Managers of Their Homes
by Steve and Teri Maxwell
Although it is relatively
new, many of you have probably heard of this book; it has been a hot topic
on numerous homeschool-oriented web sites and email discussion lists for
the past few months. When I heard about this book last spring I was already
beginning to dread the coming of July, August, and September. The reason?
I was scheduled to teach a teenage girls Bible class during those months
at the congregation where my family worships. Don't get me wrong -- I
love teaching Bible class -- my dread was caused by my inability to balance
the demands of being a wife, homemaker, and mother with the demands of
spending hours each week studying, writing lessons, planning and developing
visual aids and learning activities, and teaching. I had taught this class
the year before (different subject) and remembered only too well how often
I had neglected my family's ongoing needs so I could devote my time to
class preparation. My memories of haphazard meals, mountains of dirty
laundry, and no time to talk with my husband or read to my children came
rushing back. I knew I didn't want a repeat of all that but I had no idea
how to change things. I began to hear reports about MOTH and was immediately
interested but I wondered, could it really help me, a homeschooling mom
with so many responsibilities and demands on her time?
I ordered my copy of MOTH
about four months ago. I read the book quickly and began working on a
custom-designed summer schedule. Since the book included the schedules
followed by all 24 test families, I had plenty of fodder for ideas for
my own family. We took a couple of weeks to gradually implement the schedule,
which kept anyone from feeling overwhelmed by the changes. The kids memorized
their schedules much faster than me and have been thriving on this way
of living. We got "off" the schedule for a few days once and
the kids said several times, "When are we going to do the schedule
again?!"
It isn't an exaggeration
to say that our whole household has been transformed since I started applying
what I learned from MOTH. I think most people who have known me for awhile
would say that I'm a fairly "together" person, but now I'm finding
it so much easier to get all of my work done and still have plenty of
time to do the fun things with my family that are often so hard to get
around to. We are having a consistent daily Bible study (at the same time
each day!), taking walks, reading aloud, playing games together, working
on projects, etc., -- plus, I'm keeping up with the housework and even
dejunking/organizing the whole house, 1/2 hour at a time! I've been telling
my friends that I totally relate to the comment made by one of the mothers
who tested the prototype of this book: "We're finally doing all the
fun things I've been promising my kids we'd do 'next week' for the past
year!"
As the Summer Bible Class
quarter drew to a close, I designed an Autumn/School schedule. It took
only about 1/4 of the time as the first schedule to finish. We have been
following it for a few weeks now and are happily settling into our school
year routine. I'm amazed all over again -- we are accomplishing much more
school work than we have in past years!
You probably need MOTH if
you have activities:
1. that you really love to
do (like spending time on the computer or reading for your own pleasure)
but often have trouble stopping on your own. They often end up taking
up too much of your time which needs to be spent on other things. 2. that
you really don't like to do. If you didn't have them scheduled, you would
put them off indefinitely. You need a scheduled, limited block of time
set aside only for this activity to make sure you actually get it done
but also to comfort yourself that you don't have to do it for a really
long time. (Some cleaning jobs and exercising fall into this category
for me!) 3. that you want to do but for whatever reason haven't been part
of your regular routine up until now. You need to schedule them to get
used to doing them daily and so you don't "forget" about them.
(Things like a regular, daily, family Bible study time or a craft project
time with your kids might fit into this category.) 4. which you already
routinely include in your day and usually take up about the same amount
of time but until now haven't happened at a PARTICULAR time each day.
These things need to be scheduled so that they don't get in the way of
getting #1, 2, and 3 accomplished. For example, I never forget to eat
lunch, more's the pity, but before MOTH I might have served it anywhere
between 11:30 and 2:00. Some ladies do get dressed at some point each
day, but no one in their immediate family knows when it will happen: it
might be at 7 AM or it might not be until 4 PM!! Choosing a predictable
time to do things like food prep, eating, personal grooming, school, etc.
just helps all the other want to's and must do's have a good chance of
occurring!
A few miscellaneous details
about MOTH: * It includes a scheduling kit which contains everything you
need to custom-design a schedule to fit the needs of your family. (No
trips to the copy store to sidetrack you from getting started!) * The
book teaches you how to design this wonderful schedule, how to fix it
if it isn't so wonderful, and what to do about those inevitable interruptions.
* The book teaches Mom to develop a schedule for herself and her children
-- not her husband! MOTH also stresses the importance of consulting one's
husband throughout the scheduling process, of putting the husband's needs
first, and of the wife's submission to the husband's desires for his family.
I found this refreshing emphasis helpful both as a reminder of my responsibilities
as a wife and as a "two are better than one" way to design a
realistic, workable schedule. * It contains a registration form for the
purchaser to fill out and send back to the Maxwells. By doing so, you
receive their permission to copy all of the forms in the scheduling kit
for your own personal use. I took advantage of this because I plan to
change our schedule seasonally. Another option is to purchase additional
Scheduling Kits. * It will NOT teach you how to clean and organize your
home -- it assumes you already know how to do those things but need help
with how to find the time to do it. (If you don't know how to do these
things, I recommend you read Confessions of an Organized Homemaker, by
Denice Schofield, Is There Life After Housework?, by Don Aslett, and Clutter's
Last Stand, also by Don Aslett.) MOTH teaches you to determine exactly
what activities you, your husband, and God want you to be doing each day
and then helps you figure out how to fit them all in to 24 hours.
MOTH is also available from
other homeschool curricula sources, but I recommend ordering directly
from the Maxwells. They ship the book very quickly (via Priority Mail)
and I've even heard of some people calling them to order and having the
Maxwells offer to ship the book immediately while they sent the check
simultaneously!
In closing, although the
price seemed high to me before I decided to purchase it, the knowledge
I have gained from reading and using MOTH is worth many times its cost.
My household is running smoothly, I have time for personal activities
I enjoy, my children are enjoying their days learning, working, and playing,
and my husband is pleased. Moms, if you get this book and use what you
learn from reading it, I think it will be the best gift you've given yourself
in a long time.
Happy scheduling!
Lori |
