Winging It No More

Today, I'm trying to get a jump on planning for our homeschool year, and I can't think of a better way to prepare than summer vacation!

Cricket, cricket. 

Wait, those two concepts seem like opposites to you? Hear me out. I am a planner by nature, but at the same time, when my life goes in about 18 different directions, I have a great master plan, but I tend to wing the details in between. Once we start our school year, we will have a degree of flexibility in each day's goals. Do we want to do a trip to the zoo in the morning, and school in the afternoon? Or forgo the work to spend the day at the splash pad and have a discussion about water conservation and pipe systems? THAT is going to be fun. But ultimately, the day to day needs of our household won't change.

They (who the heck are "they" anyway?) say it takes 21 days to make a habit. I'd say that for me, it takes even longer. I'm just a realist. It's been awhile since we've had a consistent routine, and it's been easy to just wing it on the non-routine days. So, I'm going to use summer as a trial run to get all of us consistent on wake-up times, meal planning, and chores.

WAKE UP TIMES

Right now, Bug gets up at 5:45 to get on the bus. Isn't that sad? The benefit in that is that she gets free breakfast at school, thanks to the district demographics. She's not a wake up and eat kid, so it works well for her. I know for a fact, however, that she'd much rather be asleep! On weekends and days off, the kids tend to sleep until 8:30, sometimes 9 a.m. I think that's going to be a little late to start our day during the school year, especially on co-op days. My goal is for them to get up about 7:15. I think that will give them enough time to get dressed, have bathroom time, make beds, and then eat, so we can start our day around 8-8:30.

Of course, that's just the kids. I find that I'm most productive during the day when I get up before the kids. Right now, it's so tempting to go back to sleep after Bug gets on the bus, especially if the little two are still asleep, especially if I was up late the night before. My ideal scenario (I said ideal, friends...) would be to wake up around 6, make coffee, get dressed, have some time in the Word, and go over our plans for the day or write. I can also prep anything that's needed for the day's meals, and have some much needed alone time before the stampede begins.

FEEDING THE HERD

It's going to be an adjustment, feeding all three kids breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks. As I wrote before, Bug has had school breakfast, so I haven't had to feed her breakfast consistently in two years. Belly is a fully eating member of the household, too. So meal planning each course is going to be critical, and this is twofold. First and foremost, I don't want to get in a rut where our favorite things become boring. Secondly, I want to avoid the "what do you want/no, not that" black hole. So it is written, so it shall be done.

I'm thinking of attempting a monthly meal plan, but I'm not 100% sure about that. I prefer to shop the sales and, and build the week's menu around the specials. I do weekly meal planning pretty consistently already, and it works well for us.

The really fun part is going to be trying to keep all that extra food in the same parameters as my current grocery budget. I've fed us well on much less, so it actually won't be hard. Saving money on groceries is actually really, truly fun to me. We don't eat a lot of processed or pre-packaged foods (except for snacks like Goldfish, granola bars, fruit snacks, etc.), and feeding my kids things made from whole foods, made from scratch is a lot easier and cheaper than you'd think. I'll share some of our favorite things as I make them, as well as a cost breakdown. We usually spend about $150/week for our family of five.

CHORES

Bug is a very willing helper, but at this point, she doesn't have any set chores. Bud is an enthusiastic volunteer, but not a willing recruit. This will change, friends. Oh, how this will change! Bug has a really long day, and when she gets home, I want her to have time to be a kid and play. If that means she doesn't have set chores, I've been ok with that. But now that her time is mine (bwahahahahaha!), I can work age appropriate chores into both of their days. They will both make their beds, pick up toys, help keep the classroom neat and tidy, take care of the dog, setting and clearing the table, dusting, and helping with bathrooms. Cooking, in my opinion, should never be lumped into chores. Both of my kids love to help cook, which I like to use as bonding and teaching (hello, fractions). We will be implementing a reward system/allowance eventually.

I'll walk you through each step of the process in future posts! If you have any great resources, let me know!