Category Archives: Organization

Catholic Homeschooling 101, Catholic Sistas, Organization, Raising Saints

Getting Over the Free Range Chicken Syndrome in Catholic Homeschooling {OR How to Find Order in Your Homeschool}

June 12, 2013 RaisingAdmin 1 Comment

For me, homeschooling was about pride for a long time. We were going to do everything differently from schooled children, every day, and all the time. There was no way I was going to teach my children like school systems teach or keep such a tight schedule. We will school in our pajamas and we will wake up when our body is ready to wake up! We will go on field trips at least once a week! We will do arts and crafts every day! Free range chickens vs. those chickens in those super crowded, mega sized coups. We are free range chickens!!! At least we were… until I realized that we are not.

I realized that my family has needs that free range chickens do not have. By my family, I mean the mother hen (the rooster kinda goes with the flow most of the time when it comes to homeschooling issues. He mostly steps in to discipline when called upon by a frantic mother hen). Two years ago I gave in and took another look at my Free-Range Chicken Philosophy. Even though we were getting all our schoolwork done, there was an overall feeling of chaos throughout the day. From meal planning to lesson planning to crisis management, it was all improvised. Day in, and day out…free range chickens!

So what was not working with this free range chicken philosophy?

Homeschool Schoolroom Make Over

October 15, 2012 RaisingAdmin Leave a comment

Year 4, five children, one room, six desks, what is a home educator to do with our school room?

Step One: Look around and PANIC because what you thought you had done, doesn’t look to hot by week six of your homeschool year. It’s year four and all and you *should* have this under control right? Right? No.

Step Two: Think of the kids, how the function, where you need more space, which direction are the windows, stop starring at the disorganized and incredibly FULL bookshelf in the room, and definitely STOP thinking that DH needs to finally build that really cool one you saw on Pinterest and want so bad.

Step Three: Keep Calm and grab some coffee.

This, my friends, was me last week on Friday. I thought I had organized the schoolroom for the 11 billionth trillionth time and that it looked good….but, but…once we started using the room, it wasn’t functioning. So it was time to give our schoolroom a Make Over! I didn’t want to go out to the dreaded Dollar Store, one more, time….so I worked with what I had in the house. Double brownie points for me in the end when the room looked FANTASTIC and I got to brag that we didn’t spend one more cent on it. So here is our new school room, in pictures. I will caption each section describing in as much detail what I did and why I felt it made a difference. Enjoy!

This is our Word Wall.
As the children learn new sight words we add them to the word wall.
It’s their “trophy” for conquering the new words.

This is a close up of the Letter Tt on our Word Wall.
I have chosen to BOX the letters so that the children continue to see the shape of the words.

These are the children’s Workboxes. Each shelf has nine workboxes.
The ones on the left belong to our second grader, he uses all nine boxes.
The ones on the right are shared by our first grader who uses boxes #1-6
and our preschooler who has boxes #7-9.

This is our preschooler’s desk.
Next to him are three bins (red, yellow, red) with the flash cards he likes to use.
Thankfully, he is not a daydreamer so facing the window isn’t an issue for him. His desk and chair was a FreeCycle find….yep, they were free!

These desks belong to our first and second graders.
They use the little space under their seat to store their independent reading book,
their dry erase board tablets, and their daily journals. I place the old play rug under their desks so that it keeps the desks in one spot in the room plus it protects the wood floor. I got these two desks on FreeCycle (yep, for FREE)…they were dirty and written on so I cleaned them up and got them back into good and usable shape. I love free finds like these!

This is the corner next to our preschooler’s desk,
the top of the shelf are items for the teacher/mom ONLY. 😉

This is the supply shelf, I used small coffee tin cans to store supplies like pencils, rubber bands, chalk, scissors, glue, etc. I covered them with a pretty paper I made, if you are interested I can upload them, just leave me a comment. The old wipe tub holds blank index cards which the kids use to draw on or to write notes to friends/family. The second shelf stores their flash cards. The first one is Religious ones, the middle one is Math and Science, and the right one is Reading. They are either in individual small ziploc bags or with rubber bands. Only one set per child is allowed out at a time.

I added the green curtains which my MIL gave me a while back and I didn’t know which room to use them in so they were sitting in a closet. They match the containers in the bookshelf perfectly.

THIS is the main reason I started this Make Over, the bookshelf, it was such a mess…
what I did was use these little crates I picked up at the Dollar Store long ago…
I had them full of junk/toys basically and now they store books.
On top of the shelf I placed the supplies I do not want the children handling without my help.
The first shelf stores my books which I make copies from or I use as resources.
The second shelf has books from last year which I use to go back to when needed in addition to our Scholastic Readers Series. The third row has green containers from the Dollar Store which now have our easy readers in two, our little Father Lavasik religion books in another. The last two shelves have educational puzzles and games which we use frequently. Most Dollar Store or Marshalls finds.

This room has two entrances but no doors this is the view from the living room into the schoolroom and what I consider the front of the room. The student workboxes are in the front.
In the corner there I have little tables with papers, notebooks, construction paper, colored pencils, and other supplies for the toddler to use. It’s his “desk” when he “does school” 🙂
The tables are big enough for him to work his little puzzles on which are located to the right of him.

This is the other view from the side entrance into the school room. Here you can see the children on the left. They are on the school room computer. You can see the front of the room here, the map, the calendar, our Morning Message Board, and our teaching board. On top of the boards is a line with clothespins to display the work of the children. On the opposite corner (on the left of this picture) is our eldest son’s desk/computer. But recently, he likes to go to our dinning room table and spread his books out.

Here you can see our Morning Routine calendar and morning message, our prayers and our focus of the week.

This is the dry erase board I use for our Morning Message and also has the Letter of the Week for our Preschooler, the Feast Day, and our Count Down of the Week and Day of School. To the left of this is our calendar. I bought these dry erase boards on Craigslist for like $10 for two of them…the one on the right is the one I use for teaching.

Hope you have enjoyed our school room make over!

Thanks for stopping by.

Blessings,

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daily organizer, homeschooling, motherhood, Organization, printables

Organized Mom = Happy Home {Daily Organizer Free Printable}

May 3, 2012 RaisingAdmin 3 Comments

WARNING: I am not an organized person, never was as a child, nor a young adult, and now as an adult it has been one of my constant struggles. When I first read books like A Mother’s Rule of Life by Holly Pierlot, I thought, “there is no way I can micro-manage my life like that – NEVER happening, nope…I will be miserable!” Honestly, I believed that becoming a micro-manager in my home, homeschool, and daily life would equal a tormented mommy and wife. I mean if every aspect of my life was organized and timed and schedule, when would I find the time to “play”, “relax” and really “enjoy life”. So I went with the flow like I always did, organized my homeschool, some, the house, some, my prayer life, some. But my so-called “freedom mentality” was just the opposite! Yeah, I admit it, I was dead wrong!

With the move to the new house and adding 400+ square feet more to clean and keep organized PLUS depleting the house of clutter by selling or giving away TONS of things before the move, this was my opportunity to give this micro-management a try. I went kicking and screaming, I confess (to you and my spiritual director). So I started searching for a method, a practice, what would work for me but also get me to be super organized. I bought a new book written by fellow Catholic homeschooler (and blogger) Laura Dominick entitled, A Plan for Joy in the Home (highly recommend it!), re-read the old ones (actually, I skimmed), and searched the internet for an answer, Holly at The Three Sided Wheel has other great printables and has been a great inspiration to me. After seeing many examples of great domesticity and ideas, I came up with a game plan to implement at home. {Pray for me, this hasn’t been easy but it is so necessary.}

It’s amazing how getting everything written down on paper helps to get your life in order.

I will be posting in parts, the way I set up a cleaning schedule, a chore schedule (which we are still working on), a school schedule and daily micro-management of my home. Maybe, my struggles will be an inspiration to another mama like me, who struggles in this department? So here I will chronicle my journey to becoming an Organized Mama and in turn creating a Happy, Healthy and Holy Home (Domestic Church anyone?). I, of course, will also be sharing all the goodies I’ve spent time working on. They are, obviously, going to be super “cuttie-patooty”, because I’m a visual learner and like “pretty”. So today I’d like to share my Daily Organizer. I know it won’t be a practical sheet for EVERYONE and yes it is in color but I do print front and back (to save trees) and also on draft mode (to save on ink).

Daily Organizer

Also, if you don’t want to have to print this all the time, go ahead and print in regular mode (for bright colors), slip this into a heavy-duty sheet protector and use a dry erase marker. But if you are like me, I love saving the sheets to look back on things. Another idea is to print a week’s worth and then sheet protect them so that you have the whole week to look at but other clean sheets available to use. Enjoy!

UPDATE: After printing on draft mode and keeping the sheets I realized that there was no need as I have my monthly planner that stores it all. SO, I printed regular mode and slipped them into sheet protectors. I love the bright colors. I also made a second sheet that doesn’t contain the flower back ground for all the even pages (it is page two on the PDF above). I printed 14 so I have two weeks available to write on to plan ahead. Here’s what the second sheet looks like:

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housekeeping, laundry, Organization

A Laundry System that Works!

January 30, 2012 RaisingAdmin Leave a comment

I love this little cartoon I found last year, a little humor before we start talking Laundry Systems:

Are you or your children allergic to laundry? Do you dread when it’s laundry day? or is laundry day every day at your home? Well I have the remedy for your agony! Once you use my laundry system, adapted from my dear friend Stephanie, you are going to never think laundry is a chore…you will embrace it!

Here are some easy steps to help you get started:

BEFORE YOU BEGIN

1. CLOTHING: Make sure that each person/child has about 12 to 14 outfits to their name. This does not include under clothing and socks, just outfits. For underclothing and socks, I’d recommend a little more than the number of outfits just in case, especially when potty training. 😉 Also, make sure that your child has their drawers organized and easy to find where everything goes. If need-be, give them a tour of their drawers and where their hangers are so that putting clothing away is easy-peasy!

2. BASKETS: Get one laundry basket per person, if you want, you can color code them or do like I did, I bought two rounds for the smaller children and three squares for the bigger ones. I avoided the rectangular shapes ones because of the small space I have for each basket. You could also label each basket with your child’s name. My husband and I share a basket and this is the only one that I actually sort anymore…we share only because we don’t have the space to have two baskets in there.

ALSO, I have TWO more baskets in the bathroom closet one for towels and another for linens. These are my old rectangular laundry baskets, by the way. So in my case, a family with five kids, we have 5 kid baskets + 2 linen/towel baskets +1 parent basket = 8 baskets. Notice, you are already sorted out the laundry this way! 😉

Here are some choices of baskets that aren’t so bulky but hold the same amount of clothing as a larger rectangular basket:

I have three of these for the bigger children.

I have two of these for the smaller children.

When my first kids where smaller, I had these as laundry baskets and while they are super cute and you can color coordinate with your kids room, I honestly hated them and got rid of them when I implemented this system, so I don’t recommend them. BUT if you can’t purchase new baskets and these are the ones you have, don’t let this stop you from reading on.:

3. LAUNDRY ROOM: Have a “catch-all” basket in your laundry room, especially if it’s on the first floor and your kids’ rooms are on a second, or vice-versa. I really like this one (the one I have has only two compartments) but you can just have a general one…here is where I place my kitchen towels, etc.:

Also, make sure you add all the items you use for your laundry room on your grocery shopping list. This will remind you to check before leaving to the store and always have items in stock. 🙂

THE SYSTEM

1. SORTING: Since each child has his/her own laundry basket the clothing is already sorted. My kids have a bad habit of turning their clothing inside out when they take it off. If they do this, they stand next to me and flip them back out and they also get a lesson in putting the clothing in the wash. Trust me, once you get them to do this often enough, they start remembering to turn the clothing the right side the next time the change.

2. ROTATIONS: You have to ways of doing this.
A) once a basket is full, the child (if able to do so) brings his/her basket to the laundry room to get it washed OR like I do,
B) have an assigned day to wash per person. So here’s our rotations:

Mondays: Dad and Mom

Tuesdays: Child 1

Wednesdays: Child 2

Thursdays: Child 3

Fridays: Child 4

Saturdays: Child 5

Sundays: NO LAUNDRY, it’s the Lord’s day! 😉

Using this rotation, you will do laundry every two weeks or so. 🙂 So in essence when you look at a two week (14 days) time period, you have six days of laundry (if you have as many kids as I do) and eight days off without laundry! If you have less kids then you have less time between laundry days! If you have more kids than we do, I’d double up on kids so child 1 and 2 on Mondays, child 3 and 4 on Tuesdays…ect. OR if you want to have less laundry days do this as well. When I know we are going to have a busy week and it’s time for laundry, I double or triple up.

We don’t sort whites and darks, we wash the kids clothing all together….about every 2-3 months, I do grab underclothing and socks that might need bleaching and do sort but I don’t do this every laundry cycle.

3. FOLDING & PUTTING AWAY: The key for this system to work is that you fold the clothing as they come out of the dryer. Sometimes we have an errand to run and I have to tumble the clothing for about 10 minutes to de-wrinkle them. I fold and put back in their assigned basket. Each kid (if of age and able to) helps fold and take their own baskets back up. Some with supervision, I get them to put their clothing away on their own. 🙂 When folding stack all the pants together, all the shirts together, etc. so that when you or your child puts the clothing away everything is sorted and organized to easily put away. Then grab the basket and put it so that they have it back in the designated location. If they changed clothing while their basket was gone, I have them put the clothing on the floor where the basket is normally placed so that when returned, they just put it in the basket.

4. SPACE: If you have space issues and one basket per person is a pain to your ears, this is my solution for you:

Source: ana-white.com via Mama Erika on Pinterest

Tips on pesty lost socks: Teach your kids to put socks one inside the other when they take them off, this keeps them from getting lost. Also, don’t buy the same style for all the boys or all the girls if they are different sizes, this makes putting socks back together a pain!

Once I started using this system, I really didn’t hate doing laundry! Also remember every toilet scrubbed with love gets us an inch closer to Heaven! (includes tantrums and gentle guidance towards little people that test our motherly patience as well, lol)…Todd calls it the PASS technique = Purgatory Avoidance Suffering System!

Here are other systems that I have seen that worked too:
1. A Laundry System for Large Families…and small ones too! (Liz and I were trained by Stephanie, a mom to 6)
2. I love doing the laundry, really!
3. A Laundry System that Works!
4. Finding a Laundry System That Works for You
5. Home Organizing Tip #3: The Laundry

Have you learned to tame the laundry monster? Tell me how you did it and if you blogged about it, please leave a comment with a link!

Thanks for stopping by! Remember organization + clean = peace!

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authentic life, catholic, December Mama Mission, goals, Mama Jen, November Mama Mission, Organization, raising children

On Raising Saints: Mama Mission for December {and November Accomplishments}

December 2, 2011 RaisingAdmin Leave a comment

Welcome to On Raising Saints: Mama Mission!!! I am setting monthly goals for myself and posting them here. A couple of mama friends have also joined up in hopes of living a more authentic Catholic life. If you missed my introductory post On Raising Saints: Mama Missions, please go there first before continuing and especially if you want to participate as well.

November Mission Update: November was my first month doing the Raising Saints: Mama Mission. November has come and gone and now I get to let you all know how I did, lol. {hear the lack of excitement in my voice?} Looking back, my November Mission was VERY ambitious (don’t say I told you so, but one of you told me so, lol). Here’s my list from November:

These are my missions for the month of November:

1. Get up at 6:30AM. {Epic fail! I think I did this maybe 5 of the 30 days in November, I’m so not the early bird! *sigh*}

2. Get to bed by 10:30PM. {Another Epic fail! Of course, I am totally an night owl, this is something I’ve been trying to work on for two years now, so I have to cut me some slake and not think I can accomplish this in 30 days, lol (Why? see epic fail above in no. 1)}

3. Update the Chore Chart now that the kids are ready for new jobs (smaller kids ready for more responsibilities). {I started this and not finished, I’m analyzing whom will do what and testing out before printing so, I’ll say this is half done}

4. Finish reading Raising Real Men for Timberdoodle. {Still reading the book, love it, but I’m also reading 3 other books, I have to stop reading more than one at a time, lol, add to December mission?}

5. Keep up with reading and using Magnificat on a daily basis to start and end my days with prayers. {I did pretty good with this one, LOVED the Magnificat and posting about how awesome it is and what a great Christmas gift this would be from your hubbys *hint* *hint*}

6. Go to daily Mass. {This got squashed because our Parish went from two Masses daily to one Mass and alternating mornings and evenings. My hubby did better than I on this one, and since we are ONE in Christ through Marriage, I’ll give this one a half accomplishment as well, lol}

7. Get to Co-Op in time for the Rosary which isn’t mandatory so I use that time to get there instead of being there :(. {This didn’t happen but once, Co-Op is over. I did, however prayed the Rosary on the way there if we knew we weren’t going to join the group. Half accomplishment!}

8. Purge toys and clothing by giving the good things away to those who need them. DONE! Yay, this felt so good…I got two huge garbage bags full, also got a still usable but not needed monitor and donates all to Goodwill. I need another toy purge though and deciding on becoming a minimalist in this department, more later.}

9. Stick to my daily schedule with the kids as much as possible (I know things happen but I really need to be more in this). {With some wiggle room, this was accomplished, except not at the desired times, see #s 1 and 2 above!}

10. Catch up with all the reviews I need to do for this blog (I have a box full of goodies). {Reviews are in the works, for some reason (maybe because of Christmas) a bunch of them came in the door all at the same time}

While I did make progress in some of the items, I didn’t get most of it accomplished so for November I’ll have to say that:

My On Raising Saints Mama Mission for December 2011: I’m going to go lean this time and not set myself for some future failure, rofl, and considering we are busy with Advent and preparing for Christmas, here is my mission:
1. Get up at 6:30AM & Get to bed by 10:30PM.
2. Update the Chore Chart now that the kids are ready for new jobs (smaller kids ready for more responsibilities).
3. Finish reading Raising Real Men for Timberdoodle.

What is your December Mama Mission? If you participated last month, how did you do?

Blessings,

Mama Erika

This post is linked up over at Mama Jenn’s (the creator of Mama Missions).

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catholic homeschoolers, father's day prayer, Mission of the Month, November Mama Mission, Organization

On Raising Little Saints: Mama Mission for November

November 2, 2011 RaisingAdmin Leave a comment

Don’t you just hate how most blogging Mamas make their houses look like everything is perfect and beautiful and nothing goes wrong? lol….Blogs make it look this way because we like to share the good news or the things we are most proud of but not necessarily the things we are ashamed of or the things that we don’t want others to know. I mean I don’t think our entire lives should be blogged but the reality is we are all imperfect humans trying to achieve perfection in some ways.

On All Saints Day, Father gave a homily on the Saints where he recalled the vast number of people who had been beatified or canonized during Pope John Paul II’s pontificate. He explained the reason for this, Blessed John Paul II wanted to make it very clear that the Lord calls us all to Heaven and hence all to be Saints. This is why he proclaims so many as saints during his pontificate, he wanted us to see that saints were like us, they were seeking the same things as us, to be saints, just that here on Earth they were able to achieve marvelous things – one day at a time.

This got me thinking about my life and the things I’d like to accomplish and the stumbling blocks I sometimes create on my own because, “life happens!” I realized too that one of the many benefits of being a blogging Mama is accountability. Maybe you aren’t holding me accountable but for some reason I feel like if I publish it on my blog, I need to keep up my end of the promise and do it. Plus, it makes me think of what kind of example I am setting for my kids. My goal is to Raise Little Saints, the main purpose for this blog and hence, it’s name….so to do so, I believe, I need to set a good example to my children by goal setting and achieving.

A good friend of mine who is discerning her vocation (she is single and contemplating becoming a nun) had a conversation last night. She, in her quest to hear God’s voice, is going to do a 40 Day Fast but is scared to fail and not make it the 40 days. Since I’ve done 40 Days for Priests where we prayed as well as fasted and abstained from worldly things, my advise to her was to take it a week at a time, set up small goals. Her and I have similar types of spiritual blocks, we set ourselves up for failure by setting spiritual goals that are too high and far to reach. Which is why I was able to give her this piece of advise, one that I needed to hear for myself, isn’t that funny? “It is in the small steps that we achieve greatness”, I believe Blessed Mother Teresa used to say. 🙂

A couple of months ago I stumbled on Mama Jenn’s amazing idea. She, like I feel, holds herself accountable when she blogs about something so she started this great idea for blogging Mamas. She calls it “Mama’s Mission of the Month“! Her hope is “that this will help me {and you} follow through on some of the goals that we have set for the month”! So, if you are a mama and you want to join in, check out the intro post over at Mama Jenn!

I’d like to add further that if you don’t have a blog and would like to participate you can feel free to add your Missions in the combox of my monthly missions 🙂 This way you can participate even if you don’t have a blog and don’t care to start one.

I will post my Mission of the Month on the 1st of each month, I will link my post to Mama Jenn’s monthly mission post (she has a linky available until the 5th). On each subsequent post you will not only put your mission but also your accomplishments.

When you post the new mission for the next month, you will list your Missions Accomplished under this:

and hopefully not need to list them under this, but sometimes life happens and you might need it (and that is what next month is for right?):

Mama Jenn says, “Your mission can be as big or as small as you would like it to be…just be sure that it is something that you can realistically accomplish! Now, I must be clear, this is meant to encourage you to accomplish some of those things that you may not have otherwise accomplished. This is NOT intended to bring condemnation of any sort! If you don’t accomplish your mission…no worries…give it a shot the following month.”

These are my missions for the month of November:

1. Get up at 6:30AM.

2. Get to bed by 10:30PM.

3. Update the Chore Chart now that the kids are ready for new jobs (smaller kids ready for more responsibilities).

4. Finish reading Raising Real Men for Timberdoodle.

5. Keep up with reading and using Magnificat on a daily basis to start and end my days with prayers.

6. Go to daily Mass.

7. Get to Co-Op in time for the Rosary which isn’t mandatory so I use that time to get there instead of being there :(.

8. Purge toys and clothing by giving the good things away to those who need them.

9. Stick to my daily schedule with the kids as much as possible (I know things happen but I really need to be more in this).

10. Catch up with all the reviews I need to do for this blog (I have a box full of goodies).

So what do you say? Want to join me in this?

Friends who are Raising Little Saints like we are and

joining me on the Monthly Missions:

Mama Krystin’s November Mission

Mama Pattie’s November Mission

Legos and Dinosaurs//Life with Boys

Are you in? Leave me a link in the combox to your blog where your Mission is and I’ll link it up to mine! 🙂

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Organization, planners

Need a 2011 Planner?

March 9, 2011 RaisingAdmin Leave a comment

Need a planner? Looking to get organized? Family-centered Press (Catholic) has their 2011 Planners on sale!!! Look how lovely the covers are:

Their normal price is $25 and they are on sale right now for less than half the price at $12!! I just ordered two (one to share)…if you need a planner or aren’t happy with the one you got (like me), this is a great deal!

Enjoy! (no I did not or do not receive anything for sharing this, lol)

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Domestic Church, homeschooling, housekeeping, Organization

Getting Over the Free-Range Chicken Syndrome (Part II)

January 19, 2011 RaisingAdmin 4 Comments

Getting Over the Free-Range Chicken Syndrome (Part I)

January 15, 2011 RaisingAdmin 3 Comments

For me, home schooling was about pride for a long time. We were going to do everything differently from schooled children, every day, and all the time. There was no way I was going to teach my children like school systems teach or keep such a tight schedule. We will school in our pajamas and we will wake up when our body is ready to wake up! We will go on field trips at least once a week! We will do arts and crafts every day! Free range chickens vs. those chickens in those super crowded, mega sized coups. We are free range chickens!!! At least we were until I realized that we are not.

The Ortizes have needs that free range chickens don’t have. By the Ortizes, I mean the mother hen (the rooster kinda goes with the flow most of the time when it comes to home schooling issues. He mostly steps in to discipline when called upon by a frantic mother hen). Two years ago I gave in and took another look at my Free-Range Chicken Philosophy. Even though we were getting all our schoolwork done, there was an overall feeling of chaos throughout the day. From meal planning to lesson planning to crisis management, it was all improvised.

Realizing I have three girls who changed outfits at least three times every day and, later, a son that actually required changing outfits at least three times a day forced me take another look at the Freedom of Attire Policy in our home. Having four children wake up at different times of the day meant they would get hungry at different times of the day so the Letting Your Body Wake Up When It Is Ready Policy started losing popularity. We were struggling with diligence and willingness (with a good attitude) so the Get Your Chores Done Any Time Before Bedtime Policy got sent to editing. Spending one whole day out of the house every week started to mean spending one whole day packing and preparing for the next day, so the One Fieldtrip a Week Policy got in line for the axe.

At about the same time, a dear friend kept saying that we must train our children’s will so that they don’t have the same internal struggles that we do. Another friend, kept mentioning the importance of actually being at home. I tended to agree with all they were saying and yet, it just did not occur to me that these were essential for a joyful home schooling environment in my Free-Range Chicken world. Then one day, it did and the idea of a big modified and highly efficient coup for my free range chicks started to grow on me.

I started looking at what other people were doing in their homes. Two of my closest friends, Mimi and Christine, had just come home from FPEA with Accountable Kids’ chore tabs which the children switched from one wooden peg to another as they completed them. I thought they were amazing! Another friend, Theresa, had passed out a list of age appropriate chores at one of our mom meetings. I was awed by what she proposed little ones could and would do.

At our Little Flower’s meetings lead by the most awesomest ( yes, that is a world if you really mean it) LF leader on earth (yes, you are Jenny) the kids were learning about self-motivated industry, humility, love of neighbor, love of God and many other great virtues. The wheels started turning in my head: How can I implement all these great things without sending my free-range chickens into shock?

Tabs would never work in our home because I have seen what they do with the loose parts of toys and games. (I mostly find that they don’t survive the washer and dryer.) I had a lot of questions desperately needing answers, like:

What to do about all those outfits the girls seem to need to change into every day?
How does one train a will exactly?
How do I get them to want to do the things that I have to repeat thirty times a day everyday like it was the first time I said it to them? (Yeah, because Catholic home schooling moms never yell and never lose their patience…when strangers are watching!)
How do I reinforce everything they are learning at Little Flowers at home, constantly?

I am a definite visual learner and suffer from very acute CIADD (Child Induced Attention Deficit Disorder) so if I was to stick to a new plan, it needed to be on paper, a big colorful paper…..

[Stay tuned for Part II of Getting Over the Free-Range Chicken Syndrome….]

In the meantime, did you have an epiphany about the need for an organized Domestic Church/Homeschool? If so, what triggered it for you? (just don’t tell us what you did just yet – save that lovely comment for Part Deux of this post)…come on, don’t be shy!

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Raising {&Teaching} Little Saints

Category Archives: Organization

Getting Over the Free Range Chicken Syndrome in Catholic Homeschooling {OR How to Find Order in Your Homeschool}

Homeschool Schoolroom Make Over

Organized Mom = Happy Home {Daily Organizer Free Printable}

A Laundry System that Works!

On Raising Saints: Mama Mission for December {and November Accomplishments}

On Raising Little Saints: Mama Mission for November

Need a 2011 Planner?

Getting Over the Free-Range Chicken Syndrome (Part II)

Getting Over the Free-Range Chicken Syndrome (Part I)

Catholic Homeschooling Resources & Blog