Getting Organized:
In your home and homeschool
Dear Friends,
Thank you for sharing your progress with me this week. We have been decluttering in the kitchen and detail cleaning. Yesterday, I asked you to declutter in an area of the kitchen that you have been avoiding. Tell me where you decluttered.
Your testimonials and pictures encourage me. It is also a way to encourage yourself. You can see the progress you made, too. You are making progress one baby step at a time.
We all start with one step toward decluttering and taming the chaos monster. When I started following the FlyLady, I needed her encouragement and simple approach to decluttering. I needed the baby steps, too.
As my family grew, I taught my children their routines. I used a lot of praise and encouragement. I did the routines right along with them. I did not expect them to do something I was not willing to do myself.
If you are not getting dressed each morning and making your bed, how can you expect your children to do it?
I am not a fan of pajama school. You and your children will be more productive if you get dressed down to the shoes and make your bed each morning.
We are approach the summer, and that is a great time to focus on routines for everyone if you have been slack in doing your routines. The summer is also a great time for a decluttering project when you are not trying to fit in school work, too.
Some of you are even debating on whether or not to take a summer break with your kids. I want to encourage you to take a break. All of you need it. You may not have covered all of the material that you wanted to cover, but it will be okay.
Take a couple of weeks off completely from book work. Encourage your children to play outside. encourage them to be creative. Provide materials for them to do arts and crafts. Play music. Play games. Have fun!
If you want to incorporate some reading, check out your local library for a summer reading program. Many libraries offer rewards for reading achievements. Find some math review sheets. Assign very light practice in math and reading. You just want to keep their skills up. You are not trying to finish a book. (smile)
Allow yourself some down time from teaching. Dream again about things you want to do around the house. Make a list of areas you want to declutter. Then make a list of rewards for finishing. The rewards can vary, but you can find lots of inexpensive things to do in your community as a reward.
Dream big and have fun with your family!
Your Zone Mission today is to declutter items from one kitchen cabinet.
Your Home Blessing for today is to toss papers and magazines.
My menu plan for Thursday is stir fry.
Have a great day!
