I’m happy to report that in our tenth year of homeschool I am finally finding balance.  I had known for quite some time that our family needed balance in our lives and have spent the last year toward that goal.  It has taken a year but I think we have finally had a  breakthrough.   

We were living a life of excess.  Too much stuff.  Too much spending.  Too much school.  Too many activities.  Too much computer.  Too much television.  Not enough family time.  Not enough imaginative play time.  I would spend all day schooling the kids, running them to and from their activities  or undertaking some huge volunteer project.  By the afternoon I would be spent.  There would be no energy left for dinner or for interaction with the family. 

I started the change last year when I decided we needed to purge our home of  unnecessary items.    Our house was unable to hold all the stuff we had accumulated through the years.  Just trying to organize it all had become a full time job.  One major move was to take most of the clutter (homeschool books, children’s toys, games, business items, etc…) and put it into half of the garage.  You would never know it was a garage when you open the door and step in.  It really looks like an additional room.   The house doesn’t get half as dirty and the clutter is mostly gone.   We still have a ways to go but happily have stopped the influx of unnecessary stuff.   

Next, I chose to go with an online publisher for my homeschool planner.  Now I will no longer have to print, bind, package and mail orders.  This is in its beginning stages but is definitely going to be a blessing. 

Third, we cut out some of the extra curricula activities this year.  It has been nice not being a soccer mom.  I now have more time, energy and money. 

One of the best steps my husband and I took was in managing our finances.  We have been attending a Financial Peace University course and now have a zero balanced budget and a three and a half year plan to get out of debt.   A major load off of our minds. 

As you can tell we had come a long way but I still couldn’t managed to get all that needed done, well…done.  Even with the best written schedule.  My schedule showed that there were plenty of hours in the day to do it all, it was just that there was not enough energy in the mom.  I still needed balance.  I would wear myself out trying to maintain the perfect school and the house would go down the tube in the process or vice versa.     

The breakthrough came from a post on a message board.  The lady described how she laid out her homeschool.  She had short sessions six days a week.  She spelled out the importance of skills training, work, and play time with kids.  This was not new information, I knew all of that but what she gave me was insight to how I could fit it all into our lives. 

Here is what has finally brought me peace:

• ·         School is limited to 4 hours each day, 6 days a week.  The concept is that learning should be a way of life not a race to the finish line.  I want my kids to be lifelong learners and to find joy in the process.  The funny thing is that we are getting just as much done as before. 

• ·         Next, each day we set aside about 4 hours for work, skills, exercise and play time.  During this time the computer or television is not to be turned on unless it is for learning.  We do chores, explore handicrafts,  skills, play games, read,  use our imaginations and get some good o’ exercise. 

• ·         The last hours of the evening can be spent any way we choose.  For some this is computer games for others it is television and for others (namely me) it is for pleasure reading.  A few of these evenings are spent getting kiddo’s to and from some nightly activities but it is nothing like it used to be. 

So there you have it.  I have now have found some balance to my life.  It still needs tweaking and I’m sure there will be sometimes when life will be crazy again but my hope is that with the Lord’s help I can ride out these times and allow the craziness to be part of our lives not the ruler of our lives.