Inspired, Faith-filled Organization

I've talked to many people about homeschooling my kids. The most common response I get is, "I don't know how you do it!" To tell you the truth, before I started this school year, I wasn't sure how I was going to do it either. Even having a Bachelor's in Elementary Education didn't seem to make my decision to homeschool a very easy decision. And I certainly didn't take this decision lightly. It took a lot of prayer and faith building on my part to have the courage to do it this year with 3 of my 5 children. What's kind of crazy to think about is that this is my fifth year of homeschooling and I think I've finally got it figured out, because I had a lot of help from my Heavenly Father. He's the master-mind behind all of this homeschool organization that I am going to share with you. I suppose if anyone reading this gets anything out of this post, the message that I would hope to convey is to "Never underestimate the power of a mom on a mission." You have the ability to do anything and everything that the Lord asks of you and anything that is good that you truly desire to accomplish, he will help you to accomplish it. But you must have FAITH and you have to have a plan! This is my inspired, faith-filled plan that we, as a family, strive to follow as closely as we can. Now, I'm not saying that this could work for every family, but I was inspired to do this for mine. One other side note, I have five kids, two are quite young, so that being said, we are not perfect at following this plan every day, but the plan is there for us to follow and because we have the plan, we have GREATER success!



SCHOOL/FAMILY SCHEDULE:

This schedule is to help us keep track of the time allotted for each subject and for personal chores. Again, we don’t follow this to a tee, but we do the best we can. So I know these aren’t the best pictures, but I can’t seem to find my original Excel document. I’m a little sad about that, because it took awhile to put this together. But all the time and effort put into this is so worth my sanity, which this schedule helps me to keep. LOL! Some things about my schedule I feel I must mention. In the past, I rarely thought that I had time for myself. I really felt that was something that needed to change. So I made some time on my schedule to do crafty things, read, write music, etc. My time is scheduled at 7 pm. Do I get interrupted? Definitely. But at least it’s on the schedule and I get more time to do things that I really enjoy doing for me and the rest of the house chores don’t suffer. Because I would prefer to craft than clean any day, but it’s really difficult to feel comfortable in a crazy messy house all the time, so my schedule is kind of like my brain on paper. I get a lot more done, because it is written down and scheduled.








RUESCH TEAM SCHEDULE:


This is equivalent to a kind of chore chart. My 3 oldest and I have a chore schedule which I put in a 3 ring binder. My husband helps when he can. He’s just really busy right now with school and work, so we haven’t made one up for him yet. This is also where we keep our school schedule. I explained to my kids that in our family we work as a team. If one of our team members doesn’t do his or her part, then our team doesn’t work as well. When we work together as a team, we can get more accomplished. I am going to brag just a little bit, I really have some great team members in my kids. My older ones especially make a huge difference with all the help that they give me. One other thing that I should explain is that I felt it was important for my kids to see that Mommy has chores to do as well. My chore schedule is as much for me as it is for them. If you can’t read any of these documents and really want more specifics, I’d be glad to send them to you via e-mail. Just leave me a comment with your e-mail address, which I promise not to give to anyone else. =) These are just two examples of our chore chart.

THE REWARD SYSTEM:
Rewards are essential in this plan. To encourage good behavior, I reward my kids for doing well in school, chores, and just family life in general. Something I love about this system is that they earn daily rewards which are like wages for the day, but they get paid on one day and buy their rewards with the "fake" money that they have earned on one day. With the money that they earn, they buy their rewards for the next week. They can choose their rewards from the options given to them. However, if they use up all their rewards before it's payday again, they will just have to find something else to do. The responsibility is not on me, it is given to them. They still ask before they can use their rewards, but they can't really be upset with you if they chose to use up rewards quickly. It really was their choice to do so. All good behavior deserves a reward, so this is how it goes for us.

ITEMS needed for the rewards system:

Fake money (I got mine at the dollar store.)
Dollar store items that are handpicked by kids
Paper to type or write rewards on
A scheduled time when the reward store opens
A scheduled time for kids pay day
3 ring binder
Pencil holder for each child (the kind that can go in a 3 ring binder)
A place to keep your reward store items
A place to keep track of rewards earned for each child each day.

I set it up so my kids can earn up to $5 on week days and up to $3 on weekends.

-$1 for no complaining in school
-$1 for staying on task in school
-$1 for finishing their chores in the time allotted to them
-$1 for showing kindness or service to a sibling (help them get a drink, change a diaper, help them get dressed, play with them, read with them, etc.)
-$1 for making their bed and cleaning up all their clothes and toys.
-$1 for being good at church (only a Sunday reward, of course)

Things they have to pay for:
-If I or someone else in the family has to pick up shoes, clothes, etc. belonging to them. They get one courtesy reminder and then they have to pay anywhere from $1.00 up to $5.00 depending on the item.
-I’m also thinking of implementing something that has to do with fighting or teasing too much. Being together all day long, there is plenty of opportunity to get on each other’s nerves, so that may be something I choose to add to this little system.

These are some of the rewards that they can earn/buy at the end of the week. Pay day is Friday evening. My reward store opens on Saturday at 2 PM. In order for them to be able to use their money, they have to have all chores done before the store opens. If they choose to take their time and not finish, they aren’t able to cash in their money for rewards until the next week.
30 min.-Computer Game Time - $2.00 1- Bubble Bath- $2.00
1 Movie or 1 hour TV- $2.00 Play outside time- $2.00
20 min. –Mommy time- $2.00 20 min.-Daddy time-$2.00
Musical Mania- $2.00 2 days sidewalk chalk-$2.00
1 board game-$2.00 Have a friend over to play-$2.00
One reward of your choice from the reward store items. (these are the $1 store toys that they helped to pick out)

ORGANIZING SCHOOL SUBJECTS:

I bought these bins at Wal-mart to organize my kids’ school work. All school work for the week goes in these bins.

Each subject has its own manila folder. Every Saturday I have planning time set aside and I put their assignments for the week in their school bin. Their school bin contains their work for the week, math manipulatives, and their pencil holder which contains their money, rewards and pencils. I also print their scheduled assignments for the week so that they can take some responsibility for their own school work.


This is the pencil holder that I got from the dollar store. The pencil holder works great for keeping their money, rewards and pencils. You could also choose to keep them in the same 3 ring binder as the schedules. I choose to keep them in their school bins so that they do not have the temptation to get into each other’s rewards and this seems to make them more responsible for their own personal rewards.

WHAT TO DO WITH THE LITTLE ONES:

My little ones like to feel big like their older siblings and want to do school too. So while my older boys are doing school, they get to do “school” too. I will let them play with math manipulatives, give them a letter coloring sheet, have a sibling read them a book while I’m working with another one. And I hope to record my kids reading some of their favorite books, so that the little ones can listen and follow along in a book. Often times, they are great little playmates, so they are happy to play together and do their own thing when they are done with “school.”

This is my kindergartner. He finishes up school before his older brothers, so he will do his chores and then he can cash in some of his rewards. He is playing a V-Smile in this picture. It only plays educational games, and he is able to take it into another room and play it without being a distraction to others.

WEEKLY GOALS:

One last thing that we do each week on Sunday is make goals for the week. We sit down and talk about what it is that each child and Mom and Dad can work and improve on during the week. Goals can range anywhere from doing better in a particular subject in school, to improving family relationships. Possibilities are endless. I try to choose a king or queen for the week which is determined by how well they did on reaching their goals for the week. This child gets to choose who leads the morning pledge and who gets to say the prayer on one of our meals. Not a big job, but they love the attention, especially when they get to wear the crown on their heads.

I think that I have just about covered it. However, I’m sure that there are plenty of things that could use more explanation, so if you have questions, just let me know. Love to answer them. Also if anyone chooses to put this system into practice in their own family, I would love to hear about it and how it works in your family. Since the dynamics of family life are different for every family, I don’t expect this to be a perfect system for everyone. Perhaps some will feel inspired for their own family, but all those who wonder how this crazy Ruesch family does the homeschool thing with 5 young children and still manages to stay partially sane, ;) this is how we do it! To all who read, happy family organization, and may the Lord bless you in all your endeavors to build amazing future leaders in your home!