Keeping House and Homeschooling, Can it all get done?

     This week the blog cruise topic is “how do you divide household duties and needs with your homeschool schedule?”  This is an area where I know many homeschooling families struggle. As my kids have gotten older, keeping house while also homeschooling has become easier.

     I make daily housekeeping part of our daily chores. One child is assigned to emptying the dishwasher, one is assigned to the morning dishes. One is assigned to clean the bathroom daily and one is assigned to pick up the dog poop in the back yard. Laundry is also thrown in with the daily chores. I expect the person doing the laundry to make sure it is washed, dried and folded.  We all pick up the common rooms daily and I vacuum. (I love to vacuum so I have never assigned that one out.) I only require that they clean their rooms well once a week and just keep them picked up the rest of the week. I take time to plan a weekly menu. I like to know what I am cooking for dinner that evening. I use my crockpot a lot. It just seems easier to me to make dinner in the morning and let it cook all day, than to try to rush and cook something when I am tired in the evening or when kids have sports.

     I involve all the kids in housekeeping chores. We have a schedule of who does what chore on what day posted on the refrigerator. I expect all the kids to get their chores done without me telling them to do them.  Sarah, Ben and Rebekah all are given an “allowance”.  We have broken the $10 they get every two weeks into $.25 increments. If I have to tell them to do their chores, or they are not done when school starts, I dock them pay.  I like visuals so I can easily remember who gets what, or how much. So my husband came up with the thermometer idea.  This idea to dock them pay for not doing chores properly or in good time has helped tremendously. The first two weeks we started this nobody lost any money. Then after their first “payday” Rebekah did not do her chores. Instead of taking money, I just marked off on the thermometer that she was down to $9.75. Didn’t seem to bother her at this point in time. She lost a few more “quarters” throughout the week. When payday came, she finally realized that she did not get as much as Sarah and Ben because she did not do her work. This straightened her up as she had plans for her money. I have not had much of a problem since then.

     Matthew at 18 is still involved in the chores list as he still lives here and is part of the family.I do not give him an allowance as he is working an outside job. But I do expect him to get his work done.  Only one time did I have to say that since he lives here and eats here and we pay the gas, electricity, water etc. I will expect him to do his chores as always. 

     Is my house perfectly kept? By no means. I try to remember that I have five people home all day, myself and four kids. If I required perfect cleanliness and order we would spend more time cleaning up, than doing school. I am always looking to improve upon how we do things. My main problem is “clutter”. I always seem to have a pile or two of papers that I am unsure of what to do with: file, throw, shred??  I am excited to read how others keep their housework done as well as school. Make sure you visit the Blog Cruise and read how others keep up with this important task.