Simply Convivial: Organization & Mindset for Home & Homeschool

Season 3: Review Required Review Required Every Week A weekly review is applying common sense to our weekly rituals. What do we do before leaving on an extended trip? Clean up, close up, clarify, and wrap up decisions needing to be made. A weekly review is a time to do that every week instead of once or twice a year. It is by a regular weekly review that we can keep a clear mind and a sense of relaxed control in the midst of a crazy and full life. It is tempting to think a weekly review is feasible only in the office workplace setting. You know, someplace where you can close the door and easily have space and time alone. A place not at all like home. But it is precisely because our work at home threatens to deluge and overwhelm us at all hours and every day that we need to carve out a time and space to strategize, to regroup, and to be refreshed. I bet we can all find 30-45 minutes somewhere once a week without interactions or other demands — the difficulty is in choosing to use it this way instead of zoning out on random internet searches or Pinterest-browsing. We must be both savvy and disciplined enough to know the value of sacrificing the seemingly relaxing for the truly refreshing & rejuvenating, creating our own islands of time and space for some version of this process. The key is finding the time, and carving out that time regularly, and performing this clarifying and ordering ritual.         Follow the bibliographic trail         Read the original post here: Review Required: Weekly   A weekly review is the secret to making plans happen. This free checklist will walk you through completing a weekly review and make it a habit.

Season 3: Personality Matters Don’t miss the free homeschool personalities reference page! If you all clamor for the in-depth justification of why I think it’s ok to use and recommend the MBTI (Myers-Briggs Type Indicator), even though it was based on Jung’s theory (and Jung was messed up) and even though each person is a beautiful unique snowflake, I can do that as the last post to this theory. But to kick this off, I’ll simply say that typing people into 4-12 kinds has been going on since Aristotle, and Kiersey (the one who named and described each of Myers-Briggs’ 16 types) makes a compelling argument that the ancient systems (like choleric, melancholic, etc) are observations of the same sort as those made by Isabel Briggs Myers. So, I will admit it. I am a personality nerd. I am a total Myers-Briggs Type Indicator junkie. Download the free Homeschool Mom Personality Cheat Sheet Listen: Read the original post: Personality Matters: Understanding MBTI Typing Recommended Books: Simple Sanity Saver: The Perks of Personality When you know your personality type, you can adjust your expectations of yourself and of your homeschool to be realistic. The website 16personalities.com has a useful free test that is more accurate than many free ones available on the internet. Head over to the podcast page at https://www.simplyconvivial.com/audio to find that. However, what is really useful information when you know your type is to know your preferred way to extrovert (because even introverts have to deal with other people and make things happen in the world) and your preferred way to introvert (because even extroverts have to know with what’s important to them and make connections in their minds). Perks of Personality: Free Reference about MBTI Cognitive Functions Perks of Personality: free 1-page reference explaining MBTI cognitive functions Find out what those letters really mean.

Why Moms Need a Weekly Review A weekly review is a common business productivity recommendation, and a practice I encourage in Simplified Organization: Learning to Love What Must Be Done. It is a time to reorient yourself to what you have on your plate and renegotiate your commitments. You take some time and look at your calendar, make fresh to-do lists, decide what your biggest responsibilities are this week and then make sure those stay in front of your face so they can get done. Moms need a weekly review just as much as a business executive. We have sports practices, volunteer dates, meals, and so much more we must accomplish in a week. The process of evaluating everything that’s upcoming in a calm manner beforehand helps us meet our commitments with peace and preparedness. But it is hard to discipline ourselves to set aside the time. It’s more likely that we just keep on going as we’ve been going without pausing to reflect and set ourselves up for a solid, focused week. But it is only our own peace of mind and sanity we are sacrificing when we skip a weekly review.

Welcome to The Simply Convivial Audio Blog! Releasing weekly on Wednesdays, this podcast brings you short & meaty focus sessions to help you keep your head in the game as a classical homeschool mom. Check out the podcast page here and please leave a review. Thanks! Season 2: Seven Laws of Teaching Your Own Law 7: The Law of Review Summary of Law 7: The completion, test, and confirmation of the work of teaching must be made by review and application. Gregory posits not only that review and application are the “essential conditions of all true teaching,” but also that “not to review is to leave the job half done.” The aim of reviewing material is threefold: * To perfect knowledge. * To confirm knowledge. * To render knowledge ready & useful. Read the original post: Seven Laws of Teaching Your Own: Law of Review & Application Listen: Resources: Simple Sanity Saver: Audit Your Relationships Our home schools are really only as strong as our relationships with our kids, and I wince as I say that, but I will say it because it’s true. The final section of the homeschool audit asks you to examine your relationships. What causes conflict in your homeschool day? How can you defuse it rather than escalate it? These issues are the formation of character – ours and our kids’. As Rachel Jankovic says, “Sin is a fact of life. It is the way we deal with it that changes ours.” This section is not about ridding ourselves or our kids of sin, because that’s impossible. But it is about thinking of strategies to help us deal with it appropriately. It’s the small things that add up and make an atmosphere and a relationship. Choose one small habit to build into your routine this next term. Small but significant changes snowball into large and significant changes. Spread the word! Leaving a review on iTunes will help other homeschooling moms discover this podcast!

Welcome to The Simplified Organization Audio Blog! Releasing weekly on Mondays, this podcast gives you short and punchy action items and mindset resets. Check out the podcast page here and please leave a review. Thanks! Season 2: Motivation to Clean EHAP: My secret to a mostly-tidy house We have a small practice that saves the state of our house, almost every day. It’s simple and effective – as long as we do it. When I keep the time in the late afternoon regularly carved out for it, I can handle the intermittent chaos that descends as the kids work and play throughout the day. I know order will be restored, so I can take a deep breath and let them strew blankets and play food everywhere. Follow the bibliographic trail Read the original post here: EHAP: afternoon tidying to the rescue Have questions about topic? Let’s talk in the comments!

Welcome to The Simply Convivial Audio Blog! Releasing weekly on Wednesdays, this podcast brings you short & meaty focus sessions to help you keep your head in the game as a classical homeschool mom. Check out the podcast page here and please leave a review. Thanks! Season 2: Seven Laws of Teaching Your Own Law 6: The Law of the Learning Process Gregory wishes us to remember that in all our planning and teaching, “there is a clear and distinct act or process which we wish [the student] to accomplish”: learning. It is primarily the learner’s task, not the teacher’s. He must drink freely and it cannot be forced. Learning is more directly the work of the student than the teacher. The work of education is much more the work of the pupil than the teacher. Learning comes by processes of interpretation. Until the knowledge coming forth from the teacher (the mother or the books), is churned and assimilated within the learner, that knowledge does not become the possession of the learner. We want to aim that our students gain clear and distinct conceptions of new facts and principles. How can we facilitate such acts? By giving them opportunities to digest their material and derive its benefits. Basically, narrate, narrate, narrate. It is indispensable that the student should become an investigator. Read the original post: Seven Laws of Teaching Your Own: Law of the Learning Process Listen: Resources: Simple Sanity Saver: Audit Your Flow Auditing your flow might seem a lot like auditing your schedule, but it’s a little different angle. As you examine your flow, you’re looking at what each child should be working on when, how your time is best allocated in the midst of a variety of needs, and how to help smooth the transitions for everyone. One key area to look at is How your children let you know they need your help. Do they interrupt? Do you forget? What systems can you put in place to make sure everyone gets what they need without a lot of extra stress or drama. We should do whatever we can do to minimize frustration for all and make it habitual to move through our day with the law of kindness on our tongues. How does your school day begin? How do you call kids back in after they’ve had a recess or lunch? Do they go off and play when they should be working? How can you communicate with them so that getting the day’s work done is a family-team effort rather than mom pulling everyone’s chain? These are important questions to ask, and important solutions to see, if we want a convivial atmosphere. Spread the word! Leaving a review on iTunes will help other homeschooling moms discover this podcast!

Welcome to The Simplified Organization Audio Blog! Releasing weekly on Mondays, this podcast gives you short and punchy action items and mindset resets. Check out the podcast page here and please leave a review. Thanks! Season 2: Motivation to Clean How strict should our standards for cleanliness be? We are whole people. And we get in trouble when we live in false paradigms. I am one me and you are one you, and there is no separate identity in each area of our life. That’s true even with housework. How we do what we are responsible to do in the little area of home will be how we handle responsibility in wider and deeper areas. It’s practice for what we’re becoming. How we think and act in the seemingly insignificant work will affect how we think and act in all our work. We are what we repeatedly do. And if we repeatedly, day in and day out, complain and grumble, then we will be complainers and grumblers – not just in that one area, but in them all. We are whole people. Follow the bibliographic trail Read the original post here: Holistic Household Help Have questions about topic? Let’s talk in the comments!

Welcome to The Simply Convivial Audio Blog! Releasing weekly on Wednesdays, this podcast brings you short & meaty focus sessions to help you keep your head in the game as a classical homeschool mom. Check out the podcast page here and please leave a review. Thanks! Season 2: Seven Laws of Teaching Your Own Law 5: Law of the Teaching Process Excite and direct the self-activities of the pupil, and as a rule tell him nothing he can learn himself.This, claims Gregory, is the most widely recognized rule among good teachers. Although there may be times to disregard this law — when time is of the essence, when the child is ill or weak, or when the child is discouraged, for example — however, for the most part, the teacher is to “make [her] pupil a discoverer of truth” — make him find out for himself. Read the original post: Seven Laws of Teaching Your Own: Law of the Teaching Process Listen: Resources: Simple Sanity Saver: Audit Your Stuff This section of the homeschool audit is about the actual tangibles and tools that help us or hinder us. These are the prompts that remind us how important it is to declutter and keep things streamlined. 

Walk through a typical day in your mind’s eye and list out what supplies you or your kids need at hand – and where you need them. Can you set up the stuff to reduce friction and resistance? Can you smooth out some hiccups to your schedule by making sure you have what you need where you need it? Does everything have a home? Does everything have a purpose? Is the space you have used wisely or is it all just a jumble? Jumbled stuff will slow you down. We can’t get rid of the people that slow us down, because they are our job, but if stuff is slowing us down, we should get rid of it. Sometimes, the best organizing tool is your garbage can. Spread the word! Leaving a review on iTunes will help other homeschooling moms discover this podcast!

Welcome to The Simplified Organization Audio Blog! Releasing weekly on Mondays, this podcast gives you short and punchy action items and mindset resets. Check out the podcast page here and please leave a review. Thanks! Season 2: Motivation to Clean How strict should our standards for cleanliness be? Our homes are tools to be made use of, not display pieces to handle gingerly. Tools get dirty. Tools have to be taken care of. The point is to keep them useful and functioning, not pristine. A shovel left out in the grass all winter will rust and rot and not be much use in the spring; a home left untended will run to weeds. But a home cared for will not be immaculate. The aim in cleaning house is not to have a clean house, but to prepare the house for further functioning. Follow the bibliographic trail Read the original post here: Happy Household Help: Be a Homemaker Have questions about topic? Let’s talk in the comments!

Welcome to The Simply Convivial Audio Blog! Releasing weekly on Wednesdays, this podcast brings you short & meaty focus sessions to help you keep your head in the game as a classical homeschool mom. Check out the podcast page here and please leave a review. Thanks! Season 2: Seven Laws of Teaching Your Own Law 4: Law of the Lesson Gregory begins with a defense of his position that children possess the innate ability to think, which I will simply assume and not summarize. If you aren’t sure if your children are able to think, you’ll have to read that part yourself. The law of the lesson has its reason in the nature of the mind and in the nature of human knowledge. Read the original post: Seven Laws of Teaching Your Own: Law of the Lesson Listen: Resources: Simple Sanity Saver: Audit Your Schedule The next section in the homeschool audit guide is an audit of your schedule. There are prompts here to look at the overall schedule of the year, of the week, and of the day. The prompts also attempt to help you learn from the past and make adjustments to your schedule based on what you have learned about yourself and your kids and how you all work. There is no one ideal schedule. The best schedule is the one that happens, not the one that’s done by lunch or starts at 8. As you put together your daily and weekly schedule, shape it according to your own needs and not your imaginary ideal. Are you allotting enough time for your work? Are you planning on lessons taking a certain length of time because that’s the ideal or because that’s actually how long it takes you and your kids? Your schedule has to be realistic and take into account the whiny toddler, the diaper changes, and the broken washing machine – always budget plenty of extra time or you will always be scrambling. Spread the word! Leaving a review on iTunes will help other homeschooling moms discover this podcast!

Welcome to The Simplified Organization Audio Blog! Releasing weekly on Mondays, this podcast gives you short and punchy action items and mindset resets. Check out the podcast page here and please leave a review. Thanks! Season 2: Motivation to Clean You need to know the point of your work. The goal of housekeeping is to be ready for use. The end goal of housekeeping is actually not to have a clean house. The clean house is itself a tool, not an end. A house being used for living, working, loving, serving is fulfilling its end. Keeping up with the maintenance is useful because it helps us live, work, love, and serve more effectively, not because the house’s natural, normal state is supposed to be some sort of static, sterile, pristine clean. When we clean house as though the point is to arrive at an end state of Clean, then we’re bound to be frustrated and discouraged because clean never lasts. Part of that is due to the Fall and the imperfection of the world; however, part of that is due to simple use. Follow the bibliographic trail Read the original post here: Clean House with the End in Mind Have questions about topic? Let’s talk in the comments!

Welcome to The Simply Convivial Audio Blog! Releasing weekly on Wednesdays, this podcast brings you short & meaty focus sessions to help you keep your head in the game as a classical homeschool mom. Check out the podcast page here and please leave a review. Thanks! Season 2: Seven Laws of Teaching Your Own Law 9: The Law of the Language Gregory speaks in this chapter of language as a vehicle of instruction, an instrument of learning, and a storehouse of knowledge. Briefly, he means that through common language we communicate experience, by speaking we appropriate what we perceive, that without adequate words we cannot think through ideas clearly, and that what we know we will name. Beware, he warns, words with multiple meanings or homophones — children easily pick up confused meanings, unaware that their perception is inaccurate. It is what the student interprets in his mind, not what the teacher intends, that matters: Not what the speaker expresses from his own mind, but what the hearer understands and reproduces in his mind, measures the communicating power of the language used. Read the original post: Seven Laws of Teaching Your Own: Law of the Language Listen: Resources: Simple Sanity Saver: Audit Your Year This is particularly helpful at the end of a school year, but you can also adjust it for the end of each term to evaluate progress and determine the best adjustments to make. Auditing your year or your term is about noticing the progress that has been made. In the midst of the day-to-day, we often don’t see the trends, because they’re small changes that can be almost imperceptible at times. Taking a little time out now and then to assess each child’s progress in the important areas and interests outside of our school plan helps us see the big picture and realize that there is so much learning happening all the time. It’s not limited to progress in the number of math lessons or history chapters. And, if you notice an essential area they’re particularly resistant to, looking at the overall arch of their progress and their interests might give you insight into how to address the resistance for that particular child. Spread the word! Leaving a review on iTunes will help other homeschooling moms discover this podcast!  

Welcome to The Simplified Organization Audio Blog! Releasing weekly on Mondays, this podcast gives you short and punchy action items and mindset resets. Check out the podcast page here and please leave a review. Thanks! Season 2: Motivation to Clean How strict should our standards for cleanliness be? Leila then defines “reasonably clean” as “one that has order, but doesn’t take all day to get there, and one we can whip into shape if we need to, as opposed to booming and busting.” So “reasonably clean” is a personal, individual balance between not shirking one’s work, giving a good effort, and not being anxious or spending too much time on it (ha!). In other words, absolutely spotless is not our goal. Our goal is to apply ourselves evenly across our domain, not booming and busting (something I am always doing!) and not being uptight in one area while ignoring something equally important like meals or clean clothes or not-disgusting bathrooms. Leila’s series zeroes in on the basics and gives some great tips for making it happen and — most importantly — keeping it happening. Follow the bibliographic trail Read the original post here: Securing a Resonably Clean House, an Introduction Have questions about topic? Let’s talk in the comments!

Welcome to The Simply Convivial Audio Blog! Releasing weekly on Wednesdays, this podcast brings you short & meaty focus sessions to help you keep your head in the game as a classical homeschool mom. Check out the podcast page here and please leave a review. Thanks! Season 2: Seven Laws of Teaching Your Own Law 2: The learner must attend with interest to the material to be learned. A learner – which is what our children are supposed to be – cannot be passive. To become a learner, a child must have two things: interest and attention. Unless and until the child becomes invested with interest and attention to the lesson, the teacher teaches but in vain. One may as well talk to the deaf or to the dead as attempt to teach a child who is wholly inattentive. So, what is attention, exactly? Gregory develops three types of attention, one progressing to the other naturally, and it is leading his students through the progression, the development, of attention, that is the teacher’s duty Read the original post: Seven Laws of Teaching Your Own: Law of the Learner Listen: Resources: Simple Sanity Saver: Audit Your Situation To begin your own homeschool audit, look at your situation. You can’t make an ideal homeschool plan in a vacuum, ignoring your own particular needs and circumstances. This section asks you to score your situation to assess the drains on your energy. The scores are totally arbitrary, but give you a grid by which to evaluate why your days might be feeling so hard – maybe they feel so hard because they are so hard! Which sections give you the highest points – is there something you can do there to lower your score? Are there ways you can compensate for a high score in one area by lessening your responsibilities in another? One question in this section asks you to add points if you have no homeschooling friends you talk to weekly. I think we underestimate what a help it is to have friends to chat with, friends with whom to share the load, even if only the mental load and not the daily work of educating our kids. Local friends who know you and your family are best, and it is worth rearranging life to foster those friendships. If that’s not possible, finding likeminded women online is the next best option – but we all need friends to share the journey with and talk shop. Seek out friendships and cut something else out rather than them when time feels tight. Spread the word! Leaving a review on iTunes will help other homeschooling moms discover this podcast!

Welcome to The Simplified Organization Audio Blog! Releasing weekly on Mondays, this podcast gives you short and punchy action items and mindset resets. Check out the podcast page here and please leave a review. Thanks! Season 2: Motivation to Clean Housework seemed like a stupid waste of time. And I hated wastes of time and stupidity, so I triply hated housework. I was torn between wanting to be a good, competent homemaker and thinking that the state of my bedroom or the kitchen just wasn’t a big deal. I could get meals on the table, keep things stocked, and complete a project just fine. But the day-in day-out routine tasks were a drag. I’m not going to say that I love those routines now or that I totally rock them, because I don’t. But I am learning to love them. And it all started back then, when my third born was just a baby, and I was reading novels. Follow the bibliographic trail Read the original post here: What a Novel Taught Me about Housework Have questions about topic? Let’s talk in the comments!