The Lists.

As you know, if you've been reading my blog for a while, we use a checklist method to do our homeschooling. Each child has a list and mom has a list. All of the lists include daily self-care activities like brushing and flossing and exercising. They also have chores for each day and my work and the kid's schoolwork. On Monday I print them out and hopefully by the end of the week, they look like the one above.

This week, I decided to revamp the lists and try to make them work better. With the kids lists, I think I succeeded. They generally liked the changes. One thing I did was add "Freebies" They get 5 each week (they're trying to make me change it so 6!) and these are things that they don't have to do. They can use them all in one day or spread them out over the week, but once a freebie has been used for one thing, like for example, math, it can't be used for that same thing for the rest of the week. I am going to give them the option of going outside and riding their bikes for exercise instead of the plain old boring exercises they've been doing all winter, since the weather is pretty nice these days.

With my list, I didn't succeed with the changes. I added in good things like loading the bread machine, but neglected some of the cleaning that I needed to do, so it's Friday and the house looks awful. I guess I'll go back to the drawing board on my list. If I don't structure my day in this way, I more than likely won't exercise, won't clean as much as I should and I'll be on the computer at 11:00 p.m. trying to get done with my work for my job! I'm the worst one!

I'm also going to give myself a few freebies, like 5 minutes off of housecleaning and maybe some bonuses, like having a cup of coffee out on the deck in the morning and enjoying the sunshine, stopping to smell the roses, so to speak.