Wednesday	UPSTAIRS HALL & STAIRS Vacuum stairs Sweep/mop hall Wash walls Dust banister BATHROOMS Clean surfaces Mop BOYS’ ROOM Dust Sweep/mop Change beds	All bedding
Thursday	KITCHEN Mop Scrub counters Clean cabinets Clean appliances Wash windows Wash walls BASEMENT STAIRS/ OFFICE/ CLASSROOM Vacuum Dust railings Dust furniture Straighten books/ papers	Blue/purple Black Gray/green
Friday	OUTSIDE Mow Rake Sweep porches Mop Florida room Clean windows	Extra colored White no bleach

I am really really looking forward to seeing how this year turns out!

Hallee

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