I just read a packet that friend gave me about Thomas Jefferson Education. I won't get into all the details of that now, but one piece of advice really hit home for me and I spent the week applying it. And here it is:
The three greatest destroyers of motherly mentoring are cleaning, cooking and chauferring. Yep, that sounds about right! Some days I feel I'm spending the entire day cleaning and cooking and managing the house - and it's still a mess! How many times do my kids actually ask me to read them a book and I say, not now, I need to do this or that - dishes, laundry, straighten up, you name it. Something is wrong with that picture and I can say my homeschool is definitely suffering because of it. Here are a few more quotes:
You need to choose between your stuff and your education.
Too much stuff in the home clogs up the education of everyone who lives there. Managing your stuff takes time, effort, resources, space, and above all brain cells to keep track of it all - even unconsciously. Lighten your load and free up those brain cells - we need every brain cell we've got!
Extra stuff around the house consistently and very silently robs energy, time and focus from your education and time with kids.
Great education is greatly impacted by its surroundings, and cleaning them up will open relationships and learning pathways that are now dormant.
With much less things cluttering the home - you can spend less time cleaning.
So this week I did a major clean up and simplifying in our home. Instead of academics we focused on cleaning, chores, and training the boys how to put their things away and help keep the house in order.
It feels really good and manageable now - like a weight lifted off. I'm happy with the results and am spending more time with the boys.
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| The boys enjoying their new study space |
Have you simplified lately? What were your strategies?
