Years ago, I learned a lesson from FlyLady that made a huge difference in my ability to keep the house reasonably clean ( with four kids it is never perfect). I learned that I even if I didn’t have the time to do things perfectly, I needed to do what I could with the time I had. For example, I might not have time to deep clean my entire bathroom in the morning but instead of doing nothing I can do a quick clean of the toilet and wipe down the counters. This concept was so beneficial for my home, but it took me several more years to realize that I needed to apply the same concept to our home school and family activities.
For a long time, I would get frustrated when I didn’t feel like I had time to complete all of the fun activities that I had found. Sometimes I would start out strong and then life would happen and we would get behind on our Advent projects or our read alouds. Sometimes I would try to catch up, but often I would get so frustrated that I just didn’t do anything.
Over the last couple of years, I have been working towards doing what I can, when I can. In other words, using the time that I do have to the best of my ability and not quitting just because I can’t do it perfectly. This might mean shortening a lesson or even skipping a day but continuing to try because, I know that we will gain so much more by doing what we can. This might look like only getting to 15 days of our Advent study (but that is a lot better than quitting after 2 or 3 because we missed a day) or reading only part of a picture book before we have to move onto something different.
As I was writing this post this week, I had an opportunity to live out what I am sharing. On Thursday, I was sick with some gallbladder issues and accomplished nothing more than sitting in my recliner with a heating pad and checking a few of my son’s math problems. We didn’t listen to our music, we didn’t read a Christmas book, we didn’t do our Advent study. I could have easily let that derail my plans but I made a conscious choice to just keep going. We can skip that day of music, read an extra book today and pick up where we left off with our Advent study.
Don’t let what didn’t get done ruin your day or your week. Don’t not do what you can because you can’t do it all. I pray that during this busy holiday season and throughout your school year, you are able to do what you can and let go of what you can’t. That instead of letting a missed day (or week) stop you from doing anything you just keep going. When we focus on what we can and did do instead of what we didn’t it can turn our home school day around and set us back on the right track.
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Deals and Freebies
Tuttle Twins is currently offering a HUGE sale of 75% off their books, workbooks,and audios. This is a great series for teaching about economics and government.
If you have not tried SchoolhouseTeachers.com, you don’t want to miss this sale! I have multiple reviews on the blog about different courses we use from them. This is an amazing price for an entire year for your whole family and lots of really neat bonus gifts! Simply click on this link and use code: 19GIFTS
If you are looking for a fun way to encourage reading this summer, check out the FREE summer reading materials from Your Morning Basket with Pam Barnhill. The passport and reading bucket list are a great way to encourage reading!
Homeschool Complete is offering a special 10% off discount to my readers! Just use code: SWAG
Evan-Moor is offering their Daily Fundamentals book FREE right now to help out during this time.
Get a FREE Literature Kit from LitWits using Code 11READ4FUN. We are currently enjoying the Heidi kit but have also previously loved the My Side of the Mountain kit.
IEW is offering some great free resources right now.
FREE Baby Yoda Art Lesson from Nana!
Illustrated Would You Rather Book (Free on Kindle)
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