by Linda L Kinyon

Created on: July 20, 2009   Last Updated: July 24, 2009

Watching television one afternoon I had to laugh. I was watching a program on "The Learning Channel" about a family that homeschooled. The house was spotless and the family looked impressively groomed. The children were all seated around the family dining table reading there lessons and mom looked very proud of her immaculate brood.

I looked around at my house and laughed. What homeschooling family has such perfection? Only on television I thought as I began to clear the coffee table of an art project my young daughter had recently completed (she was outside for "recess"). Glue was everywhere and there were scraps of paper scattered all about. "Spotless house indeed", I thought to myself.

As the program continued on the mother confessed that her life and home had not always been so perfect. That grabbed my attention. She showed pictures of how the house used to look. That is how it looked before the kids were made to clean their rooms, the living room, dump the trash and so on. She went on to explain how she had incorporated a life skills class into their family curriculum.

Now I do have my children do chores, but my house was nowhere near so clean. "I might need to revamp part of this," I thought to myself.

I gathered the children together at quarter break and we had a discussion about how we were adding a class to our curriculum. Naturally, this was met with groans and moans from said children. " More work" they wailed! I smiled as I explained to them that no, they were not getting more work, but rather credit for a job well done.

I went on to explain to them that for one hour per day we were going to concentrate on chores. The moans grew louder. Not to be deterred from my quest, I determinedly went on. I told them that in order for the "class" to count the job had to be completed within the one hour time frame each day. They were each responsible for making their own beds, bringing their laundry down to the laundry area, and one other room assignment per day. The older children were also required to start their laundry and either hang it on the clothesline outside or use the dryer, and of course, fold and put away their own clothing. The time for laundry would be extended from the hour time frame but must be completed in a timely manner because if mom went to start a load of laundry and had to move laundry around, it would be counted against them.

The room assignments would entail vacuuming, dish washing, sweeping the kitchen, wiping counters and so on. If the job was completed they got credit, if not, they had to spend an hour after school doing said job. It only took one time where a child had to spend the hour of the afternoon free time finishing a chore and the jobs were done right the first time. My house looked great and I smiled and gave my children a life skills credit that year.

Though there are days that I really question my sanity (I'm sure my friends question this more often than I do), all in all our homeschooling is going well, even if we never look as peaceful and serene as the family on television. I'm sure they had a great make up team and housekeeping team for the final touches.

If you happen to stop by during the day (because we don't answer the phone during school hours and you think we must be home and ignoring you) and it looks totally chaotic, I assure you, my children are at least learning something if not how to survive in total chaos, at least how to study in total chaos.

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