One of my blog readers left a comment asking me to elaborate more on our new schedule.  I wanted to add more last night, but it was simply too late at night for me to form a post that made sense!

Our schedule is very different (as I mentioned before), because my husband and I both work from home, and we homeschool, we live without running water off-grid, but here goes.

In the morning we wake up, I dress the girls, feed the baby (this happens throughout the day of course), brush hair etc. while Larry makes breakfast.  Then we eat together as a family.  Then we do devotional Bible reading out of the NIrV and memory work out of the KJV while the girls listen, color, answer questions etc.  Then we have chore time.  Everyone in the family works on chores.  The girls have some simple chores – mostly picking up.  Our oldest also helps with the dishes.  This is when we focus on domestics.  We do baths, intensive cleaning, dishes (once a day in the morning), cooking ahead, vacuuming, washing floors etc.  Not all on the same day of course, but we always do dishes and cooking.  The girls are excused when they are done, Larry and I keep doing domestics until lunch time – putting away laundry, filing, clearing hot spots, you name it.  We have a chalkboard we both write the tasks on that need to be tackled, but we don’t have a formal chore rotation in place.

After lunch we clear up the table, then we go into our work blocks.   We do two days of school, a day of work, two days of school, a day of work, then take Shabbat off (Saturday).  That is what *I* do in the afternoon block.  On school days we do skills first, then content.  We are currently doing Latin, math, spelling, English, copywork for skills, then we rotate science and history for content subjects for my oldest daughter.  My second daughter is doing All About Reading, and sits in on read alouds, my third daughter likes read alouds too.  We don’t get to do those if our skill work isn’t completed in a timely fashion – and of course, our content subjects are the most fun .

In our work time Larry works on the house, builds furniture, tends to the cattle, chops wood, works on the business, or on my work days he takes the children for walks, does crafts with them, reads them stories etc.  We have a tea break at around 3:45 then keep working until around 6 p.m. now that it is summer.

Then we eat supper, clear the table, and Larry milks the cow (he also does this in the morning before most of us wake up) and take scare of the milk.  Sometime in the afternoon or evening the girls also get to watch a DVD or VHS of their choosing – they have a rotational choosing schedule.  In the evening we sometimes watch a family movie, or just relax, get ready for bed, read our slate of bedtime stories, and it is off to bed!

We have never been so productive!  We’ve done away with multi-tasking and are focusing more on working as a team, I’m so pleased with the results.  Of course, this won’t work for everyone.  The most important thing with scheduling is to understand your family dynamics, eventually you will find something that works for you (Lord willing)!

If you are anything like our family, you’ve tried – ahem – a few different schedules in the past.  For the past couple of weeks we’ve been playing with and perfecting a new type of schedule and so far it is working better for us than any we’ve previously used.  We both work from home, and homeschool, so our schedule has been almost TOO flexible in the past.  Now that we are setting aside larger chunks of time for specific topical tasks things have really been getting done around here!  It’s exciting to see, and it hasn’t felt like a huge burden.  It is actually a relief to have time set aside to really tackle tasks with family members supporting us in them.

So, if you haven’t found a schedule that works for you yet – keep trying!  It is possible to find a good fit, you just need to keep finessing!

I was reading on one of the Tapestry of Grace yahoo groups that Caroline – a homeschooling mother of six – is organizing a Bible memorization effort to encourage others to not only read, but to memorize the entire book of Philippians over the course of this next year.

She has set up a blog and will be making a reading schedule, 3×5 memory cards, etc. available there, as well as providing a place of fellowship and support.

I plan to join her!  Are you interested in memorizing Philippians?  The effort starts this Easter weekend, so make sure you check out the blog here!

…thy neighbour’s weather.

I was reading an email update I received from Nancy Campbell of Above Rubies in which she noted that they had seven snowfalls this year.  ONLY seven!  Of course, she said this as though it were noteworthy, like a LOT of snow.

Here in central Alberta, we’ve had ever so much more snow than that.

Before I plunged into a full-fledged bout of pity-party, climate-based-one-upmanship, the Lord checked my heart.

He put me here.  He sends the weather.  And I should not, MUST NOT, covet my internet neighbours weather.  He’s sovereign, I’m not.  Enough said.

Thanks for the reminder, Lord.

As quiverfull families continue to come to the forefront of media reporting on ‘quirky trends’, interest in our conviction continues to build.  I was recently contacted by a student researcher via email who is looking or QF families to interview, and I volunteered to pass her email along in case any of you would like to participate.

You can get in touch with Janna at jfrieman@haverford.edu

My name is Janna, and I am a senior at Haverford College. I found your lovely blog by googling “quiverfull blogs.”

I am a political science major with an interest in social movements, and I think that something really dynamic and interesting is happening with communities of faith in America. In the coming weeks, I will be putting together a survey (about 10-15 questions) for Quiverfull couples trying to understand how people find the Quiverfull movement, why they join, and why they stay invested in the Quiverfull community. I would love for you and your husband to participate. The identities of all participants will remain confidential, and I have no plans to publish my findings, but if you wanted to see the finished product, I would be happy to send you a copy.

If your family would be interested in participating in my research, I would be deeply grateful, and very happy to have your input. If you know other families that might be interested in participating, feel free to pass on my contact information.

All the best,
Janna Frieman
Haverford College Class of 2011

I was featured yesterday as an interviewee for the Sower’s of Hope S.E.E.D. series.  It is a collection of interviews with women who cover in accordance with 1 Corinthians 11 – a practice that has greatly fallen out of favor in the modern church.

In my interview I share about how I started covering as well as some advice for women being led in this way.  Please drop by my interview there and be encouraged!

At this time of year it is not uncommon to see debates about whether or not Christians should celebrate Halloween, and if so, how they should.

As a former pagan/witch, I have a very strong opinion on the subject from a perspective that may be different than that of many.

I won’t go into all of the details here, but if you’d like to learn more, please visit Lisa Metzer over at A 2nd Generation of Homeshcooling who is featuring an interview I did with her last year.  I doubt I could say it more succinctly or eloquently with my pregnancy brain fog, so I’ll let my answers there stand.

God bless you and your family as you continue to seek after Him and His ways!

All three of my little girls are currently involved in a spontaneous Daddy-dancing session. Spontaneous, family-dancing time is a big part of my happy-childhood memories and it’s so exciting to see my own family creating those sweet memories.

Larry’s family never really been very musical, so he sort of missed out on the family singing/dancing memories. I’m so happy that he dives right in with our daughters although he didn’t have that foundation laid for him as a child.

Larry, I love you!

Our oldest child is only seven, but I’m already concerned about capturing her heart and holding it through the tenuous adolescent years.  Oh, this years in which our children need us oh so much, such a treacherous time when life-altering decisions can be made oh, so quickly.  I so long that our girls will listen to us as they enter upon such crucial years, the early years of womanhood.

Today I had Kaelynn out all by herself (a rarity, our family normally travels all together), and after our swimming session I took her to McDonalds for a snack/drink/girl time.  We didn’t talk about anything all that important, and she spent most of her time people watching, but I want her to feel like she’s important to me, that I want to spend time with her, that I want to talk to her and hear her thoughts.

Experienced parents, chime in here.  Have you raised children through adolescence and beyond?  Were they open to your input as the major choices in life arose?

We’re praying – every day – Lord, guide our children and direct their steps along Your way as they grow, for your Name’s sake.

The girls and I have been going to a new church here locally for a couple of months and there are totally into their Sunday School classes – they just adore church and would never miss a week if it was up to them!  Even when we had sick children who were throwing up, Kaelynn was campaigning to go!  In any case, we were back this Sunday (though the pastor was away) and this week Larry came with us too!  It was very exciting to have him come (he’s a bit cautious when it comes to new fellowships), so we had all of the family together this morning .  Yay!