Making Changes: Household and Homeschool

Last week I made a lot of important "big picture" decisions.
Partly because I forced myself to do the Kids Clothes Week sewing/working on sewing stuff for one hour a day. I didn't get through the entire week perfectly, but it laid a great foundation of getting into the habit and I am continuing it this week.
I prioritized the most important things, including sewing, I realized what is not important to me: dishes and laundry. Joking, joking. I realized that there is too much stuff to maintain, too little planning ahead for meals, and too much laundry, laundry, laundry. So there will be a big purge in the closet, and the makeup collection (both things of which make a big mess for me).

in process. just look at the cubbies.

The toy purge was actually less of a purge than I originally thought. We make it a priority to not collect junk toys, so we had already purged, everything just needed more organization. Plus I put a few things away to be rotated. The kids have responded very well to having ONE toy/activity per shelf. Like, playing with the same toy for 30 minutes. Whoa!

after. cubbies are much cleaner.

Also, the curriculum/plan that I blogged about before is just not working for us. It is not hands-on enough. That is the great thing about starting early (before my child turned 4) and watching how he learns and what interests him. My son loves the poetry memorization part of his current curriculum, but most everything else bores him. So we are changing gears to a more Montessori style setup with more hands on everything. I have always felt like the Montessori method is something that he would really thrive with. The same day that I thought "MONTESSORI!" I won a giveaway via San Antonio Charter Moms Blog for a copy of the book Kids in the Kitchen. A great coincidence right?! A little bit of readjusting and research is going on here, and then we will be back full force in a couple of weeks with our homeschooling. I am really loving Mater Amabilis' syllabus and am adding more kid friendly stations around the house. I have a special blog post coming soon about making a home "Montessori style".

Things are going to look worse visually before they get better here, but I am hoping to make them more serene soon.
Do you ever have to click "reset"?