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I have a notoriously type A personality. Oodles of self-motivation and drive, but also perfectionist tendencies and anxiety. Basically, I can really stress myself out sometimes. And, my desire to create the perfect schedule and plan for my homeschool has made my past homeschool planning anything but flexible.
Over the years I’ve calmed down quite a bit. But, I still feel anxiety over trying to wrestle a to-do list stretching into the stratosphere into manageable bites each day. And as a homeschooler, that to-do list includes my homeschool planning, which I want so badly to get right for my kiddos, for me, and for our home.
At the beginning of our homeschooling journey, I would meticulously plan out our homeschool schedule. Each subject down to the day and minute, packing it all in.
Of course, smashing everything in and being rigid in my plans meant we were able to stick to them for all of a day or two before I was throwing it out and starting from scratch. And, it made for some serious mental exhaustion during my first few homeschooling years.
We’re having a Giveaway!
*This giveaway has ended.
Enter the giveaway for a chance to win the Rhythms & Routines Homeschool Planning System from Tauna Meyer of Proverbial Homemaker. The updated Rhythms & Routines Homeschool Planning System (formerly the Relaxed Mom Homeschool Planner & eCourse) includes a fresh new design, updated calendars, and additional features such as a monthly record page, a mother’s journal, and a new weekly routines page.
It ends Friday, August 24th so enter soon!
Flexible Homeschool Planning
This rigid way of planning my homeschool days was doomed to fail. And, I was lost.
Until, I read about how Tauna Meyer, my notoriously type-b-girl over at Proverbial Homemaker. She created a flexible way to plan her homeschool days using the Rhythms & Routines Homeschool Planning System.
That’s when what I’d been doing wrong became crystal clear.
I had a whole week, or month or year to fit it all in. Not just one day.
I had been trying to fit 87 things into one day, strangling all the fun out of learning. And, I was setting a clock on all the subjects I wanted to teach each day. Of course, I would often end up at the other extreme and just throw in the towel by 10 AM and turn on the cartoons. Vowing that tomorrow would be better. Never getting to the bottom of the list and skipping subjects altogether because they weren’t near the top of my list, was not working.
Luckily for my kids and my mental health, I stopped all the crazy by cutting things out, spreading subjects out over the week, and simplifying our homeschool schedule.
Finding an efficient flexible homeschool planning system that takes into account all of our families unique needs has helped me feel like I am being true to our homeschooling vision. This planning system also puts God at the center of our homeschooling days by providing daily blessings and scripture to pray over our homeschool as a family.
It makes God part of my everyday tasks like homeschooling planning, while also being completely practical in helping me fit in all of the subjects I want to get to every week.
Rhythms & Routines
The reason the Rhythms & Routines Homeschooling Planning system works for anyone, and what I love most about it, is that it isn’t a replication of someone else’s schedule.
This is a tool.
A tool that will help you put a unique and flexible homeschool planning system into place. And, more than just figuring out how best to schedule your daily subjects.
For instance, my family roadschools. So, our schedule is usually something I plan in chunks. I don’t always know where we’ll be or what activities we’ll have available to us in the new places we visit. My husband does contract work at each location we travel to and that means he has a different work schedule every time. I have to have a flexible homeschool planning system that I can adapt to my family’s needs or I’d be trying to re-do it every few months.
This system is about homeschool planning and scheduling that takes into account your family’s unique rhythms and routines. And, it works because it starts from the viewpoint of your own family. Not some copy and paste schedule.
You aren’t supposed to do it the way Tauna or I do it. It is for you and your family’s needs and that has to be the heart of any planning system you use.
Another great part about this system is that Tauna walks you through it, step-by-step in her e-course. In it, she explains the why’s behind it, how to set it up, how to go through the process and plan out your own unique homeschool schedule. She wants you to succeed.
See the planner in detail and hear how Tauna sets it all up in this informational video.
Loop Scheduling
The Rhythms & Routines Homeschool Planning System uses a loop schedule for flexible homeschool planning that will totally change the way you plan your homeschool days.
How many times do you make a perfect plan for your homeschool and some interruption happens? One of the kids is sick, family comes for a visit, or any of a hundred other unexpected life events happens and you’re stuck re-planning those days because you had set certain activities for certain days.
No matter how good your plan was to start with you can’t plan for the unexpected.
With loop scheduling, you don’t have to worry about that. When you don’t get to something, you just pick up where you left off the next day. No guilt over not finishing some gigantic daily checklist of subjects. Tauna has a few subjects that her kids need to do every day and then the rest of them she loops through. If they get to two subjects on the loop list on Monday, then they start at the third item on Tuesday.
Loop scheduling isn’t just for your homeschool planning either, you can use it in every area of your home.
Tauna shows you how to implement this and provides support in her Loop Scheduling Workshop & Facebook Support Group. Right now and until August 31st you can get it on sale for 20% off with code RRSystem.
Banish To-Do List Defeat
Get rid of to-do list defeat by implementing flexible homeschool planning and grab Tauna’s brand new Rhythms & Routines Homeschool Planning System. Get a flexible planner and a walk-through e-course to make it work for your family’s schedule.
Through August 31st, use code RRSystem to get 20% off on the Rhythms & Routines Homeschool Planning System!
Heidi
I am looking for a planning system that will help us to have a more productive and enjoyable homeschool year. Thanks for offering the giveaway.
This way of planning has really helped me in both of those ways Shayne. I hope it can do the same for you. Good luck in the giveaway!
As a newbie to homeschooling this seems like an excellent resource! Im very type-A and tactile when is comes to education but my daughter is free spirited and rigidity is like sandpaper for her. I want homeschool to be enjoyable and a time of fellowship, not just school at home. Thanks for this recommendation.
Raquila, I would have loved to have started my homeschool planning this way! It sounds like it will be a great fit to accommodate you and your daughter and your differing personalities. It truly is a way to put a system into place that takes the tension and stress out of your schedule.
I love Tauna’s stuff!
I do too, Katelyn!
Would love to win this!
Yay, Jules I am so excited that you entered! Good luck!
Thank you for offering this giveaway. It sounds like a fantastic system. I too, am a type “A” personality. I drive myself nuts trying to achieve my goals. We finally relaxed into a year round school schedule, which allows us breaks when we need them, and it helps us remember that we have plenty of time to learn everything we want to. We’re not boxed into a traditional calendar. I would love to check out the e-course and planning system to further simplify our homeschooling!
Your welcome Jennifer! It really is the perfect fit for struggling type-A’s like us;) I am always looking for more ways to simplify too and I’m so glad you’ve found some scheduling ideas to simplify and enjoy your homeschool more. This system will work great for your year round schedule!
As a type A planner, who is struggling, I never considered using a type B planner/method to ease my stress and guilt. Very interesting paradigm shift to consider. The giveaway would make it possible to try this “new to me” style. I like how Tauna would then explain the loop schedule so it could be applied to other aspects of life.
Hi Wendy, I’m so glad for this chance for you to try out these flexible planning ideas. For me, I drew from my personal life when considering Tauna’s ideas- My husband is an extreme type-b and while you would think it would cause issues between us it has been nothing but a blessing. We truly balance each other out, he helps calm my anxieties and relieve my self-imposed guilt and I help to motivate and encourage him. So, I knew that a type-b planning style could really work for and be the best thing for me, and it really has been. I hope that Tauna’s ideas help you to find the perfect planning style for your homeschool.
Every year my planning is getting a little better – the first year I had a 15 minute block schedule… guess how well that worked?? Now I use more of a routine than schedule, but I struggle with balancing school and life. I think I could definitely still make some major improvements!
Taryn, that is just how I started out too. And, you bet it didn’t go well! I’m glad you’ve been able to find a routine that works. I hope this system is just what you need!
I’m so tired of never following my own too complicated plans! I’d love to give this system a try!
Haha! Yes, I was so tired of that as well! Tauna’s ideas have been a lifesaver for me.
Thank you for offering this give away. This would be a great resource to have as I am just starting out.
Hi Kristy! Yes, this resource is great for new homeschoolers. It would cut out all those years of struggling to find the right plan for your homeschool.Good luck!
This would be amazing to win! I have to wing it with whatever we have at the moment due to finances so this would be a huge blessing!
I totally get that Laura! Homeschooling can be so expensive and requires a lot of unpaid hours of work for parents. Tauna really gets this and always provides her products at really reasonable prices. Good luck!
As a type A personality, myself, I need assistance in helping me be more flexible and relaxed with my scheduling methods. I feel this tool could really help me in this area. Help in this area would also help my son learn since he is a more free-spirit than I am.
Hi Ashlee! I’ve gotten some of the best advice, specifically about flexibility and relaxing my plans, from the type-b’s in my life. It really is good to consider ideas that are outside of our normal way of doing things. I have found it so helpful in my homeschooling and homemaking.