Healthy Work at Home Tips For Homeschooling Families

This was too good not to post….

No Thank You, We Don’t Believe in Socialization!
by Lisa Russell

I can’t believe I am writing an article about socialization, the word makes my skin crawl. As homeschoolers, we are often accosted by people who assume that since we’re homeschooling, our kids won’t be “socialized.” The word has become such a catch phrase that it has entirely lost any meaning.

The first time I heard the word, I was attending a Catholic day school as a first grader.

Having been a “reader” for almost 2 years, I found the phonics and reading lessons to be incredibly boring. Luckily the girl behind me felt the same way, and when we were done with our silly little worksheets, we would chat back and forth. I’ve never known two 6 yr. olds who could maintain a quiet conversation, so naturally a ruler-carrying nun interrupted us with a few strong raps on our desk. We were both asked to stay in at recess, and sit quietly in our desks for the entire 25 minutes, because “We are not here to socialize, young ladies.”

Those words were repeated over and over throughout my education, by just about every teacher I’ve ever had. If we’re not there to socialize, then why were we there? I learned to read at home. If I finished my work early (which I always did,) could I have gone home? If I were already familiar with the subject matter, would I have been excused from class that day? If schools weren’t made for socializing, then why on earth would anyone assume that homeschoolers were missing out?

As a society full of people whose childhood’s were spent waiting anxiously for recess time, and trying desperately to “socialize” with the kids in class; It is often difficult for people to have an image of a child whose social life is NOT based on school buddies. Do you ever remember sitting in class, and wanting desperately to speak to your friend? It’s kind of hard to concentrate on the lessons when you’re bouncing around trying not to talk. Have you ever had a teacher who rearranged the seats every now and then, to prevent talking, splitting up friends and “talking corners.” Were you ever caught passing notes in class?

Now- flash forward to “real life.” Imagine the following scenes:

Your Employer is auditing the Inter-Office Email system and comes across a personal note between you and a coworker. You are required to stand at the podium in the next sales meeting to read it aloud to your coworkers. The Police knock on your door, and announce that because you and your neighbor have gotten so close, they’re separating you. You must move your home and your belongings to the other side of town, and you may only meet at public places on weekends.

You’re sitting at a booth waiting for a coworker to arrive for a scheduled lunch date. Suddenly a member of upper management sits down across from you and demands your credit cards. When your friend arrives, you just order water and claim you’re not hungry, since he stole your lunch money.

You’re applying for a job and in an unconventional hiring practice, you are made to line up with other applicants, and wait patiently while representatives from two competing companies take their pick from the lineup.

You’re taking your parents out for an anniversary dinner. After you find a table, a waiter tells you that seniors have a separate dining room, lest they “corrupt” the younger members of society.

You go to the grocery store only to find that since you are 32 years old you must shop at the store for 32 year olds. It’s 8 miles away and they don’t sell meat because the manager is a vegetarian, but your birthday is coming up and soon you’ll be able to shop at the store for 33 yr. olds.

You’d like to learn about Aviation History. You go to the library and check out a book on the subject only to be given a list of “other subjects” that you must read about before you are permitted to check out the aviation book.

You’re having a hard time finding what you need in the local department store. The saleslady explains that each item is arranged alphabetically in the store, so instead of having a section for shoes, you will find the men’s shoes in between the maternity clothes and the mirrors.

Your Cable Company announces that anyone wishing to watch the Superbowl this year must log on a certain number of hours watching the Discovery Channel before they can be permitted to watch the game.

You apply for a job only to be told that this job is for 29 year olds. Since you’re 32, you’ll have to stay with your level.

In a group project, your boss decides to pair you up with the person you don’t “click” with. His hope is that you’ll get learn to get along with each other, regardless of how the project turns out.

These absurd examples were created to point out how absolutely ridiculous the idea of “socializing” in schools is. Many people had a friend who they stayed friends with all through grammar school- WHY? Because their names were alphabetically similar, and they always ended up in line with each other. As an adult, have you ever made friends with someone simply because your names were similar? How long would such a friendship last and how meaningful would it be, providing you had nothing else in common?

People often use the bully as an example of why it’s so important to let kids “socialize” at school. If that’s so important, then the bully needs to go to JAIL after a few months, because self-respecting society simply doesn’t put up with that, nor should my 6 yr. old. Sure, there are ##### people in the world, but the world does a much better job of taking care of these things. A bullying brat in the first grade will still be a bullying brat in the 6th grade. He will still be picking on the same kids year after year after year, unless he moves to a new town. How long would the average adult put up with a bully? Personally, as an adult, I have only come across one grown up bully. I choose not to be around this miserable woman. So do many other people. THAT is real life. If she were a coworker, I would find a different job. If she worked at a business I patronized- not only would I refrain from doing business with that company, I would write a letter to the bully, her manager, the owner and the main office. A kid in a classroom has no way to emotionally protect themselves against such a person. I would never expect my kids to put up with bad treatment from a bully in the name of “toughening them up.” For what? So they can be submissive wimps when they grow up too? So they can “ignore” their miserable bosses and abusive spouses? In real life, if an employer discovered that an employee was harassing the other staff members, that employee could be fired (pending the 90 day evaluation) or relocated. In real life, if you are so dreadfully harassed by a coworker you can seek legal recourse independently. In a classroom, the teacher and other children are often powerless.

The idea of learning acceptable social skills in a school is as absurd to me as learning nutrition from a grocery store.

As Homeschoolers, the world is our classroom. We interact with people of all ages, sexes and backgrounds. We talk to and learn from everyone who strikes our interest. We use good manners in our home and I’m always pleased when others comment on the manners my children have picked up. I believe good manners to be an important social skill.

Respecting common areas is also of value to us. We often carry a grocery bag with us on walks, in case we find trash that needs to be discarded. When we’re waiting at a bus stop, if there is trash on the ground, we make a point to carry it onto the bus and discard of it properly. Once, while waiting at a bus stop- we saw a grown man drop his popsicle wrapper on the ground. He was 2 feet from a trash can- My daughter looked up at me with eyes as big as saucers. I told her (out loud) “It must have blown out of his hand from that little wind, because no-one would throw trash on the ground on purpose. I’m sure when he’s done with his popsicle, he will pick it up and throw it away correctly- otherwise, we can take care of it so we don’t have an ugly world.” He did pick it up, rather sheepishly. I can’t imagine expecting my children to have a respect for the cleanliness of common areas in an environment where bathroom walls are covered in graffiti and trees are scratched with symbols of “love” of all things.

Another social skill we strive to teach our children is that all people are created equal. I can’t imagine doing that in an environment where physically disadvantaged children are segregated into a “special” classroom. Or even children who speak a different language at home. They are segregated and forced to learn English, while never acknowledging the unique culture they were raised in, and not enabling the other students to learn FROM them. Learning, in school, comes from the books and teachers. We will learn Spanish from a BOOK, not from a Spanish-speaking student; and not until 7th grade.

I have never felt it would be beneficial to stick my 6-yr. old in a room full of other 6-yr. olds. I believe God created a world full of people of all ages and sexes to insure that the younger ones and older ones learn from each other. A few years ago, we were living thousands of miles from any older family members, so I brought my kids (then 5 and 2) to an assisted living facility, so they could interact with the elderly. Staff members told us that many of the older people would wake up every day and ask if we would be visiting soon. We always went on Wednesdays. My daughters learned some old show tunes while one of the men played piano, and the others would sing along. If I didn’t have to chase my 2-yr. old around, I would have had plenty of women ready to share the art of crocheting with me (something I’ve always wanted to learn.) If a friend was too sick to come out of their room during our visit, we would often spend a few minutes in their room. I always let them give the kids whatever cookies they had baked for them, and I ended up cleaning a few of the apartments while we visited, simply because I would have done the same for my own Grandmother. Every room had pictures from my kids posted on their refrigerators. We called this “Visiting the Grandmas and Grandpas” and my daughters both (almost 2 years later) have fond memories of our visits. I’m sure that if we were still visiting there, my unborn child would have a thousand handmade blankets and booties to keep him warm all winter.

I don’t remember any such experiences in my entire School life, although I do remember being a bit afraid of old people if they were too wrinkly or weak looking. I never really knew anyone over 60. I never sped down the hall on someone’s wheelchair lap, squealing as we popped wheelies and screeched around corners. I never got to hear stories about what life was like before indoor plumbing and electricity, from the point of view of a woman with Alzheimer’s, who might believe she was still 5 years old, talking with my daughter as if she were a friend. I never got to help a 90 yr. old woman keep her arm steady while she painted a picture. And I never watched a room full of “grandma’s” waiting for me by the window, because we were 15 minutes late.

On a recent visit to an Art Gallery, we noticed a man walking back and forth, carrying framed artwork from his old pickup truck. I asked my 6 yr. old if she thought he might be the artist. We both agreed that was a possibility, and after a little pep-talk to overcome her stage fright, she approached him and asked. He was the artist, and he was bringing in his work to be evaluated by the curator. We all sat down and he explained some of his techniques and listened to her opinions about which piece she liked best. He told about how he enjoyed art when he was 6 and would “sell” pictures to family and friends. He recounted how he felt while creating a few of the pieces, and how each one has special meaning to him. He even let her know how nervous he was to show them to the curator and how he hoped she found them as interesting as we did. As he was called into the office, a group of thirty-four 3rd graders filed past, ever so quietly, while their teacher explained each piece on the walls. The children were so quiet and well behaved. They didn’t seem to mind moving on from one picture to the next (The problem with homeschoolers is they tend to linger on things they enjoy). They didn’t seem to have any questions or comments (Maybe they’ll discuss that later in class). And they never got a chance to meet the gentleman in the pickup truck.

I hope my kids aren’t missing out on any “socialization.”

Lisa Russell is a Gen X homeschooling mom, writer, wife, daydreamer, U.S. traveller, hiker, poet, artist, web designer, and whatever else suits the moment. Visit her website: http://www.lisarussell.net or you can email her at lisa@lisarussell.net

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I have to admit that I’ve been quite lax recently when it comes to our homeschooling. I tend to lean towards a “go with the flow” type of organization anyway…but lately the flow has bee far removed from our normal routine. We live in an area that received almost 400 inches of snow this winter and finally…IT’S MELTING!!

So we’ve been taking walks and sitting outside. Today a whole pile of sandbox tools appeared where yesterday there was still six inches of snow. It was a bonanza and stimulated a wonderful sand, snow and water stew. Small rock dams are being built to try and redirect the torrents of water cascading through our property from the mountains above.  Even on the days that it’s still too raw and windy to go out, we’ve been focused on staying late in bed and reading whole books out loud.

As a work-at-home mom, my business has been going crazy lately( in a good way) and that has added to the lack of focus on our “curriculum”.  I’ve frequently been inundated with phone calls and my daughter, realizing my inaccessibility, has been immersing herself in fantasy-land and playing happily for long periods of time. Occasionally I’ll realize that I’ve spent two hours on the phone and she’s gotten her own snacks, done an art project, put together some puzzles and created a lego masterpiece.

There is a part of me that feels some guilt. We spent many of the days since September in a fairly stable and predictable morning routine. But since early April that seems to have disappeared. I consistently have to remind myself that life happens and that is one of the reasons why we homeschool. Life happens and it’s OK. There’s work and springtime and an upcoming dance performance. My daughter, who was beginning to read every day, does not want to read at all lately, and it’s OK. She won’t forget how to read and how precious that she still can spend hours making soup from snow and sand.  I can focus on my work and know that she’s learning and doing exactly what’s important for her at that moment.

This is part  four of a multi-part series on nutrition. If you missed the other parts, click back through the archives and read them. There are some really useful tips from a credentialed nutritionist and some lines to keep you laughing, as well.

The question for today is one that has come up in agriculture and organic food publications. Are we getting the same amount of nutrients from our food that we used to get?  I recently heard a story that  a study was done comparing the nutrients in a peach from 1955 (have they been saving it since then?) to a grocery store peach from 2007. The study indicated that you’d have to eat 50, 2007 peaches to equal the nutrient value in 1 1955 peach.

So is that story true? Who knows?  But what is known is that the big business of agriculture has moved far away from the ancient and well-proven system of rotating crops and allowing soil to regenerate. Instead, today’s conventional soil is almost dead and our crops grow in a mixture of petroleum based fertilizers and pesticides. It’s hard to imagine that our peach or our corn grown in that manner has the nutrients of a peach or an ear of corn grown in rich non-depleted soil.

The question that naturally follows this line of thinking is, “so how do we get the nutrients we need?”  As Jen Laemmel mentioned in the previous post, choosing organic food it a first good step. Growing your own vegies as much as possible is another great option. There is a growing movement of local farmers and people supporting them with a goal of trying to eat food that is grown as close to home as possible. An apple picked two days ago is far superior to one grown in Chile and picked four weeks ago, in terms of taste and nutritional value. If you attempt to eat foods that are in season, you are more likely to find locally grown foods. When you buy from local farmers, even those who do not grow organically, you are still eating foods that are better for you than those grown on huge agri-industrial farms.

There is a place for supplements in todays diet, yet most of the pills that we wash down end up exiting our bodies in our urine. When looking at supplements, vitamins, minerals and herbs; look for liquids and those made from whole foods rather than synthetics. Companies like Shaklee have been delivering whole food vitamins for over 30 years. Then there are the new wave of scientifically formulated nutritional beverages. You have to do your research, as many are full of sugar. Yet there are some that are absolutely wonderful. They have true scientific backing and are not just a fancied up version of sweet fruit juice. I mentioned one of my favorites in the second nutrition post.  It’s called Monavie. There is a link to more information in the sidebar.

There is also a brand new product that is based on an ancient Ayurvedic formulation. Ayurveda is a type of medical healing that has been practiced in India for thousands of years. This product is endorsed by the Chopra Center for Well-Being, which is an internationally renowned alternative health facility in Californial. The combination of the amalaki berry and 6 other rejuvenating and detoxifying herbs, make Zrii a very unique product in the health beverage market. If you’d like to learn more, click here to be redirected to an informative alternative wellness website.  Since the benefits complement each other, I have personally begun drinking Zrii regularly in addition to my Monavie, which I’ve drank for almost a year now. This has been my healthiest year by far, in over a decade.

People generally think of network marketing as people selling products to other people. There is also a component related to recruiting other people into your network or team. The focus in usually on making money and creating residual income in order to improve your lifestyle, have more time and freedom and also to acquire and enjoy luxuries that are often out of reach for most people. I see the potential of network marketing as being bigger than all that. I see it as having the potential to be a POWERFUL force, not only in the world of commerce, but in the world giving and altruism.

You first need to understand the basic concept behind network marketing before you can understand the amount of POWER that I am talking about. The theory (and reality) of network marketing is that a very large number of people each do a small thing. If the goal is to sell a product, then you create a NETWORK of of people who all use the product and like it enough to tell other people. Those people also then use and purchase the product and tell even more people. If the goal is to recruit people to sell a product or an idea, it works the same way. You recruit a few people who also recruit a few people, who then also recruit just a few people. If you know anything about math you see how this group can grow exponentially. Even if every single person only recruited two people, based an Metcalf’s law, at the end of 6 months there would be over 500 people in that network.

The beauty in this and the POWER is that no one person needs to be superman or superwoman and sell large quantities of products or recruit large numbers of people for it to grow. Instead, people need to do a little bit, consistently and model this for those they sell to or recruit. They need to train their downline to duplicate what they have done (ie: sell to 5 people, or recruit 3 people). Their downline, in turn needs to train all their people to do the same. This is how successful network marketing teams and business operate.

So, you may be asking, how does this apply to helping the planet? The answer is that the methods used for building a commercial network marketing business can be partnered with a charitable or environmental cause and both goals can be addressed simultaneously. As a selling/marketing network grows, the amount of focus, time and money dedicated to the charitable cause grows as well. People can be recruited into the network with a clear focus that they can committ a portion of the money they earn to the “cause” that they group has taken on, and in doing so they increase their own wealth along with the wellbeing of others, or the environment, etc…

The details of how this actually looks and operates are more complex than room allows in this article. There are corporations that are already doing this. It is called “Cause Related Marketing”. In a network marketing scenerio, it would be individuals, each joining a network marketing company with a committment that a percentage of their PERSONAL profits would go to the Team’s charity,(or a charity of their choice). The vision is that people would join a specific network marketing Team because they liked the product AND they wanted to be a part of growing support for that specific Team’s charity. That Team would focus their marketing efforts on recruiting people who wanted to sell their product AND promote the cause.

My partner and I are presently structuring our network marketing business to operate in this way. We are involved in two network marketing companies at the moment and have 2-3 causes that we of focusing on. We are interested in hearing from anyone who would like to join with us and grow this idea. Together we can create positive change on the planet. You can contact me directly by emailing deborah@homeschooling-moms-healthy-home-business.com . Our two product websites are: http://thegreatproduct.com/colorado and http://goamalaki.com/healthyfreedom .

I would love to hear from anyone who finds this interesting. Please feel free to share copy and paste this post into an email and share it with anyone else you know who might be interested, as well.

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How do you teach your child? Of course their are curriculums and courses. But really teaching your child starts with modeling. You live with little sponges. They soak up not only what you tell them, but more importantly what you do. Yes, you will use methods to teach your child how to read. If they grow up in a household where they see others reading often and throughout the day, teaching them the skill of reading will be much easier than if they don’t witness readers in their environment.

The same is true for charity, or giving, or altrusim. Talking about it is great. Doing it is better. Both together is awesome. The state of the world lately is enough to make one want to hide in a shell. Wars, poverty, poor health care, deteriorating environment. It’s hard to imagine that one person or family can make a difference and often that mindset becomes paralyzing.

Try and step back for a moment from the feeling of being overwhelmed. Think in terms of one child; one child helping another child on the planet. Then think about a family of children raising money to send to a family of children on the other side of the world. Now what if a community of families (a church or a neighborhood block) got together to help a similar size community of families in an poor area of the state you live in? It started with one child and now it might be 100 people caring for and supporting 100 other people. See how easily it grows?

You work at home and you homeschool you children. Chances are you make enough to live comfortably yet not luxuriously. My challenge to you is to find a way to incorporate charity into your work and your home life. Let your children join you. Set a goal that connects your income and profit to a concrete altruistic endeavor. There are many situations worldwide and locally where you can have a direct effect rather than sending your money through a large non-profit, like United Way. (Don’t get me wrong, United Way is wonderful organization. It’s just that large non-profits have large overhead and it’s harder to feel connected to the end result, especially for children.)

Sometimes what you give ends up being time instead of money. For children this is even better. An afternoon a week at the local nursing home has much more impact than money sent in an envelope. Here is a link to an article I wrote with the intent of motivating people to find a way to create residual income and then use some of that income and free time to become a change agent in the world. The article uses a specific charitable opportunity to send a child to school in Haiti as it’s example. Read it by clicking here.

When children see you working and earning money not just for yourself and the family but for the greater good of the world we live in…that’s powerful stuff. When they can be a part of it you instill in them a value that they will carry throughout their lives. We CAN change the world, one child at a time.

Here’s one other link I found on this topic that I really liked. Give To Charity or Charities Even If You’re Not Big and Rich!

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Do you ever remember your teachers or your parents using that term “tabula rasa”?   A clean slate.  The beginning of a new year seems so much like a tabula rasa to so many people. Today, January 2nd 2008.  What did you do today? For many of you it may  have been simple “new” things..like organizing your new day timer, or hanging that new calendar on the wall (Remember the “family calendar” from the organizational post a few weeks back?).

Homeschooling families are gearing up for their next semester, so to speak. What exciting projects are you going to work on? What about field trips? Winter is such a great a time to really buckle down and concentrate. There is something about the cold and the blustery that makes us want to hunker down inside and concentrate. If your kids are of reading age this is the perfect time for a really loooooong book. And then maybe a play about the book, or a newsletter written during the time the story took place. For younger kids, a multi-day project is perfect. It’s great if each day the project is whole..but then all the wholes go together to make a bigger whole. Young kids have an easier time with this than things that are left hanging unfinished until the next day.

You probably have ideas to make 2008 the best year yet for your home business. Congratulations!! I plan on doing that as well. I’m also not going to save all my tax organization until the end of March. This is my week to get it done. How free it will feel to sit down at my computer on Monday and know that I can be totally focused on moving forward, rather than on the paperwork from 2007.

If you haven’t set your business goals for 2008, now would be the time to that. You can be creative and make it fun. Not only focus on your financial goals, but on what you want to learn, what you want to teach and what directions you’d like to grown in. You can even tie your kids into this process. What are their goals for 2008? If it were January 2nd, 2009 what would they like to look back and see in the past year? This type of thinking and planning is a great homeschool activity.

Finally…what would you like to give back in 2008…to your family, your friends, your community and to the world and the earth? Whatever it is, it deserves a premier spot on you list of goals and plans.

Happy New Year!!

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By now hopefully the shopping is done, the crafts are complete, the presents are wrapped, the cookies are baked and the house is cleaned and decorated. It’s wonderful when the four days remaining before Christmas fall on a weekend. It’s an even better excuse to stop working and just be still. Even if Christmas is not the holiday your religion celebrates at this time of year, there is something magical in the air right around now.

The shortness of the days gives the light a different glow. The waxing moon creates a beautiful sparkle on the snow. ( I happen to live in a town that recently got 4 feet in one storm…so snow is a large part of the magic here).  People generally are walking around in good cheer. There are parties and gatherings, singing and home cooked meals.

Winter solstice was traditionally a time of family, warmth and celebration that the darkness of winter was shifting and the days were going to begin getting longer again. Decorating with lights developed from the ancient traditions of bringing light indoors to  illuminate the long, cold nights.  Trees were brought indoors to remind people of the look, feel and smell of nature, hidden for a time beneath the white.

There are four days left until Christmas. It’s the weekend. Be conscious of the this special time. Take a break from the holiday busy-ness and from your business. Be with your family, be quiet, watch the light change as the sun sets on the shortest day of the year. Remember all the blessings of home, family, friends. Pray for peace and love to be the dominant forces of the coming year.

Happy Holidays to All!!!

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I found this article last week, written by Greg Six. He makes some good points that can help all of us who work at home. (All the links in this article belong to Greg).

When the home has to be both a home and a business, conflict can occur. In order to operate a successful home-based business, there must be a separation between the home and the home-based business. Conflict is likely to occur when there is a breach in the home/home-based business barrier. In order for the business to operate smoothly and the family to live comfortably in their home, communication must be established between the family and the business owners. A family and business require individual attention when it comes to designating space for each. If this does not occur, then four areas of family functioning are likely to be affected.

The needs of the family should take priority over the needs of the home-based business. Before a home-based business can be launched, space needs to be set aside for operational purposes. The household should answer the following questions first: How much space will the home-based business require within the home? What does the family absolutely need from the space in the home? Will the space that will be set aside for the business cause the family extreme discomfort? Is there a way for you to create a space management plan for the household space that can accommodate both your family and your home-based business? Family cohesion shouldn’t be severely impacted by a home-based business.

When a business intrudes on the household space, it also intrudes on the time schedules of everyone within it. Operating a home-based business is particularly difficult for families who have full schedules that are fixed and interlocked. In an instance such as this, the business’s needs would take a back seat to the schedules of those who are running it. Personal and family time schedules tend to be disrupted by home-based businesses if the business is given first preference, and the business tends to suffer if the situation is reversed.

Perhaps the biggest conflict occurs when the family feels as if their space has been violated as a result of having a home-based business. Consider all of the needs of the business. Does the business need extensive storage space or an area for customers to pick up merchandise? If customers and workers are constantly parading through your family room while your family is trying to relax then they will likely feel as their space is being violated. Designate particular areas of the home that business can be done in. Office space can be used for meetings, paper work, and other such activities. If a pick up area is necessary, then the most public areas of the home should be used.

Separation of space between the home and the business is not only beneficial to the family and business, but it is necessary for tax purposes if you plan on taking off deductions for business expenses. You must decide if a part of the house has too many uses to be used for both family and business matters.

While there are millions of different types of home-based businesses, almost every one of them can be grouped into a category: production/service; consulting or counseling; sales or marketing and mail order. Every business has different needs. Think about what category your home-based business falls into and consider the amount of space will be needed. Storage space, space for office equipment, production space, an area to meet with clients, and an area for pick up and delivery should be factored into the division of space.

The area in which you operate your business also plays a role in the success of your business. Make sure that there are no county codes that prevent you from operating a business in your neighborhood. If your business generates a lot of traffic, then consider how your neighbors might take to this. A neighborhood with a lot of children who play in or near the streets or even in a culda-sac are likely to become concerned with safety if your business generates a lot of traffic. The hours that you operate your business may also conflict with the comfort of neighbors. Operating a business extremely early or very late may cause tension. Your business hours aren’t the only ones to consider; pick up and delivery can also be disruptive. Shipping and deliveries could be made to post office and you can pick them up from there in order to minimize neighborhood traffic.

Greg Six has been a successful entrepreneur for over 15 years. After having owned motels and rental properties, he found success using internet marketing. He now spends his time assisting others as they search through the maze of internet offers to find the piece of the puzzle that is legitimate, and will ultimately allow an individual to create longstanding, stable wealth, without sacrificing integrity and honesty. Email Greg directly to request a F*R*E*E 30 minute coaching call to discuss your business goals and objectives… Just Ask. http://www.LegitimateBusinessFromHome.net/?conflict

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Greg_Six

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After three posts covering different types of organization you should now be totally organized and feeling sane. Too bad the holidays are just around the corner, creating more craziness.

In truth it takes time to get organized. Make a plan and move forward as you can. Try an accomplish one small task per day, or even 2-3 per week. Even if a task is a simple as creating a receipt folder or setting up the family calendar. For more help setting up your home business whether new or one that you’ve been working on for awhile, there is a free newsletter that offers some tips. The newsletter is geared towards people in the network marketing industry, but many if not most of the information will be helpful to anyone working at home. Since it’s free there is no harm in gathering the information offered and using what you find helpful to your situation. Click here to link to the subscription page, where you will find details about the newsletter and the topics for each issue.

We all have them. The dreaded to-do list. There was probably a time in your life, prior to having a family and homeschooling and working your own business, that your to-do list was a nice little thing that helped you remember that your best friend’s birthday was next week. For many busy mom’s I know now, their to-do list is crucial to their day-to-day survival. If picking up Suzy at violin lessons at 3:00 is not on the list, Suzy will be sitting with her violin teacher for many hours to come. Some of these lists are so long, that only 10% of the things to do actually get done on any given day. The other items get rolled to the next day and the list grows exponentially. Does this sound familiar to anyone?

Here is another way to approach the to-do list. First of all, do you remember the family calendar and the individual day-timers that I wrote about in the last post? It is here that all the appointments and scheduling need to happen. Your daily homeschool time, music lessons, doctor’s appointments, etc…should all be on the calendars. Your to-do list is for something different.

Just by removing the scheduling piece, your to-do list should shrink noticably in size. Now you need a new notebook that’s fresh and clean with no scribbling in it. You want to have 3 sections. Some people divide each page into three columns. Some people have three distinct sections of the notebook. Do what works for you. One section is for things that have to be done today and are very specific to today. For example, send flowers for aunt Hilda’s birthday tomorrow or sew Charlie’s costume for the play dress rehersal tomorrow. It is crucial that you write in this section only things that must be done today and that you know you can get done today. There should be no carry-over into tomorrow.

The second section is for things that have to get done soon, usually in this next week or so. so. List those things in order of priority and try to do one or two of them per day. Add to this list as you need to. Some examples might be to call the phone company to change your phone plan to a better one, or contact other parents in your homeschool co-op to discuss carpooling to gymnastics after the holidays.

Your third section is the long term list. This will include things like cleaning out the hall closet, or painting the third bedroom. As you become more organized in all aspects of your life, you will find you have time for these types of projects. Each week you can look in this section and if it seems reasonable, move one of these projects into your first or second section.

You can organize your home business to-do list in the same manner. As you do this for home and business you will find yourself becoming more efficient, hopefully calmer and definitely less overwhelmed. Getting started is the key. A clean fresh notebook and an hour or two of quiet time should get you on your way.

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