Improving our Homeschool Plan - Week One - Update

It has been a busy week of cleaning! Though we didn't accomplish every goal I had set on the list, dh and I made big progress toward getting our bedroom clean (Thank you, Lord!). We got about the first half of the tasks on my list accomplished, which was really the bulk of the work anyway. We had one really strong working day, after which we kind of lost our motivation and didn't get a whole lot more done. Even though I am a little disappointed in what we got done, I am not going to let it get me down. We are just going to keep plugging away at the work ahead of us, knowing that God is faithful.
I have been doing some thinking as to how we could accomplish more with our time and keep our motivation high in the things we need to do. This is what I have come up with so far (not just for the bedroom cleaning, but our homeschooling/home management system as a whole):
*Make our goals shorter range, such as daily instead of weekly on things like housecleaning.
*Dh is going to do most of the homeschooling with Will and Sam, leaving me to concentrate on Grace, as I work a full-time job outside the home.
*Put the work and the day in God's hands and take it one day at a time, as I tend to get overwhelmed when I think about the entirety of what needs to be done (who wouldn't get overwhelmed like that?)
*Change up the tasks that we are working on more often, to stave off boredom.
From now on, I hope to post at least weekly updates as to what has been going on with our plan, our homeschooling and life in general. In the spirit of what I just wrote above, I think I am just going to write a couple of goals for today, and then maybe give an update tomorrow on how it went. So here goes with the goals:
1) Do another load of laundry
2) Work on Grace's Bible curriculum
Thank you for your prayers, and please continue to pray for us. Through Christ we will succeed in all that has been set before us.

The Improving Our Homeschool Plan - Week 1

I have many plans over the next couple of years to make our homeschool more structured and streamlined--such as chronological humanities study from ancient times to the present, a strong language arts program, lots of hands-on activities, games and field trips, a rich home ec education for dd4 (and myself), and a custom-built Bible curriculum, amongst other things (whew!). To get there, we are going to first of all need an overhaul in our organization systems in our home. It's a big job, but if we all work together, we'll get there by and by (praying for a miracle) :-).
So... I figure that getting organized is as good a place as any to start improving our homeschool.
To start down the road to get there, I have come up with a few goals to accomplish by the end of next week. (I work five out of the next six nights, starting with tonight, so I'm giving myself a little leeway on the time frame. After that, I plan on posting weekly goals.) My goals for this post are as follows:
1) Work at least two hours on cleaning and organizing the house every day that I am off work.
2) Clean our (dh's and mine) bedroom in the following phases --
* Find a home somewhere in the house for all my movies and put them there.
* Organize my desk and the area beneath it.
* Organize the space between my desk and the bed.
* Find homes for the books that are spread out to the left of my desk ~ 4 feet.
* Organize the rest of the area between my desk and dh's closet door.
* Organize the area between dh's closet door and the bed.
* Organize the area between the bed and the clothing shelves.
* Organize the area between the bed and my closet door.
* Organize the area between the bed and my dressing table.
* Organize the area between the bed and the bathroom door.
* Organize the bookshelves.
* Organize the clothing shelves.
* Organize my dressing table.
* Organize my sewing cabinet.
* Organize my closet.
* Organize dh's closet.
* Set up a reading/breakfast nook in front of the bookshelves.
* Set up the bedside table.
3) Enlist dh as my assistant in this job.
I will post at least by the end of next week and let you know how all this went. Pray for me and ttfn.

Introduction

A note of introduction. We are a family of homeschoolers with five children, three of whom we homeschool . Our oldest two have graduated, dd recieving her GED a couple of months ago and ds in the process of getting his. Our three children remaining in school are ds14, ds12, and dd4. We are also temporarily sharing our home with 3 extended family members-- dh's mother, dh's older brother, and a nephew. We hail from rural Kentucky and revel in the country life. We dabble in farming (a few horses, a beef cow, a few chickens and, last summer, a partly successful run at Square Foot Gardening). Dh works from home rebuilding pallets and I work at a local hospital on the night shift (3 12hr shifts/week) as an RN on the psychiatric unit (a job that I love, by the way).
At present, due to my work hours and unpredictable schedule, we are doing a relaxed version of classically educating our children, heavily influenced by The Well Trained Mind. We are using textbooks for math and english, reading lots of books and using a more free-form approach for everything else. We school four days a week year round at present (although I am considering 5 days a week with less weeks in school next year). About three times a month, we attend co-op with our local homeschool support group.
While I enjoy our present homeschool experience very much, I have even bigger and better plans for us in the coming years. I look forward to sharing our journey with you in the weeks and months ahead.