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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
161 of 182 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Some Good Ideas, Maybe Not Worth the Money Though,
By
This review is from: Managers of their homes: A practical guide to daily scheduling for Christian home-school families (Ring-bound)
I am a homeschooling mom of 4 [so far]and I got this book because I felt like our family would benefit from a schedule to help us get everything done we have to do in the average day.
There were some good ideas in the book. The idea to schedule the older children to have playtimes with the younger children while mom is making dinner or teaching another child is something I had never thought of but I think it might make a big difference. I also agreed with what the author said about order being important in running a Godly household. She has some good information on how to manage chores and teaching children how to handle their chores. But there were some really bad ideas in the book too. Her ideas on infant training and only feeding a newborn baby every 3-4 hours [6 feeds a day she had scheduled] are just scary. She says she never had problems with supply or sick babies, but I work in a hospital in the mother/baby area and we see a lot of babies on a 3 hour schedule that come in with failure to thrive or even die. 4 hours between feeds for a 2 week old [which is what she does to try to encourage a longer afternoon nap!] is just plain dangerous - a lot of babies would literally die on that kind of schedule. I did like the idea of scheduling the baby's day and nap times and such, but the breastfeeding advice was scary in my opinion. I also thought she was a little over the top on how to create the schedule - while I did [and do] pray about my schedule, I just couldn't imagine taking a week or two or three of just praying about it before I even start trying to do it. The idea of every single year spending an entire day away with my husband just to discuss the schedule also struck me as a little... um... odd. I want to get it done and jump in and then make changes as I need them. I also did not enjoy the "tiny little pieces of paper" thing she includes where you are supposed to cut out little pieces of colored paper representing half hour time blocks for every moment of every family member's day... that made me feel neurotic just thinking of dealing with all those scraps of paper everywhere. :) Instead I got on my computer and used MS Word to come up with a schedule that I can change easily and update/revise as necessary without having to manage a zillion teeny papers everywhere. But maybe that's just me - a really visual person might find the little papers more helpful. The other objection I have to this book is that it is relatively "lean" on content - its really a very short book that is heavily padded with dozens of pages of copies of other people's schedules and a running commentary from her test mothers going on and on through the whole book about how great the book is. [I get the point already ...sheesh!]. The actual "content" is less than 100 pages and those pages have huge margins filled with other people's comments and gushing about the book - not actual content. So, quiet honestly, for the hefty price tag attached to this book, I felt a bit ripped off. Its a paperback spiral bound with less than 100 pages of real content - for me, I would say that was worth something more like $9.99 or so - not the hefty price I paid for it. Overall, this is a book with some good ideas and it is written with absolute good intentions on the author's part. But I think it is also lacking in several areas and light on content. I wish I'd borrowed it from a friend rather than buying it myself.
38 of 41 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great help for this homeschool mom of 4!!,
This review is from: Managers of their homes: A practical guide to daily scheduling for Christian home-school families (Ring-bound)
For those looking for help organizing your homeschool day(or non-homeschool day), don't let the other reviews scare you. They are washed down with a lot of opinions and personal views of raising children (babies mostly). That's unfortunate because this book can really be a tremendous help organizing chaos or just simply helping you get more done in a day than you otherwise would. Keep in mind the book is not called: Schedule Your Baby. That is one teeny part of the book and can be easily overlooked as you see fit (and it's certainly not the first book that suggests the idea!)
Whether or not you are the type of person that can sit down and tackle the cutting and sticky tacking the little stips of paper used on the main chart is a personal choice. My mother uses this system, but never actually cut them out. (She only has one homeschool child.) I did. It was a long process, but worth the effort. I can move only a couple squares around as need be. I think I adjusted it 3 times the first week before we had a great working schedule. This in now the second full year I've used it and will continue using it every school year until my kids are gone because it really works! I do not use the summer schedule at all because I love summers off! But you can if you prefer and there are examples of summer schedules included. I also should mention here that there are lots of sample schedules for the regular school year as well. Each schedule shows the # of children and their ages which is helpful in finding a family that is similar to yours. I found them really helpful and fun to read. They gave me ideas and helped me see how other people do things at their house. The Maxwells certainly stress flexibility and not letting the schedule control you (some of the other reviews would suggest otherwise). Plus the book is filled with lots of great tips and advice from this seasoned mother. My kids love the schedule. Even my 6 yr old 1st grader knows to get her phonics/reading out right after she finishes her math, for example. My 2 year old (last year) began asking "Is it play-pen-play-time yet?" He always asked at close to the right time because he knew it was coming and actaully grew to love that time (though he wasn't a huge fan at first). But it sure worked well while I was helping my daughter read. My kids also look forward to "play time with mom" and "play time with [various siblings]" I even added my husband on at the continuous promting of my children. (I don't think he's ever done much on the schedule, but the kids like to see his row there. HA!) It's really wonderful when everyone knows exactly what they should be doing, and when. That is what this book is about, getting your home to run smoothly and accomplishing more in a day by doing so than you otherwise would. And that is exactly what happened in our home. One more thing you may/may not find helpful is I was always one to organize by the day (M,T,W,R,etc). This schedule is set up for consistency each day (same schedule M-F) for the most part, but they do give you a little info in the book on scheduling in laundry days, etc. I found it helpful to keep the rotating activities at the same time slot and just changing activity based on the day.(For example: At 1:00> Mon-art Tues/Thurs-history and Wed./Fri-science) We also did this for some chores and 1 or 2 other things. For scheduling activities such as gymnastics, I simply have a row (purple row on front cover of book) used specifically for those "extras" and that works well. I must admit I've never really stuck exactly with the schedule after 3:00 (except for dinner routine). By then I'm wiped out and just let everyone have free time the rest of the day. No harm in that, remember the authors do stress the schedule is YOURS. I also schedule nothing on weekends. I hope this helped and good luck with your scheduling!!!!
25 of 26 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
If you are SERIOUS about scheduling, this is the book you want and need,
By Remodeling Mom of Five "Wendy M" (Paducah, KY) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Managers of their homes: A practical guide to daily scheduling for Christian home-school families (Ring-bound)
First, my situation:
I am a mother of five children ages, 12, 10, 5, 2, and 1. I just pulled the oldest two out of school two weeks ago to prepare for homeschooling (which I have never done in my life.) We are all living in a home that has been in its renovation state since we bought it in 2004. We have NUMEROUS DIY unfinished jobs that are slowly seeing completion (with the aid of professionals--alas, we had to succumb). We conduct life around tools, building materials, and stacks of sheetrock (among other things) needing to be installed. My husband works nights always, and although makes an excellent living at his professional job, picks up extra weeks of work in the month to defray the costs of home improvements and to get us out of debt. I have no friends (no time or energy at the present) and no family network nearby. This leaves me with my five kids and three cats at home all the time. I know that this seems a bit unrelated, but I wanted to describe my situation so that I could give a review that would reflect how this book has helped me thus far. Up until now, the family day was conducted based solely on what I thought I needed to do. We went about the day "winging" it without really getting the things that I needed and truly wanted to get done accomplished. I have tried lists, calendars, organizers, other methods, books, timers, alarms--you name it, all in the attempt to become organized....of course, prayer too... I found this book and considered it based on the single fact that this woman had a large family consisting of children of varying ages and I was desperate for change. Reading on, I was somewhat impressed when I learned (in the book reviews on another site) that she had put this together and gave it to several women to try in their homes so that she could offer it to the masses. I was convinced that I wanted to buy this book when I learned that she had homeschooled her children and did so successfully. I truly wanted to know what on earth she was doing to get anything done in her day. I have always been somewhat relaxed in the way that I ran my home. I addressed issues only when they came up, cleaned when something was dirty, fed when someone was hungry, and complained to my husband that I needed a nanny because I was still only sleeping two to three hours EVERY DAY. The underlying theme (in my opinion, of course) of this book is:--if you REALLY want it done, schedule it, do it when scheduled for the time alloted, and then re-evaluate if needed. Hey, that's really nothing new. But, I have never picked up a book on organization that tells you step by step, exactly what you need to do to accomplish this. This is what I NEED. I don't need theories, or pleasant visualizations of how a simplified life would be like once I got organized, or books on how to make scads of containers look decorative to hold all my junk...all repetitions on the same theme. (Tell me something that I don't know!) I NEED, step one..., step two..., and a serious reality check. If you have a lot of kids like I do, time IS money. I have deduced that with every task that I have left undone or incomplete, I have had to spend money, money, money. Fast food chains know me by name as I seem to always never have enough time for cooking dinner or lunch for that matter. Winging it...that's what happens when you are not scheduled. I admit that to some, Teri's method may be too rigid. But if you have a large family and you have no direction, then your children will have none as well. We are just starting to really see how things are getting done 1, 2, 3 around this house. We all wake knowing what is expected of us because it is printed on the schedule. I never thought to schedule in half hour increments before and more importantly never truly realized that I am not the only one who needs to be scheduled, but the kids too. As to the whole nursing on schedule, I think that it is safe to say that common sense should prevail here. You know your baby and you love your baby so you will ensure her well-being and make sure that her needs are met. This does not mean that you cannot put her on a schedule that will work with the family schedule knowing that she takes top priority when she needs you. This means, yeah--schedule her feedings sure. It looks great on the calendar (kind of makes it look more complete), but come on-- you know that what baby needs, she gets--and she gets right now. What Teri offers is practical advice on what will get things done. I love the points in the book that gently, but logically explains to the reader that if you are feeling bad or torn about having to cut some other activity short due to scheduling something else that you really want or need to accomplish, then you should re-evaluate how badly you want that particular something done........pretty straightforward- and wise. This book is not meant to make you feel "normal" or 'just like everybody else in this country' because of your idleness or lack of organization. It doesn't seek to overly sympathize with you and your harried life. Those letters from readers that are spread throughout the book are supposed to do that. The book assumes that you have come to it in the hope to create change and instill order in your home.....and to do so while still getting more than a few hours of sleep!
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