Quick Tips to Make This Year Tops by Cindy Rushton

How is your New Year Going? Can you believe that we are in the middle of MARCH??? WOW! Can you believe it?

Are you making the most of this year? Do you want to make the most of every minute this year? That is what this article is all about! Here are some quick tips for making the most of every second with your children so you can make this year tops! Here goes…

* SET UP YOUR DAILY LESSONS AROUND YOUR FAMILY LIFE. You do not have to imitate a classroom setting in your home. Rather, set up your daily lessons around the way your family functions best. Get to know your children, your own teaching style, and your lifestyle. How can learning be the most natural? What are the best hours for lessons? What environment do your children need to learn best? What type of environment do you need to teach most effectively? Set up your lessons around how your family functions best!

* LEARN AS A FAMILY! It is not all up to you! One of the greatest resources that you and I have at our disposal is the interests and relationships within our own families. For example, Matthew is our “history buff.” Just sitting around talking as a family can set the atmosphere for the very best history lessons, especially if we pick Matthew’s brain. Actually, he loves history so much that if we will just listen to him, we can learn what he knows. No lesson plans. No teacher’s manuals. No lesson preparation. Just relationships! Then, we come to Elisabeth, our walking Science and Art manual! What about your family? Be a family. Take the pressure off of yourself. Get rid of artificial education. Use your greatest resource–the one that God designed from the beginning to provide a REAL education. Learn from one another.

* TAKE TIME NOW TO PLAN… Ok. I know! Seem like too much work? Seem to take too much time now? Oh! But the benefits are immeasurable! You can scope out the year to see how much needs to be covered and how you can get it all done. Your children will know what to expect for each day and each subject. You and your children will know when you reach your goals. Sooo, why not take time now to plan out your year. Plan out your goals for this year. Plan out how to implement the various curriculum you want to use. Plan out your daily schedule. Plan out events and studies for the year. You won’t be sorry!

* CONSIDER TEACHING ALL-YEAR ROUND. From the very beginning, we found that our children just thrived from working steadfastly all year long on lessons. Now, this does not mean that we do not change the pace up throughout the year. In fact, we tend to make fall a time for deep academic pursuits and research along with nature walks (that time of the year BEGS for us to get out and enjoy the beautiful weather!). Winter begs for more cuddly reading time. Spring demands that we change our pace to include outdoor activities. Summer offers us great field trips and book-time (on the road). Homeschooling all year long gives us the freedom to make use of every season and not let life go by while we focus on merely academics. Instead, we can give our children a full education, making the most of every minute and not losing even one minute!

* BRAINSTORM FOR WAYS TO WORK IN THE MOST IMPORTANT THINGS. In the early years, I really loved reading aloud to our children. My greatest battle was with the interruptions from life. Inevitably, when I would sit down with a great book and child in each arm, the phone would ring…someone would be at the front door…or an animal would even need something! I really wanted to bring in great literature, but there was a battle waging against that precious time. By accident, we found that the best time for us to read…and read…and read was right before bedtime. Not only were those interruptions under control, but also the children were captive! Think through those things that you want to include in your day. Is there a way to insure success? Brainstorm ways and see if you can find a way to make this year the best!

* SIMPLIFY MEALS… The toughest thing for me to balance with homeschooling even all of these years later is meal planning and preparation. I have a tendency to get engulfed in cooking OR lessons, but seldom BOTH at the same time. Now, I have no problem with multi-tasking. But, I realized early in our homeschool journey that I could spend all day every day homeschooling and I could spend all day every day in the kitchen. What I needed was balance. How do ya balance two fulltime jobs? First, simplifying lessons. But, that is not enough. Also, we have to simplify meals. Our way of simplifying meals was to make a plan for easy meals! Here are five things that we do to make meals easy:

Cook in bulk. Actually I call my plan, “Serve and Store.” The first years of homeschooling I had a home business of sewing for the public. I would sew one day, cook one day. On the sewing days, we would have leftovers from my cooking day. In other words, I would cook and SERVE on one day…and sew and eat the food that we had STORED on the next day! It was a nice balance, which enabled me to operate a successful sewing business while homeschooling and homemaking! From this, I developed a habit of cooking in bulk that has continued till today. It is easy to just buy double ingredients…usually it is cheaper! I just double my recipes and freeze the extra dish. Yesterday, I had the “fruit” of my labors as we had Lasagna already prepared last week that only needed to be popped in the oven and served with our fresh bread. You can be prepared at all times for those dropping in if you freeze a variety of foods as you cook them! Bulk Cooking redeems the time so you can stay busy with the important things in life…relationships!

Make Your Own Freezer Meals. Same concept, except go ahead and put together a full meal on a microwave dish and freeze for those quick moments that you may need a full meal, but not have time to prepare the whole thing. OH! This also works nice for families with special diets, picky eaters, or even for those wanting to prepare meals for shut-ins or others needing a touch of ministry.

Crock-pot Cooking. My crock-pot is one of the most priceless treasures in my kitchen. Besides providing meals that are packed with nutrition, my crock-pot allows me to prepare the ingredients quickly in the morning, turn on the crock-pot and leave it going, then end my evening with a great meal! Nothing beats that! I cook anything in my crock-pot–from my soups and stews to many of my main dishes. Invest in a crock-pot and begin collecting great recipes. You will find a great way to balance homeschooling with managing your busy home.

Make Your Own Monthly Menu. I have a very good friend that has THE BEST plan I have ever seen for planning out her menus. She has ONE monthly menu that she has put together. Everyone knows exactly what to expect for each day of the week for the whole month. Can you imagine how much stress this eleviates in her life–not to mention, how she is building a legacy in her home. Her children KNOW what to expect. Plus, they can easily help Mommy get the meals together, because they know what she does for each meal! Yep! I have decided to simplify my own plans to make things a bit easier in our home too. Not only does this save our BRAIN, but it also makes things so much easier for shopping (only ONE shopping list–she prepared hers on her computer ONCE and now only goes through checking off what she needs!)…and storage (She only stores what they are eating regularly–she can buy in bulk, but she is not buying anything that is not used each and every week!!!!). See our form in this issue for our Monthly Menu Planner. Of course, you can choose any system that works for you!

Don’t forget EASY Meals! Probably everyone can benefit from this! One thing that has helped me for those inevitable tights that I face almost on a daily basis–at least for one meal–was when I developed a list of our favorite EASY foods. I try to keep all of the basic ingredients needed for these “quick meals.” All I did to develop this was brainstorm through what we choose over and over again. Then, I grouped ours by mealtimes, although we LOVE eating a full breakfast with all of the goodies–biscuits, scrambled eggs with cheese, sausage, ham, bacon, honey–for occasional evening meals! After that, I made a list of what I needed to be sure to keep on hand. Then, I posted the list on the refrigerator and kept a copy in my Meal Management Notebook. All we do now is look at the list, grab the ingredients and devour! EASY! Why not make your own list too?

What do you think? Easy? Yep, make it easy! Choose whichever ideas will help you to make EASY meals while leaving you time to homeschool the EASY way! Not only will you enjoy meal preparation much, much more, but you will also have more time to enjoy your homeschool journey!

* COOP WITH FRIENDS! One of the best ways to make the most of your time while sharing the burdens of teaching tough subjects with others is to coop. Now, don’t skip this point. Coops can bring to mind many different memories because coops are set up so many different ways. Some are set up like Private Schools. Others are just two moms sharing resources, ideas, plans, and abilities. Make it easy. If you have a local support group with great coop activities, make use of the classes. If there is an area of difficulty for you, be sure to use those activities and classes. If you have gifts, consider sharing with your friends who struggle in that area. Share the work with others. You will make the best use of your time while blessing others.

* COMBINE SUBJECTS! Most subjects just come to life when they are taught in the midst of a thematic study. Instead of trying to set aside time in each day or even each week to teach each and every subject, why not learn about those subjects while learning about a topic? Why not read literature in the midst of your history study? Why not also learn geography while studying that topic? What about finding any copywork or making a homemade book so you cover Language Arts while studying your topic? What about tracing journeys on a map? Adding figures to your timeline? Things will become SO much more do-able if we can find ways to simplify our lessons. Combine those “subjects” into great studies!

* THINK OUTSIDE OF THE BOX. Education is not just at a desk…or at a table. Count everything! Count activities. Count games. Count projects. Count family life. Learning is more than just what is studied in our books during table time. Actually most of what our children retain from their education is taught after the table time is over each day. Think outside of the box–away from the desk!

* KEEP LEARNING FRESH AND FUN! Take “school” outside. Let them build a “fort” and dress up like Davy Crockett. Go for a hike hunting for tracks. Make a tent in the living room. Fill it with cuddly blankets and read a fun book. Get out those instructions for a fun project and make a mess! Take a week to make a cute lapbook using all of those booklets your children have been saving. Don’t wait one more day–take time to make learning fresh and fun!