Organized Home

Morning Madness! Only the pre-dinner "Arsenic Hour" comes close in the "Calgon, take me away!" category. Bathroom fights, soggy cereal, and the ever-present, "Mommy! I can't find my . . . !" Getting the family out the door in the morning can make any parent want to pull the bedclothes up and hide.

One small concept can go a long way to taming the morning beast: the family Launch Pad. Just as a spaceship must have a dedicated structure to support liftoff, so family members need a Launch Pad to stabilize them as they blast out the door.    More »

Kids using planners? I can hear the confused grumbling now. Well, isn't that just the latest Yuppie parent affectation!

Wrong! Teachers, parents and homeschool families know that training kids to the planner habit makes for successful students. School districts throughout the USA issue planners to pupils and integrate planner use into the school day. Homeschool families use planners to track and organize lessons, chores and activities, while techno-hip high school kids tote electronic organizers as status accessories.

A student planner is only a tool. How do you teach a child to use one? It's a bit much to expect a 7-year-old to pore over a complicated biz-speak guide to time management and put the method to work independently.

Try these tips to teach kids the planner habit:    More »

Homeschool is school, but it's home, too--and housework will be with us always. How do you manage to keep up with household chores while homeschooling your children?

Lower your standards. Two-career families with household help may achieve that pristine designer look, but a homeschooling home is rumpled and comfortable. Accept the fact that a homeschooler's decorating scheme can be best described as "Early Science Experiment."

Forget the decorator frills and concentrate on the most important home management tasks: meals, clothes, keeping the health department at bay. You've got better things to do, like teach your children!

Plan, plan, plan! Homeschool families can get by with seat-of-the-pants home management only so long. Savvy homeschoolers set up simple home management routines for shopping, cooking, laundry, and cleaning.    More »

Time. It's a homeschool family's most precious resource--but the claims on the homeschooler's time are many and noisy! School work, housework, sports and family activities crowd the calendar.

How do you get it all done each day?

Here are OrganizedHome.Com's best time management ideas for homeschool families:

Build a plan...with a planner

Homeschoolers, parent or child, need a beacon through the busy days. Whether you call them planners, activity calendars, schedules or daily assignment sheets, all homeschoolers need a guide for daily, weekly, monthly and yearly activities.

Brush up your planner power with these tips:

Homeschooling families? It's time to get your stuff together!

Here are OrganizedHome.Com's best storage strategies for homeschool families:

Stowing Kid Stuff:

A place for everything . . . but not where you think! Use "school" as a model for homeschool storage, and you're apt to reach for "bookcase" and "file cabinets." For homeschoolers, storage outside the box may be more efficient:

• Plastic dishpans are a homeschooler's best friend. Stand picture books on end in a dishpan for a flip-through library.