April Encouragement Night - Housework

At our April homeschool mother’s encouragement night we talked about home organisation.

Although this is a topic relevant to many households, home organisation and homeschooling have special challenges.

Melissa (house management extraordinaire) shared with us many ideas to help us get things more ordered in our home.

I would like to share with you 10 tips that helped me.

1.    Work is good for us. It is a God given privilege (Gen 2) and we should not be lazy (Prov 21:5). Christian’s should do our work heartily as unto the Lord. (Col 3:23).

2.    Home is a training ground for our children. We are to teach our children not to be afraid of hard work. Training is part of our parental responsibility.

3.    Make time to plan your home management. Have a planner. Make your own planner or use your electronic calendar.  I personally prefer a  paper version. Look at your calendar and see what you can realistically achieve. Plan a way to keep the mess under control. Set aside a weekly time to menu plan, decide when to shop, and decide when the chores will get done.

4.    Routine and habits are the backbone of setting up a good system for home management. Do you have one? I personally got my jobs done on a more of an ad hoc basis when I thought they needed it. I decide the bathroom looks dirty or the floor needs a sweep but I didn’t have a routine for cleaning it. I would just decide that can’t wait any longer. Melissa challenged us to set up a good morning and afternoon routine. I decided to make sure I swept the floor and made my bed every morning before breakfast. (Day 10 and its still happening.)Ask yourself what do you need done every morning and every day.

5.    Menu planning requires its own little category. I’m a big menu planner but I’ve slackened recently. After our planning night I sat down and planned the dinners for a month. It’s so freeing. I keep my previous plans to give me ideas. It also helps with eating healthily. Here’s my menu planner ideas and a free menu planner.

6.    Take control of your diary. Don’t plan to go out just to get away from the mess. Know your capacity and stick to it. Plan the big things first, then work out how to get the other things accomplished.

7.    Share the household work. Get your kids involved. Give them structure and a routine. This is part of the training that they need and it is also a way to get it all done. Little kids can do so much more than we often let them. Here is a list of Age Appropriate Chores for kids to do.

8.    Get birthdays onto the list and shop online for cards and gifts.

9.    Reward yourself with a job well done. Make time to enjoy time with friends, play with your kids and sit down to read a good book.

10.    Live a quiet and peaceful life. I Thess 4:11.

Melissa and her husband are partners in a financial planning business that is run from their home in the Upper Hunter NSW. She has been homeschooling three girls for seven years and has found ways to incorporate the demands of homeschooling and business successfully.

Our First Night Back -Encouragement 2012

Last night we had a lovely encouraging night at Kim's place. We had 9 mums and 7 teenage girls.We heard lots of giggling from the teenage girls and we all agreed it's worth getting together.

The pink cupcakes were a hit!

Annette shared a lovely story about raisin toast and how its fragrance spreads throughout the house without even trying to. She reminded us that we didn't have to make the fragrance of Christ spread thoughout our home; if we are in Christ, it should be there. Does that make sense?

We also nutted out the schedule for the year which I have published on the sidebar so we can keep a reference as the year goes on.

Then we had a quick Q and A time talking about some issues that individuals are having.

We finished with a time of prayer.

I hope other mums who are hoping to come can make it next time.

Smiles

Michelle

Christmas Party Breakup for 2011

Last evening those who were able met for a special dinner at Cafe P'CINOs at East Maitland. The cafe was lit with an assortment of fairy lights, flowers and had a lovely ambience. Some people chose desserts, some a special cup of tea or coffee and some had entire meals. We were all spoilt once again by Rae our host with special Christmas star shortbread dusted with icing sugar wrapped and tied with a bow, as well as chocolate Christmas pudding chocolates. Unfortunately I neglected to take a camera so I have no real life photo's but trust me it was a lovely place to chat and be served with fine food. For those interested the menu ranged from  $15-$19 for main meals.

The conversation was delightful, happy and meaningful. It was a blessing to see mum's supporting and sharing with each other from their own experiences. We laughed, we dreamed and sometimes asked others opinions. It was a simple celebration of the year gone by, with prayers and hopes for the year to come. We all take different approaches to our home educating lifestyles and there was no judgement. Acceptance for individuality is a wonderful thing and God is a God of variety so it only seems natural that we should all be different.

Keep tuned to the Hunter Home Educators Pro-board for details for next years get-togethers and if you can push past that desire to get into your jammies, slippers & cosy chair/bed at night and make it out to the Mum's Encouragement Nights please do we would love to see you, EVERYONE is welcome and it is worth the 1 1/2 hours a month to meet with others.

Have a wonderful, joyous, peaceful and blessed Christmas for 2011. Hope you are able to hang onto that sense of holiday joy to take into the new year. Blessings to you and all yours.

Warmest wishes, Renelle

Journalling

Do you journal?

What type of journal do you keep?
Is it a traditional written Journal,
A nature Journal,
A prayer Journal,
Gratitude Journal.
sketch Journal,
or do you use drawing as your Journal?
We discussed this last night at our monthly encouragement night.
We also  discussed Blogging as journalling as well. I woud say this is where my ideas are journalled.
I know some of us keep a private blog journal. We could have got absorbed there but Journalling was the topic.
So lets get back to journalling.
I keep a drawing journal. Its a way of journalling I was taught when I took a private retreat some years ago. I was meant to draw a circle and keep the drawing within the circle. Ha! I can't do that, so I have developed my own style. Using scripture and words to represent an event, a struggle or an emotion that comes to mind.
We discussed that journalling is very personal and everyone has such individual styles.
It was suggested to draw and journal with your children as well. Even from a young age. Keeping there thoughts alive and to look back on them in the future.
Bernie ran the discussion and showed us her various hand made journals. Wow. She is such an artist.
I would love to make my own journal.
And, in fact I can see myself doing just that.

There were a couple inspiring sites to view, including A Holy Experience , One Thousand Gifts , Remembrance press  .

It was a very inspiring evening that generated much conversation, much like the teens girls in the other room discussing there own topic.

Hopefully we may see more of you at the next Encouragement night on 21st September.

God Bless,
Leanne

Encouragement Nights for Mums and Teen Girls

Our Encouragement Nights have been going on and off for a few years now. They are a great place to connect with other homeschool mums. The topics are often Christian in nature but the core focus is on homeschooling.

Homeschooling Mums (or enquiring) and homeschool teenage girls are welcome to attend.

We start the evening with a light supper and then break up into the mothers and teenage girls discussion groups. The teenage girls discussion group is led by Ali a 17 year old homeschool girl.

We meet from 7pm to 9pm at Rae's place in Thornton. No cost is involved. If you need her address please email hunterhomeed@gmail.com.

Unfortunately we have no facillities for children at this event. We ask that you organise child minding for this event. Breast fed babies are welcome.


Our dates for the rest of the year are:

August 24th Topic Sanity tools Journaling

September 21st Topic TBA

October 26th Topic TBA