What the homeschool schedule REALLY looked like in the first 2 weeks

I know, I know, I was all hopeful before schools closed. We’d spend such lovely time together. We’d learn so much. Everyone would calmly get on with their own projects. We’d fill the days with such variety. How did it really look, when it came down to it? Honestly?

2 weeks on, we’ve scraped together a teeny bit of experience of this new world and an even teenier bit of hindsight, and I think this is the first chance we’ve had to look back and review what we did, what worked and what needs improving, what lessons to learn and how to tweak things to go back with a better plan after this blessed Pesach respite.

I’ve compiled a list of Do’s and Don’ts and a sort of a schedule. Click the links if you’re surrounded by children whining, “What shall I do NOOOOOOW?” to take you straight there. If you’re crashed on the couch at the end of a long day or hiding in that sacred place of last refuge, the loo, then read on for the full story, with the list and schedule in there too.

While you’re there, if you’d like more articles like this…

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Okay. Here goes.

Our days started really well, as long as I woke up before the kids. They start to wake naturally at 7. It’s always surprised me how they do this, at every age, every day. Their bodies just seem to know. So if I have to wake them at 6.50 it feels really mean, and if I don’t go in until 7.10, they’re already fighting. As long as I’m in position to start mummy-ing at 7.00 sharp, there’s usually a good start to the day. I’m the leader, directing operations and putting their clothes on while they’re still relatively sleepy and unresisting. Ten minutes later and I’d find the whole lot downstairs in their PJ’s, trailing sugary cereal and Lego through the house, and the battle to get dressed early would be basically lost.

Kid-friendly Kosher Month of Dinners (in 2 hours)

It’s 3pm, the kids are due home in an hour and a half, the baby’s already stirring, and now you realise that you haven’t thought about dinner yet.

What if dinner was already done? What if it was already done for the whole MONTH?

Impossible.

Possible! Wanna see how to do it?

Download the Month of Dinners

So I’m no food blogger. I don’t make showy and I often don’t make super-healthy and I don’t always serve home cooked food (maybe one day…) but I think we eat ok. Like everything, it’s a balance of using your time for the things you value, so there are days when we eat really well and there are days when I give in to time pressure and my kids preferences and serve pasta and cheese or fish fingers and chips. So at the end of the day, on an average week, my family eat like this:

2 things that were better when my car broke down

Last week, my car got a scary light on it that said ‘Engine Malfunction’. Eek!

This was NOT going to be simple.

School is 40 minutes away. There are 5 kids in my rota. Shopping. Errands. A doctors appointment. Eek. Eek. EEK!

Day 1: I beg six uncomfortable favours for lifts for my kids to and from school. My 5 year old has to go home with a lady he never met before. I push off the dentist.

The laundry monster – tame the beast by locking him up for days at a time

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Hands up if you love doing the laundry. Nobody? No, I didn’t think so. But it’s got to be done, so let’s figure out how to do it the best way possible – furthering our mission of using our time for the things we value.

There are lots of different systems of doing laundry and plenty of them are good, but the important thing is to HAVE a system. Know what you’re washing, when. Know how long it takes and how much time you’d gain or lose by changing different aspects of it. That’s what will empower you to make changes.

Take a look at how long laundry is taking you every day and ask yourself if that’s time used for things you value. If it gives you joy to see perfect piles of organised clothes (and for me there was a time when it did…until it didn’t) then go right ahead and carry on. If, like the current-me, the shine has worn off, and you feel like it sucks up too much of your time, make a goal for yourself. What would you do if you didn’t have to do the laundry today? Call a neglected friend? Read a book? Let’s figure out a more time-value system to get this done.

How to have a smooooooth morning routine (and why a pet bunny helps!)

Morning routine. Yikes! There’s a lot to be done. And it doesn’t always run smoothly. But have you ever noticed how fast you can be ready, on the rare occasion when it DOES go smoothly? Like the last day of term, or Lag B’Omer, when everyone’s excited and willing? It’s possible to have this be a pleasant, smooth, meaningful experience – AND be on time!

If you’d prefer to keep dodging the teenager’s flying hairbrushes and the toddler’s Cheerio showers, then don’t read this cheatsheet.

But after surveying mothers just like us, doing the same thing in our different parts of the world, to see what works, I learned so much from everyone’s combined wisdom, and I’ve put together the best tips for us all to benefit from.

Tisha B’Av with Kids: What to do

I wasn’t sure if I wanted to write a post on Tisha B’Av so early in the life of this blog/mailing list. I like to keep things light and jokey around here, and it’s not that sort of day.

My favourite WINTER morning tip from our survey so far…

I’m still collecting responses to this Morning Madness survey (tell us all the tricks that get your lot out the door) and I don’t have enough responses yet to produce the life-changing morning survival guide that I want to – but in the meantime while it’s THIS cold outside I’m loving this one tip: Put their clothes in the dryer to make them warm and cozy upon delivery to the child.

The Journey Begins

Since we moved to London there has never been enough time for everything. Yet I know that when we had our first baby, there was never enough time for everything either. Making shabbas with a baby? An impossible feat! But somehow we had another one and guess what? That left me with no time to do anything. But then another few came along and each time I wondered how I was ever going to find time to do anything – but I still did find time to do more, and more and more, and always with the feeling that I didn’t have time to do anything – which leads me to the conclusion that time is in some way relative. Not in a scientific e=mc squared way but in the way we think about it. If we learn how to manage time and stay ahead of the game we can have enough time for everything.