Managing the home, managing the homeschool!

Updated 05/04/2010

As any busy homeschooling mother can tell you, the condition of the family’s house and home can and does have a direct impact on how much and how well the homeschooling goes. Mom and children can just function better when they are surrounded by order instead of chaos.

That doesn’t mean every homeschool family’s home has to look like Martha Stewart lives there, and it doesn’t have to be doused in bleach. But reasonably clean and organized is good. For me that means I could open my front door and let a visitor in without being embarrassed, no one is suffering from food poisoning, and if I want to find a book, pencil, or pen, it is not an all day adventure trying to locate one! If I pass on those, I’m doing pretty good.

Lots of moms on line have made their own Household Management Books or Binders (kind of like the ones you see at the beginning of Wife Swap every week, only much more in depth and practical!) These can be very useful to mom (saving up needed brain space for other stuff!) but also helpful when mom is sick or away allowing the husband and kids to have some idea of what to do, and when to do it!

These Household Management Binders can be as simple or as fancy as you want. You can spend some money on the forms to go in them, or you can simply make your own to suit your own taste.

There are a lot of places on line to help you put such a binder together if you are interested.

Of course the first place to start out for novices or beginners is
Fly lady. They take you baby step, by baby step through the process of putting your household binder together, and what to put in it!

Organized home.com is another good place to check out. It’s chock full of ideas on how to organize your home. (It organizes stuff I didn’t even realize needs to be organized!) They have tons of Free printables too, like this one!

Just as a side note, I liked the idea of this Price book for keeping track of prices and bargains.

For some real fun, check out Cindy Rushton’s Brains in a Binder! That ebook includes:
Front Cover
Introduction/Instructions To MYOBIB
Title Pages…
Yearly, Monthly, Daily Planning Pages……
Goal Setting…
My Contacts…
Discipleship Notebook Part One…
Discipleship Notebook Part Two…
Homeschool Planning Journal…
Managing the Home (Scheduling…Chore Charts…
Home Management…Menu Planning…)
Extras…
Our Other Products…
Back Cover

You can pick and choose what you want to copy.

Cindy is just one fun, energetic friendly lady. I bought her Brains in a Binder a few months ago when she was having a sale and have been enjoying it. Many of the other printables I purchased have been good too, particularly her ABC sheets for my daughter. Her stuff is a little pricey, but I think you get a lot of value for your money and I will definitely be a repeat customer.

I bought Manager’s of Their Homes years ago and just put her schedule into practice this year. If you are the mom of a big family (particularly if you were raised in a little family) this is a great book to help figure out how to handle it all. They also have:
Sample chore charts and Free templates

I also purchased A Homemaker’s Journal by Melissa Ringstaff a few months ago. It is inexpensive, well thought out and has some lovely forms to include in your binder.

For every kind of homeschooling form imaginable, Donna Young’s site is the place to check out!

Large Family Logistics walks you step by step into creating a home managment book for free! (You can sign up for their e-mails too just like Flylady)

Christian Women on Line does this also.

Starry Sky Ranch – has FREE downloadables as Word Documents and instructions on how to put your binder together.

Check out Nissa’s product at Simple Gifts You can buy the entire thing already made or get the CD and print your own forms!

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Some other intereting things I found.
Here are some links for beautiful covers and dividers for your binders.

NEW!! Check out this lovely homemaking magazine Mary Jane Farm!

Anne’s School Place. 

A word of caution, I do not recommend 30-year-old Candy Brauer’s Home Management Binder because I do not support or condone religious intolerance and bigotry

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