Simplified Organization Audio Blog: quick actions, organized attitudes

Season 10: Planner Pep Talks The episodes in season 10 are excerpted from a live workshop I gave in February 2018 about how to make sure your planner and planning is not a waste of time. Hint: it’s more about us than about the planner. Get access to the whole workshop, the chat replay, and more here: There are all kinds of ways to do planning, to have a planner, to use a planner. Different things will work for different people and different things will work for the same person at different times. So, we’re going to share some ideas and try to help each other to figure out what is working and what isn’t working with our planning system. The key to having a planner that works is being able to customize it to what we need. How many times have you tried to use someone else’s planner and had the boxes or the question not work for you? You thought that this format that worked for other people, that someone really smart put together, should work and if it didn’t, the problem was probably you. Other people’s planners for sale have questions, boxes to fill in, menu plan sections – you start filling it in and you feel like you spend way too much time planning, or it’s just not the right fit, it just doesn’t click. It feels like a waste of time, and who wants to waste time? Not all planning time is a good use of time. We can waste our time planning. But, if we start going into that pattern of thinking where we say that all planning, or any time spent planning is a waste of time, or any planner is a waste of time, then we can guarantee they won’t work for us. We won’t use our planner in a good way because we’re coming at it with a bad attitude. So, we’re going to look at planning and the different ways to go about it, to make sure our planning is not a waste of time.

Season 9: Real Life Homeschooling Tips This episode is an excerpt from a video workshop Mystie recorded with Celeste Cruz in 2016. You can register for the entire replay, with bonus support material, by clicking the button below. Listen: Mystie, homeschooling mother of 5, loves to take big ideas and grand visions and make them practicable in real life. So she blogs about organizing attitudes & systems at Simplified Organization and about classical homeschooling at Simply Convivial. Celeste is a Charlotte Mason homeschooling mother with 8 children 10-and-under (at the time of this recording – now 9). When she has free hands, she enjoys distance running, nature journaling, beach days, reading, and writing about home education at Joyous Lessons. You can also find Celeste on Instagram: both at her own account (@celeste_cruz) and as a part of the Charlotte Mason IRL community (@charlottemasonirl). Spread the word! Leaving a review on iTunes will help other homeschooling moms discover this podcast!

Season 9: Real Life Homeschooling Tips This episode is an excerpt from a video workshop Mystie recorded with Celeste Cruz in 2016. You can register for the entire replay, with bonus support material, by clicking the button below. Listen: Mystie, homeschooling mother of 5, loves to take big ideas and grand visions and make them practicable in real life. So she blogs about organizing attitudes & systems at Simplified Organization and about classical homeschooling at Simply Convivial. Celeste is a Charlotte Mason homeschooling mother with 8 children 10-and-under (at the time of this recording – now 9). When she has free hands, she enjoys distance running, nature journaling, beach days, reading, and writing about home education at Joyous Lessons. You can also find Celeste on Instagram: both at her own account (@celeste_cruz) and as a part of the Charlotte Mason IRL community (@charlottemasonirl). Spread the word! Leaving a review on iTunes will help other homeschooling moms discover this podcast!

Season 9: Quick Ways to Organize Your Attitude If there’s one thing that derails our attitudes, it’s feeling overwhelmed and uncertain about what we should actually be doing. There are so many options, so many opportunities. We simply must say no at times, but how can we know when we should say no and when we need to be stretched by saying yes? The answer lies in our vocations. Our vocations are made up of the big responsibilities we’re given. Read the original post here: Know Your Vocations

Season 9: Quick Ways to Organize Your Attitude If there’s one thing that derails our attitudes, it’s feeling overwhelmed and uncertain about what we should actually be doing. There are so many options, so many opportunities. We simply must say no at times, but how can we know when we should say no and when we need to be stretched by saying yes? The answer lies in our vocations. Our vocations are made up of the big responsibilities we’re given. Read the original post here: Know Your Vocations

Season 9: Real Life Homeschooling Tips This episode is an excerpt from a video workshop Mystie recorded with Celeste Cruz in 2016. You can register for the entire replay, with bonus support material, by clicking the button below. Listen: Mystie, homeschooling mother of 5, loves to take big ideas and grand visions and make them practicable in real life. So she blogs about organizing attitudes & systems at Simplified Organization and about classical homeschooling at Simply Convivial. Celeste is a Charlotte Mason homeschooling mother with 8 children 10-and-under (at the time of this recording – now 9). When she has free hands, she enjoys distance running, nature journaling, beach days, reading, and writing about home education at Joyous Lessons. You can also find Celeste on Instagram: both at her own account (@celeste_cruz) and as a part of the Charlotte Mason IRL community (@charlottemasonirl). excerpted transcript Mystie – There’s a spread of abilities and also needs. How do the expectations that we have as moms going into that situation affect how we do it, what we do, and our sanity as we do it. So, how would you say that your expectations have maybe changed or when you go into a school year. Celeste – Since I’ve always had little kids while I’m schooling, usually a toddler and a baby, pretty much every year since I started homeschooling,.. I have a certain curriculum, a certain amount of work that I’d like to get done with my big kids but I have to be flexible in terms of where and how we fit in those things, and I have to be willing to think outside of the box in terms of our school day… Mystie – When there’s so many interruptions and you have to get up and take care of the baby, there are just a lot of things all going on at once, and you’re trying to decide do I do [this] or [this]. How do you keep track of what you should be doing or what you need to get back to when the interruption calms down? Celeste – I think of my day really in terms of blocks. At the beginning of each year I set out a schedule for myself where I have time slots and that is not actually something that we’re going to live by, that’s me making sure I’m not over-scheduling myself, that technically these things could potentially fit in this order on a given day that might or might not actually occur… Spread the word! Leaving a review on iTunes will help other homeschooling moms discover this podcast!

Season 9: Real Life Homeschooling Tips This episode is an excerpt from a video workshop Mystie recorded with Celeste Cruz in 2016. You can register for the entire replay, with bonus support material, by clicking the button below. Listen: Mystie, homeschooling mother of 5, loves to take big ideas and grand visions and make them practicable in real life. So she blogs about organizing attitudes & systems at Simplified Organization and about classical homeschooling at Simply Convivial. Celeste is a Charlotte Mason homeschooling mother with 8 children 10-and-under (at the time of this recording – now 9). When she has free hands, she enjoys distance running, nature journaling, beach days, reading, and writing about home education at Joyous Lessons. You can also find Celeste on Instagram: both at her own account (@celeste_cruz) and as a part of the Charlotte Mason IRL community (@charlottemasonirl). excerpted transcript Mystie – There’s a spread of abilities and also needs. How do the expectations that we have as moms going into that situation affect how we do it, what we do, and our sanity as we do it. So, how would you say that your expectations have maybe changed or when you go into a school year. Celeste – Since I’ve always had little kids while I’m schooling, usually a toddler and a baby, pretty much every year since I started homeschooling,.. I have a certain curriculum, a certain amount of work that I’d like to get done with my big kids but I have to be flexible in terms of where and how we fit in those things, and I have to be willing to think outside of the box in terms of our school day… Mystie – When there’s so many interruptions and you have to get up and take care of the baby, there are just a lot of things all going on at once, and you’re trying to decide do I do [this] or [this]. How do you keep track of what you should be doing or what you need to get back to when the interruption calms down? Celeste – I think of my day really in terms of blocks. At the beginning of each year I set out a schedule for myself where I have time slots and that is not actually something that we’re going to live by, that’s me making sure I’m not over-scheduling myself, that technically these things could potentially fit in this order on a given day that might or might not actually occur… Spread the word! Leaving a review on iTunes will help other homeschooling moms discover this podcast!

Season 9: Quick Ways to Organize Your Attitude Anxiety and worry are attitudes we need to rid ourselves of. Peace and joy (among others) are the fruits of the Holy Spirit, the attitudes of Christ we are to put on. God’s peace, by the Holy Spirit, guards our hearts, changes our attitudes, when we pray with thanksgiving. Having peace and joy is not something we must do on our own before we present our requests, but something we ask for with thanksgiving and in the moment – all the moments, the many moments – we need it. But prayer is also something we can weave into everything we do, as 1 Thessalonians tells us, “pray without ceasing.” Read the original post here: Pause to Pray

Season 9: Quick Ways to Organize Your Attitude Anxiety and worry are attitudes we need to rid ourselves of. Peace and joy (among others) are the fruits of the Holy Spirit, the attitudes of Christ we are to put on. God’s peace, by the Holy Spirit, guards our hearts, changes our attitudes, when we pray with thanksgiving. Having peace and joy is not something we must do on our own before we present our requests, but something we ask for with thanksgiving and in the moment – all the moments, the many moments – we need it. But prayer is also something we can weave into everything we do, as 1 Thessalonians tells us, “pray without ceasing.” Read the original post here: Pause to Pray

Season 9: Real Life Homeschooling Tips This episode is an excerpt of an hour-long live video chat between Amy Roberts and Mystie Winckler in 2016. Listen: Mystie and Amy chat about reactive v. responsive planning, communicating plans with children, teaching kids time management, and what to do when life feels like a series of fires to put out.

Season 9: Real Life Homeschooling Tips This episode is an excerpt of an hour-long live video chat between Amy Roberts and Mystie Winckler in 2016. Listen: Mystie and Amy chat about reactive v. responsive planning, communicating plans with children, teaching kids time management, and what to do when life feels like a series of fires to put out.

Season 9: Quick Ways to Organize Your Attitude But we also need bite-sized truths to meditate, not just general reading. To meditate means to deliberate over, to ponder, to consider, to mull over. We can’t really mull over chapters upon chapters at a time. We need to give ourselves little segments to sink down deep, little bit by little bit. Over a lifetime, it creates a deep well. In order to meditate on truth, we have to know truth. We have to be filling our minds with truth. Read the original post here: Meditate on truth.

Season 9: Quick Ways to Organize Your Attitude But we also need bite-sized truths to meditate, not just general reading. To meditate means to deliberate over, to ponder, to consider, to mull over. We can’t really mull over chapters upon chapters at a time. We need to give ourselves little segments to sink down deep, little bit by little bit. Over a lifetime, it creates a deep well. In order to meditate on truth, we have to know truth. We have to be filling our minds with truth. Read the original post here: Meditate on truth.

Season 9: Real Life Homeschooling Tips This episode is an excerpt from a video workshop Mystie recorded with Amy Roberts in 2016. You can register for the entire replay, with bonus support material, by clicking the button below. Amy Roberts is the mother of 10, who has children from 20 to 2 years old. She and her husband have homeschooled from the beginning and shares what she’s learned and how she does it. * Amy’s blog, Raising Arrows * Amy’s Instagram, Amy Raising Arrows * Large Family Homeschooling eBook * Schedules for Homeschooling Year Round Listen: This is a partial transcript of the episode. Mystie: So in your large family how do you group your kids for instruction time? Amy: I have natural sections of kids. There is almost a four year gap between what I call my “big kids” and “middle kids” and then there’s a gap between my “middle kids” and “small kids” because we lost a daughter eight years ago. So there’s a natural gap. I always start with my littles. I get my big kids started with their individual work which is pretty auto-pilot for them. My two oldest don’t require much from me at all anymore. My middles still require some instruction, but they have things like handwriting and copyworb they can do without me. I’ve said this a million times on the blog: it does not take as long as you think it does to teach little people. It takes 30 minutes. That’s it. Mystie: So true! Until they’re about eight, we do a little phonics and a little math. But not even every day for those early years. If they’re resistant or stubborn, it’s better at those younger ages to have them on board when you are working with them rather than push them or turn school into a fight. We want school to be this thing we do together. We need to pay attention to the atmosphere and dynamic that we’re having together and if that gets off track it’s better to just not do anything than to get into the habit of fighting over it in the morning. Amy: I want my kids to love learning, and I want them to see it as a lifelong thing, so there are always lots of toys and hands-on things that they can be doing. The can be outside exploring and you’re doing science. I want them to love learning. Mystie: And you’re only doing 30 minutes a day with your 5 & 7 year olds? Amy: That’s right! That’s all it takes. The rest of the time is exploring outside, talking about things, reading books. I don’t count readalouds as school work. I’m talking 30 minutes seat work. That’s all those little people can handle. Spread the word! Leaving a review on iTunes will help other homeschooling moms discover this podcast!

Season 9: Real Life Homeschooling Tips This episode is an excerpt from a video workshop Mystie recorded with Amy Roberts in 2016. You can register for the entire replay, with bonus support material, by clicking the button below. Amy Roberts is the mother of 10, who has children from 20 to 2 years old. She and her husband have homeschooled from the beginning and shares what she’s learned and how she does it. * Amy’s blog, Raising Arrows * Amy’s Instagram, Amy Raising Arrows * Large Family Homeschooling eBook * Schedules for Homeschooling Year Round Listen: This is a partial transcript of the episode. Mystie: So in your large family how do you group your kids for instruction time? Amy: I have natural sections of kids. There is almost a four year gap between what I call my “big kids” and “middle kids” and then there’s a gap between my “middle kids” and “small kids” because we lost a daughter eight years ago. So there’s a natural gap. I always start with my littles. I get my big kids started with their individual work which is pretty auto-pilot for them. My two oldest don’t require much from me at all anymore. My middles still require some instruction, but they have things like handwriting and copyworb they can do without me. I’ve said this a million times on the blog: it does not take as long as you think it does to teach little people. It takes 30 minutes. That’s it. Mystie: So true! Until they’re about eight, we do a little phonics and a little math. But not even every day for those early years. If they’re resistant or stubborn, it’s better at those younger ages to have them on board when you are working with them rather than push them or turn school into a fight. We want school to be this thing we do together. We need to pay attention to the atmosphere and dynamic that we’re having together and if that gets off track it’s better to just not do anything than to get into the habit of fighting over it in the morning. Amy: I want my kids to love learning, and I want them to see it as a lifelong thing, so there are always lots of toys and hands-on things that they can be doing. The can be outside exploring and you’re doing science. I want them to love learning. Mystie: And you’re only doing 30 minutes a day with your 5 & 7 year olds? Amy: That’s right! That’s all it takes. The rest of the time is exploring outside, talking about things, reading books. I don’t count readalouds as school work. I’m talking 30 minutes seat work. That’s all those little people can handle. Spread the word! Leaving a review on iTunes will help other homeschooling moms discover this podcast!