Curriculum Overview: A Year of Tales

June 15, 2019June 16, 2019UncategorizedLeave a Comment

Today I want to share with you the newest curriculum that I have chosen to use for the upcoming school year. I spent months trying to figure out what would be a good fit for us this year, and I even purchased two other curriculums before deciding this was the one.

Here are some of the main things I was looking for in a curriculum:

Could easily work for both of my children (ages 5 and 6 and a half)
Gentle, life-giving, inviting lessons
Easily adaptable
Literature-based
Inviting Morning Time selections
Elements of nature study
Hands-on, beautiful, and useful activities like baking and handcrafts

I honestly thought finding something that would check off all my boxes would be a pipe dream, but I found it in A Year of Tales! 0614191501 Here is how the curriculum is described on their website:

“A Year of Tales is a gentle curriculum for your young learner, from Kindergarten through 3rd grade. Focusing on literature and nature as a base, blending together the rich and imaginative tales from Beatrix Potter, and encouraging character and exploration, this curriculum will create a memorable year of education for both the student, and the teacher as well. The complete curriculum contains 22 weeks of lessons with additional learning included to expand the curriculum to 30 full weeks, if desired.

Each week you will study a new character trait, a Bible verse that encourages and instructs, read thoughtful and well-written literature, as well as a new tale by Beatrix Potter, expand your knowledge with vocabulary words to learn and a spelling list, introduce and learn to appreciate poetry and art, create beautiful and enjoyable handcrafts, as well as exploring nature and science together with a developmentally appropriate hands-on approach. You will also find opportunities to learn basic geography, as well as focused geography lessons for this curriculum throughout the year. Additional Bible readings on the character traits are shared for continuing your learning, as well.

Every Friday, you will break in your lessons for a very special tea and poetry time for review, connection, and remembering. At this time your child might give oral recitation of what they have absorbed and filled their hearts and minds with that week. A field trip recommendation is also given each Friday for bridging what you have learned in stories, resources, and creativity with what your child will find in the world around them.”

– Lisa Wilkinson at A Year of Tales, emphasis mine

What really drew me to A Year of Tales was getting to know the person behind it. Lisa is a seasoned homeschool mom who is still in the trenches herself. She has learned through years of schooling and lots of curriculum what really works in a home education dynamic.

I see this curriculum as a very full and rich menu. It has so much to offer that you can pick and choose what works for your individual child. I especially love that she offers elements to create an inviting Morning Time, including a character lesson, a Bible lesson, poetry, art studies, and fables.

Here are some sneak peeks inside the curriculum: 0614191503 0614191503b 0614191503c 0614191504 0614191504a 0614191504b 0614191504d Lisa will also be releasing a preschool guide that I will be incorporating for my younger daughter. I am just so excited to get started. We will likely begin in August once we’re all settled into the RV, and I will share our journey along the way!

Curriculum Overview: Exploring Nature with Children

June 11, 2019June 11, 2019CurriculumLeave a Comment

One of the reasons I choose to homeschool is to give our children the time and space to study the natural world around them. Rather than simply looking at pictures in a book, they are able to experience the world for themselves. Nature study is an essential part of a Charlotte Mason home education. I love this article from Simply Charlotte Mason about its importance.

When I began learning about the importance of nature study, I felt lost on where and how to begin. I wasn’t sure how to teach it – especially since I am not incredibly knowledgeable about nature subjects myself. Then I found Exploring Nature with Children!

Processed with VSCO with a9 preset Exploring Nature with Children is truly one of a kind. It is a year-round nature study manual that dives in week-by-week into different topics, according to the months and seasons. Everything you need to teach your students about the natural world around them is offered in this gorgeous guide. Topics like the plant life cycle, weather, evergreens, and the moon are all covered in Exploring Nature with Children.

Each week offers:

Easy to understand information about each subject for the teacher to learn before teaching. They also include relevant pages to read in The Handbook of Nature Study to better prepare yourself for the lesson
A nature walk & nature journal activity
A picture book list for additional reading about the topic
A selection of poetry that ties in with the theme of the week
A piece of artwork that correlates with the topic of study, along with questions to prompt discussion
Extensions activities such as crafts, writing ideas, and music appreciation

One of the best parts about this curriculum is that it isn’t age-specific. Lynn Seddon, the author, wrote this guide in a way that can easily be adapted to the youngest or the oldest of nature learners. We have dabbled in it up until now, but this school year I will be diving in head-first with it, and I am just so excited! I look forward to many, many years of using Exploring Nature with Children in our home education, beginning this Autumn. I hope you will join us!

Follow Lynn on Instagram @raisinglittleshoots and see how others are using Exploring Nature with Children. You can purchase the full curriculum here.

Preparing to Homeschool in an RV: Part One

June 5, 2019June 5, 2019Curriculum, RV / Tiny House, SuppliesLeave a Comment

Processed with VSCO with c3 preset I recently announced on Instagram that my husband and I purchased an acre and a half of gorgeous wooded property to build our dream home on. This has been a goal of ours for many years, and we couldn’t be more ecstatic that it is finally happening! When looking at our options for where to live while the build is being completed, we decided to purchase an RV! Before beginning our hunt, I had never even stepped foot inside of an RV. Now, only a week after making our decision, there is a 33-foot house on wheels sitting in our driveway, waiting for us to make it our home.

Naturally, one of the first questions rolling around in my head when making this decision was, “What am I going to do with all of my homeschool stuff?! Where am I going to store everything?” I quickly realized that I would have to be intentional everything I decided to bring with us in our interim home. The storage space in an RV is limited, so I only chose the materials that I absolutely LOVE and plan to use often. I know most of you won’t be homeschooling from an RV, but I wanted to share this list of minimalist homeschool supplies to show that you can educate well even if you live in a small home or lack a dedicated homeschool space.

Bible

Leading Little Ones to God

We are working our way through this devotional and I really love the content and the language used to describe the bible stories and apply them to our lives. I also like that each entry gives discussion questions, a hymn or song, and scripture for us to look up separately.

Jesus Storybook Bible

This story bible is written so beautifully and every story points to Jesus. We have read it over and over and the kids just love it!

The Adventure Bible

This is the children’s Bible that we use to look up the passages shared in the devotional, as well as read as a family.

Attributes of God cards

We are loving these cards from Tiny Theologians. Each card has one attribute, a description, and a passage of scripture to read. We add one a day to our Morning Time, read the card and create a hand motion to match the attribute.

Handwriting

Small chalkboards, chalk, and small sponge squares

I use the small chalkboards to teach all of the uppercase letters and numbers, using the Wet-Dry-Try method from Learning Without Tears. I have found it to be a highly effective multi-sensory way to teach and practice proper letter formation. If you are unfamiliar, I found a video that shows the Wet-Dry-Try method here.

Large chalkboards

I use these large lined chalkboards to teach and practice lowercase letter formation and word writing. I also use the Wet-Dry-Try method with these boards.

Salt trays

Another sensory method to practice letter formation is using salt trays. Children practice by forming the letter with their finger in the salt. The trays I use are leftover from Melissa & Doug products that I previously bought. I find that they are the perfect size, depth, and shape.

Sandpaper cards

These tactile cards reinforce letter formation as well. We also sometimes use them as a moveable alphabet to spell words or match capitals with lowercase.

Handwriting Without Tears books

These are the handwriting books we use and love. I have one teacher’s manual and each of the kids have their own workbooks.

Learning Without Tears paper

For additional practice, I have two types of paper from Learning Without Tears. The Gray Block paper reinforces uppercase letter formations and the lined paper is the next level for practicing lowercase, as well as word and sentence writing.

Primary journals

These journals have lines on the bottom of each page and a blank space for drawing a picture on the top.

Math

The Good and The Beautiful Math K curriculum

This is the math curriculum we are using and we love the hands-on approach it offers. In order to continue with it, I need to bring the course manuals, a binder to keep my son’s completed worksheets, and the included manipulatives which I organized in this box.

Geoboards and rubberbands

The kids love to use these geoboards to practice making shapes and other designs. They’re also amazing for fine motor strengthening.

Games For Math book

I like to look through this book for inspiration for hands-on and movement games to reinforce something we are learning in math.

Kindergarten Toolkit Cards

This pack has numbers, shapes, and letters, but I use them mostly in addition to our math lessons.

Phonics

Explode the Code books

I LOVE these books for phonics practice. I have a few different levels, for each child and for when my son progresses to the next level.

Moveable alphabet

I made this moveable alphabet using wooden letters, a plastic organizer, and letter stickers. I found all of these materials at Michael’s. I also brought a little piece of felt for them to use it on.

Dash into Learning curriculum

This is a wonderful program for beginning readers. My four year old daughter loves the stories, games, and illustrations. I printed everything and organized it all in a 3-ring binder.

Other materials

Individual chalkboards and stand

I plan to use these in place of our large chalkboard for everything. My husband made me the little white stand to make them able to stand up on the table. I also use the stand to display artwork or an open book.

Clipboards

We will need these for taking lessons outside or sitting on the couch.

Small bowls and trays

I use little bowls and trays everyday to put little things that we need while we work. They’re perfect for manipulatives, chalk, and tiny craft items like cut up paper or sequins.

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All of these things fit in one box, ready to be brought into the camper! Stay tuned for Part Two of this series where I will share what we will be using for our main curriculums for the next school year, and everything I need to bring to use them. I also plan to show you how I store everything once I figure that out. I hope that was helpful to you! If you have any questions about any of the products or materials, leave a comment!

Homeschooling with Baby in Tow (and our updated Daily Rhythm)

May 30, 2019May 30, 2019Curriculum, Daily Rhythm3 Comments

Babies bring joy, delight, and fun to a family, but they also bring change and adjustments. I’ve shared about our homeschool daily rhythm in the past, but things have changed quite a bit since Huck joined our family in August. I try to balance giving him the attention that he needs while also maintaining the homeschooling routine that we were thriving in before he arrived. I am hesitant to share what I have been doing to make it all manageable because I am fully aware that every baby, mama, and home culture is different. What works for me may not work for you. I have decided to share, nonetheless, in case something that has helped us will give you new ideas try in your own home.

Processed with VSCO with s2 preset Before I share my tips and rhythm, I’ll describe our current family dynamics, so you can have an idea of our unique challenges and draw from the tips that are applicable to you. My baby is 9 months old and takes 2-3 naps around the same times each day (this took months of work and we are finally there just recently). He is pulling up and crawling and attempting to eat every tiny object he can get his hands on. Part of our routine includes me sitting down to breastfeed him 4-5 times a day.

My older son is 6 and we are somewhere between kindergarten and 1st grade in his work. He is very easily distracted and needs my full attention for at least a portion of school time or I lose him completely. My daughter is 4 and only attends Morning Time, and then she is free to play independently or stay near us and do crafts at the table. My husband works full-time out of the home from about 7:30am-5pm each weekday. I don’t have a maid or chef, so keeping my home in order while feeding all of these people must also be a part of my routine or things go downhill quickly.

Here are a few tips that have worked for us:

Schedule your day around baby’s naps

I work really hard to get my babies on a consistent nap routine after those newborn months. Once you have established a nap rhythm for your baby, you can schedule the rest of your daily tasks around it. Even if you don’t have a time set for naps, you can still plan to save certain tasks for the time slot when baby is napping. In an ideal world, we would be able to squeeze all of our schooling in while the baby is asleep. Since that isn’t always possible, I look at our schedule and decide which parts of school are the top priority to be distraction-free. For us, that is Morning Time and our handwriting lesson.

Have everything prepared before you put the baby down for their nap so you can utilize every minute of undistracted time with your older child. For us that means 15 minutes before his nap I have the kids clean up any messes in the main area of the house, clear the table where we do school, and get their snack and water. As soon as I lay the baby down I can jump right in to our lessons. You can see how this plays out in my detailed schedule below.

Plan to be home more

This has been key to maintain peace in this season of our lives. Before Huck arrived I counted on mornings for chores and school and afternoons for adventuring, errands, or playdates. Now, I have to spread out school activities and household tasks throughout the entire day, depending on when the baby is content or napping. I find that I lose control of my home and our schooling gets pushed to the back burner on the weeks that I plan too many outside activities. For now, since my son is so young, I am not too concerned with checking all the academic boxes each day. Play and being outside take priority at this age, but I can imagine as we enter more formal schooling that making the choice to stay home more will be the key to peaceful and productive days.

Train your older children to help

As much as I try to do our structured activities when the baby is napping, it doesn’t always pan out that way. If I am working with my son and the baby is awake, my four year-old knows how to keep him entertained and safe. While always in my eyes’ sight and a few steps away, I can count on her to occupy him for a short time while I wrap up a lesson. We teach our children that as a family, we all have a responsibility to help and serve one another. Sometimes that looks like getting a diaper for mama or watching out that the baby doesn’t eat something too small that was dropped on the floor. I try not to count on this for too long or too often as they are still so young and easily distracted from their task, but it can usually buy me a few minutes.

It has been trial and error for sure, and while no two days are the same, we have arrived (for now) in a rhythm that is working for us! Here is what a day typically looks like when we stay home:

Our Daily Rhythm

5:30-7am

I wake up, enjoy some coffee and silence and spend time reading, praying, and preparing my heart for the day. The kids start waking up between 6:30-7 and I snuggle them and change and nurse the baby.

7-8:45am

I make breakfast and pack my husband’s lunch. He is usually walking out the door around 7:30. During this time the kids and baby are playing in the living room which I can see from the kitchen. While everyone eats, I spend this time starting laundry, doing dishes, preparing any last minute things for school activities, and getting myself ready for the day. When the kids are done eating, they clear the table and play until I tell them it’s time for “quick tidy.” Sometimes I can do these things while the baby is in the highchair and other times I tote him around with me.

8:45-9am

I call the kids together for “quick tidy” which simply means they need to get dressed and clean up the main living area and table from any messes they made during the morning. Then they get themselves a snack and water and go to the table for Morning Time. I keep homemade trail mix in the bottom of the cupboard and bowls and cups within their reach. This is always their morning time snack because it has lots of small pieces and keeps little hands busy while I read! Having the same snack every morning also eliminates requests and whining for something else. While they are getting set up for Morning Time I put the baby down for his nap.

9-10/ 10:30am

Baby is napping! Sometimes we can fit all of our school activities in this time block and other days we only get through Morning Time and one other area before the baby wakes up. If you aren’t familiar with Morning Time, it is simply a time that everyone gathers to begin the day. For us it currently includes reading and discussing our devotional, practicing finding scriptures in the Bible and reading it, praying , singing a song or hymn, practicing our memory verse, reading some poetry, and reading a few picture books aloud. I also use this time to have my son practice his reading aloud to us. If we have finished all of that and the baby is still sleeping I will go ahead with handwriting lessons with my son. We are currently using Handwriting Without Tears and love it.

10:30- 2pm

Once the baby is awake I change and feed him and the kids are off to play. They usually go play outside during this time until I call them in for lunch. We may take a picnic outside and continue playtime out there until it’s time for baby to take his second nap. Sometimes they spend this time inside playing or drawing and crafting at the table and I will work on some chores. Around 1:45pm I call them together to clean up any messes they’ve made during playtime or take a bath if messy, muddy play happened. If my daughter is still engrossed in play I will let her continue and only call my son in.

2-3:30pm

My son and I pick up where we left off in the morning, doing Handwriting lessons, our math lesson for the day, and any nature study or art project I have planned. This is also the time we have Read Aloud Tea time on some days, which is simply what it sounds like! A snack, some tea or juice, and I read our current chapter book aloud. My younger daughter can be as involved in all of this as she would like to be, but isn’t required to.

3:30-5pm

Baby wakes up and I feed, change, and play with him. The kids play outside again or free play inside until I allow them to watch a show around 4:30pm while I prepare dinner. They are currently enjoying Vooks, where they can watch animated books read aloud to them. I try to straighten up the house in this time as well.

5-6pm

My husband comes home and we all eat dinner together. If the baby had short naps throughout the day, he may nap again for 30-45 minutes during this time.

6-7:30pm

I usually take an evening walk with the entire family or just the baby after dinner. Then I come home and put the baby down at 7 or 7:30pm. Then I clean up from dinner and my husband puts the two older children to bed by 7:30 as well.

7:30-9:30pm

Rest! I spend the last two hours of my day showering, reading, spending time with my husband, blogging, or anything else I want. Before going to sleep I try to set myself up for success for the next day by tidying up the main living area and setting out anything I need for dinner prep and school activities.

Ideally, we would do all of our school in one time block each day, preferably mornings, but with a baby in tow I have to work with what undistracted time I have! I hope seeing our day detailed out is helpful to you. Now that I finally have a good routine going I am certain things will change because babies like to keep us on our toes! The goodness and sweetness of a new baby far certainly outweigh the challenges.

Introducing my Amazon Storefront

March 9, 2019March 10, 2019Arts & Crafts, Books, Life Skills, Sensory, SuppliesLeave a Comment

IMG_20190223_103750_762 I have been working on something for you guys for a little while and am excited to share it with you today! One of my favorite things about following other homeschool accounts on Instagram and blogs is discovering the resources and products that other families use and love. I love seeing them in real life in their schooling and in their homes. Many of you ask me where I get certain things and what brands things are that you see in my Instagram posts. My hope is that I can share with you what we are using and love and that is helpful to you as you make choices on what to purchase for your own journey.

Recently Amazon introduced Amazon Storefronts, which is a place for small accounts like mine to post recommended resources all in one place with links for purchase through Amazon! I get a small kickback if you purchase an item from my storefront, which helps me buy more homeschool supplies. The products that I recommend are the exact things I have bought and are tried and true by my family. I plan to add to my Storefront over time, but for now I stocked it up pretty good with things I use and love if you want to take a browse.

Lesson Preparation

These are the products I use to print, laminate, and organize my curriculums and lessons. I especially love my printer and laminator! I use both every week and have had no problems with either one. The Amazon Basics laminator is an especially good price!

Sensory & Fine Motor Supplies

This category includes everything from the scissors we love to the net swing that we have hanging in our front yard for vestibular input. I have also included things you would find in a sensory bin like the water beads I buy and fine motor tools for scooping and grabbing!

Books

Here I have listed the must-have books for your home library. They are they ones we use for tea time poetry, reference for multiple lessons, or read-alouds that we read over and over. I have also included my top reads for the homeschool mama!

What Mama Loves

This was a fun one to put together as it is full of all the random things I personally love. Shoes, home decor, and my favorite coffee making gadgets. I am a fairly simple woman, but I have a few things that really bring a lot of joy to my life that I wanted to share.

Practical Life Skills

In this category I have included the things that we have that encourage my children to work alongside me in household chores and in the kitchen – things like child size aprons and a small handheld broom. My favorite in this section is definitely the hard nylon knives that they use daily in meal prep!

Art & Handcrafts

This may be my favorite section and my favorite part of home education! You will find the exact crayons, watercolors, and clay we love and use on a regular basis. Everything in this section we have on hand for various projects. The yarn needles and the weaving loom are amazing tools for introducing handicrafts to littles.

Toys We Love

Here I have all of our favorite open-ended toys! These are basically all of the toys we own and encourage so much imaginative play. Currently my kids are mostly playing with Calico Critters and Magnatiles!

Phonics & Handwriting

I can’t say enough good things about the products I listed here. These are the books and resources we use everyday. I have also included the pencils and pencil grips we love!

Visit my storefront to see all of these items in detail. If you found this helpful, be sure to keep checking back as I will add items as I discover new things that we are using and love!

Our Plans for Kindergarten

January 2, 2019February 25, 2019CurriculumLeave a Comment

710c20_1aaa22b2b94e4a658dfb9564018a233d~mv2_d_3014_2486_s_4_2.jpg A couple of years ago, I started homeschooling my two young children (then ages 2 and 3 and a half). I hesitate to even say we have been homeschooling up to this point because it has been very unstructured and casual. To them, it has pretty much all been considered play, but to me there has been a lot of intention behind what we do. We have loosely been through The Peaceful Preschool curriculum twice, adding in things along the way that followed the kids’ interests. Most recently, we went through The Peaceful Press’ Christmas Guide and absolutely loved it!

With that being said, as the months have gone on and my children have gotten older, I have tried to increase the structure to prepare us all for elementary schooling to begin. Now that the kids are 4 and 5 and a half years old, we are gearing up to start kindergarten in January. If my son were enrolled in school, he would’ve began last Fall, but with the arrival of our newest baby in August and the holidays, we decided January would be a perfect start time. Before the baby arrived, I started researching what we would do for kindergarten and have come up with a plan I wanted to share with you all. As much as I love The Peaceful Preschool and it has served us well, it is time to move on to something else. I am looking forward to exploring The Playful Pioneers and The Precious People when they are a little older.

Although my daughter is younger than kindergarten age, my plan is to teach them together and to adapt activities to her skill level along the way. She is always welcome to join in our lessons, but not required to. Up to this point they love to be together, and she is usually very interested in learning everything he is. I try to keep a few hands-on activities (such as lacing or playdough) near the table when we do school for her to grab and use if I need to work one-on-one with him.

After much research, I have decided to use a combination of Before Five in a Row and Five in a Row for our kindergarten year. If you haven’t heard of this curriculum, it is based completely around literature, which is what drew me to it in the first place. The concept is that you read each book five days in a row, and each day you focus on a different subject that you can glean from the story. For example, one week we will be rowing the book “The Story About Ping”, the story of a duckling who gets separated from his family. After reading the book, we may study the Yangtze River, which is where the story takes place, for geography. The next day after reading, we may do a science lesson on the natural habitat of ducks. The third day, we may count all of the ducks, create a family tree of the ducks, and then make one of our own family. You get the idea. I anticipate that using this curriculum will open my eyes that every book is an opportunity to explore and learn more in every subject. I hope it does the same for my kids.

Before Five in a Row (BFIAR) is the preschool version of the curriculum. After looking over the book lists I decided to ease us in with some of the familiar books from BFIAR such as The Snowy Day, Blueberries For Sal, and We’re Going on a Bear Hunt and then move into the unfamiliar and more advanced stories found in Five in a Row (FIAR). I am using the guides Before Five in a Row: A Treasury of Creative Ideas to Inspire Learning Readiness and Five in a Row: Volume I as my foundation. I will build off of them using Pinterest, blogs, and ideas I drum up based on what I think my kids would love to learn. I can’t wait to share all of what we are doing and learning through these stories!

In addition to this, we will also be starting our day with Bible and adding in short lessons in math, phonics, and handwriting. Here is what we are using for each of these areas:

Bible: Leading Little Ones to God and Scripture Memory

Math: The Good and The Beautiful Kindergarten Math

Phonics: Explode the Code

Handwriting: Handwriting Without Tears Kindergarten

I also plan to begin sign language lessons this year! I will be using the Signing Time K-3 Classroom Curriculum. You can find it and more resources for learning sign language here. I plan to do it with the kids a couple times a week.

A lot of exciting changes are coming up for us as we transition from preschool to kindergarten! I am sure it will be an ever-changing plan, but I wanted to share with you where we are in our journey in hopes that you would follow along. Stay tuned to see how all of this looks in real life and for overviews of the activities we’re doing for each new book that we are exploring!

Habit Training: Household Chores

December 4, 2018February 25, 2019Life SkillsLeave a Comment

“The mother who takes pains to endow her children with good habits secures for herself smooth and easy days.” – Charlotte Mason

Processed with VSCO with a5 preset Okay, so I wouldn’t go so far as to say we’ve arrived at smooth and easy. However, I have definitely seen the benefit of persistence in the area of daily chores, even through all the whining, the “I can’ts,” and the overwhelming temptation just to do it myself. As I write this post, my children are newly 4 and 5 and a half years old.

To start, I want to share my why. Why do I believe that it is important to make household chores a part of their daily routine? I have a couple of main reasons.

First of all, as a homeschool family, we spend the majority of the hours in our day at home. There is no dropping off the mess-makers at school while I come home and clean in peace. More time with children in the home equals more messes. I simply cannot carry the entire load of all of the household chores and still have time to create, teach, imagine, and be a peaceful mama. I need them to carry a piece, and the only way that that will happen is if I start small and come alongside in training them.

Secondly, training them to care for their environment, their belongings, and their family members is a value that my husband and I want to instill in them. When they put the baby’s clothes away in his dresser, they are loving him well. When they pick up their toys from the living room floor so they don’t get stepped on, we are teaching them to care for what they’ve been given. When they stand back and take pride in a shiny clean dining room table, we are giving them the gift of accomplishment and training them to seek beauty and order.

Please do not misunderstand me. If you know me in real life, you will know that I am a “creative type”. You know, the ones whose space looks like a bomb went off in the midst of the latest cooking endeavor or a crafting adventure. It usually stays that way long after the dust of the idea settles. Despite my greatest efforts, my laundry room/homeschool storage is atrocious, which is the exact reason I have never posted a photo of how I store and “organize” all the things. But I am getting better each day and as I train them, and I am hoping that I too will be trained.

We have been practicing “Morning Chores” in our home consistently for about a year. The first few months were the hardest, for me and for them. It was 75% me, 25% them. It looked like me talking and encouraging them through each step and literally at times holding their hands as they worked through the entire chore. Keep persisting! Make it routine and keep it positive. Now, a year later, I can honestly say its 5% me, 95% them!

Everyone needs to find their own system, but I wanted to share what has worked for us in hopes of inspiring you. I knew from the beginning that our routine needed to be simple and flexible. I made this simple chart and I print one out for each week. As you can see, we don’t do a structured chore time on the weekends. The longer we’ve been at this, the easier it is for me to ask them to jump in on the weekend and do a chore spontaneously without complaint.

Each morning after breakfast, the kids run off and play and I “survey the land”. Which chores need to be completed before we can start our day in peace? Is there a pile of clean laundry on the couch from the night before? Then I will choose “sort and put away clothes” as one of our chores. Are we going somewhere that needs a picnic lunch that day? Then I will write “help pack lunches” as a chore. I sometimes choose quicker chores if we have an outing we need to get to. After I do the morning’s dishes, start a load of laundry, and get dressed, I call the kids together to begin our Morning Chores.

Here is a list of some of the possible chores you may find on our chore chart on any given day. Remember that at first, I practically did the entire chore while they watched. It has been a slow transition of them doing more and more of each chore independently. There are still certain chores that they need a significant amount of help accomplishing.

Clean bedroom (this is primarily sorting toys into labeled bins)
Clean living room
Spray and wipe dining room table and chairs
Vacuum living room, bedroom, or downstairs rug
Load washer/ dryer
Clean out the van
Sweep kitchen and dining room
Help pack lunches
Make beds
Sort and put away clothes
Fold washcloths and towels
Gather library books to be returned (I print a list and they find them all over the house and check off the list)
Clean bathrooms (toilets, mirrors)

Each day I also write “get dressed” as one of their chores. We go through the list and the kids take turns choosing a chore to complete. We all complete them together. Whoever chose it gets to cross it off once it’s complete (believe me, this matters). Once all six are complete, they get to put a sticker on the chart and on their shirt.

That’s it! Our chore time takes between 30 minutes and an hour each day depending on which ones I choose. After Morning Chores are complete we are all dressed and have a clean and orderly space to sit down together, have a snack, and start morning school activities.

Here’s a post with more details about our Daily Rhythm.

To download a blank chore chart like the one show above, click here.