How I do it

People often ask me how I do it.  I think they have the idea that my house is always spotless, I always cook gourmet meals from scratch, I never raise my voice, and I have a miniature school room in my house where my children line up for recess and a washroom break.  In reality, I always wish my house was cleaner, I sometimes yell at my kids, and we learn things all around the house - usually the kitchen, but sometimes even the laundry room will do.

There is no way to do it all - unless you have paid staff to do some of it for you.  One of the things I say is "it's not worth the effort."  If I am going constantly and am always exhausted, then it's not worth the effort.  If my kids sit in front of the tv all day so they don't make a mess with toys, then it's not worth the effort.  I always look at how much I have to invest (time and effort) and what my return on my investment will be.  Sometimes it's not worth it.

Lately the biggest question I get is "How do you ever homeschool with a new baby?"  I always say that when it snows a foot during the night, the last thing I want to do is get up, shovel the driveway, bundle up two kids, a toddler and a newborn and get everybody to a school by 8:30.  Lots of days I'm happy to stay home and let the kids sleep later knowing I don't have to go anywhere.  Of course, by the time the nice spring weather arrives, we're already done school, so we can just go to the park and play.