TheHomeSchoolMom Planner is a comprehensive organizer for appointments, school assignments, lesson planning, record keeping, and family menu planning. It is free for personal use and can be viewed and printed with the free Adobe Acrobat Reader.

One of the basic housekeeping rules is to keep it simple. Roxanna Ward shares some simple tips for getting housework done without the hassle.

Laundry, grocery shopping, cleaning--are these things ever really done. Rather than looking at chores as needing to be "finished," see them as part of a cycle of living within your household.

Dawn Davis talks about her own experience attending homeschooling conferences and how they can recharge you and help prevent burn-out. She also discusses the benefits of teens attending conferences.

Save Thousands of Dollars a Year Jonni McCoy and her family are proof that you live on one income. The McCoys made a successful transition from two incomes to one while living in one of the most expensive parts of America: the San Francisco Bay Area. Her Miserly Guidelines will help you save thousands of dollars a year on everything from groceries to electricity to insurance and household cleaners—as well as reveal the hidden costs of holding a job and common money wasters. Her practical,...

This newsletter aims to help you provide your children with a high quality homeschooling education at the lowest possible cost.

Now that you're homeschooling, how will you fit in the laundry, the grocery shopping, the cooking, the cleaning? Well, you probably can't do it all, but here are some guidelines for keeping your sanity at homeschool.

There seems to be a collective thought about money - that homeschoolers don't have any. Not only that, but because there is a belief that homeschoolers don't have any money, there seems to be an underlying assumption that resources, information, and services should be provided dirt cheap, if not for free. Why? What is it with homeschoolers and money?

Tips for using calendars, binders, notebooks, and a weekly assignment record to organize your homeschool. Although this article is specific to one curriculum, there are some useful general tips.

A binder system with logs and forms that can be customized to suit your family's needs. This system can be used for multiple children and offers a simple way to meet any applicable state record keeping requirements.

This is a group of Christian homeschooling moms who enjoy sharing recipes, frugal grocery shopping tips, budget-saving ideas, cooking for large and small families, once-a-month-cooking (also known as OAMC), healthy recipes, low-fat, low-carb, vegetarian... anything goes. Do you enjoy cooking with your kids? Tell us about a children's recipe that is a favorite. Do you love to make homemade bread? Educate us on the best equipment and technique! Share a secret family recipe, an heirloom recipe, or ...

So, how much does homeschooling cost anyway? As much as you can afford. That isn't a very comforting answer, but it is a realistic one. Some families reportedly homeschool on as little as $50 a year. Most likely you will spend more than that. How much, exactly, is going to depend on the resources you have available and your children's needs.

An example of an organizational system for a large homeschool family.

The furniture in your room is situated just right, yet it's cluttered with lots of paper, items taken from other parts of the house, too many knick-knacks, and trash particles that didn't quite make it to the trashcan. Shouldn't we be asking ourselves, "What's wrong with this picture?" Maybe you already know the answer. But then, why hasn't anything been done about it yet? Don't try to answer that. There's an art to approaching the task of getting organized.

Homeschool organization is a constant challenge. Like most households, homeschoolers deal with the everyday accumulation of laundry, dishes, toys, trash, and mail. In addition, we manage a multitude of school supplies, books, papers, and ongoing projects. A well-organized homeschool allows us to save time, energy, and money so that more of those resources can be utilized for the important task of educating our children.

The real-life stories of chronically disorganized people and the ground breaking, easy-to-learn organizing methods used to end their chronic disorganization in the area of residential clutter, office organizing, paper management, storage, and time management. Conquerings pages includes an extensive index, user-friendly summaries, quick tips, helpful photographs, and a resource section of products and organizations.

So you want to homeschool but don't think you can afford it. This book is a compendium of ideas for the family that wants to start or continue homeschooling on a tight budget. Includes ideas for making money as a stay-at-home mom, sources for inexpensive curriculum, affordable teaching tools, and ideas for low-cost field trips. Also discusses ways to run your household more efficiently and with less cost.

The nine habits of highly organized people

Organizing consultant Kathy Waddill demonstrates how the simple act of being organized can improve your quality of life. In The Organizing Sourcebook, she presents nine organizing principles that can easily be applied to any situation, activity, or environment. The book gives you the tools for managing time; decreasing stress; and dealing with cultural, personal, and emotional change. Case histories illustrate how each strategy solved a specific problem.

Parents learn what they really need, how to find or create materials and opportunities for less money, and how to organize their household for economical, happy learning.

Educational Travel on a Shoestring shows parents how they can help their children learn–and have a blast–while traveling. From researching destinations to sharing activities that both teach and entertain, this priceless guide offers practical information for parents who want to have more fun with their kids, build closer family ties, and enjoy richer educational experiences–all without spending a fortune.

Failing the Mary Poppins' snap-the-fingers approach to cleaning, here's the next best thing: an utterly practical handbook that offers lasting results for anyone looking to banish clutter from every room in the house. Home organizer par excellence Meryl Starr offers up her hardworking organizing solutions in The Home Organizing Workbook, a straightforward guide to getting organized. The room chapters begin with targeted questionnaires that help the reader identify specific organizational problems, followed by hundreds of hardworking solutions and strategic maintenance tips. Those itching to get started can dive right in with step-by-step organizing projects ranging from quick-and-easy weeknight jobs, like overhauling the spice cabinet, to more intensive endeavors such as reorganizing the bedroom closet. Accessory lists at the end of each chapter feature dozens of the best products available, from lazy susans to shelf dividers, and explain exactly how they can be used to optimum effect in each room, while the extensive resource list shows where to get them. It's a package as tidy as its solutions: concealed Wire-O lay-flat binding, tabbed chapters to take readers straight to their problem area du jour, and full-color, solution-oriented photographs sure to inspire action. Ready to clear that clutter and keep it that way? The Home Organizing Workbook is the ultimate guide to preserving open spaces.

Desk drowning in papers? No room for the car in the garage? Santa still sitting on the roof in May? A less-is-more philosophy is great, but we all still have way too much stuff. The home office swallows up whole rooms, as does the family computer station. Then there's the home gym, the TV room, and the playroom, not to mention our collections - books, CDs, toys. Time management experts agree that when the minor things that take up space in the mind are eliminated, there is room to think about the big things. The same goes for the home. The visual clarity that comes from de-cluttering rooms, finances, and time promotes mental clarity, peacefulness, and contemplation. When everything is organized, it is easier to enjoy the meaningful things in life.

Organizing Plain & Simple is like a course from an expert teacher, grounded in the fundamentals and enriched with philosophy, tips, anecdotes, illustrations - everything necessary to make home and life run more smoothly. Donna Smallin takes a personalized, nonjudgemental approach to explaining how to assess each individual's situation and suggesting where to start organizing - room by room - and then covers how to stay organized. Then she offers advice on organizing time and finances, as well as organizing for the seasons and for special events - the birth of a baby, combining households, a move, kids going off to college, successful downsizing. Smallin presents a broad range of innovative solutions in the running feature "One Challenge, Three Solutions" that includes tips for solving classic organizational issues from a wide range of professional organizers.

Save Thousands of Dollars a Year

Jonni McCoy and her family are proof that you live on one income. The McCoys made a successful transition from two incomes to one while living in one of the most expensive parts of America: the San Francisco Bay Area.

Her Miserly Guidelines will help you save thousands of dollars a year on everything from groceries to electricity to insurance and household cleaners—as well as reveal the hidden costs of holding a job and common money wasters. Her practical, proven cost-saving techniques, strategies, tips, and recipes will help you live frugally without feeling deprived.

Hundreds of practical ideas for sorting, evaluating, and getting rid of all those material items that get in the way of a simplified lifestyle.

Organizing the home is one of those desirable and beneficial activities that remain elusive for many. This practical guide explains the many benefits - physical, emotional, and spiritual - of an organized home and shows how to attain them. Breaking down the process into 50 steps, the author uses her own experiences as a psychologist and professional home organizer to help readers clear away not only the physical clutter but the psychological blocks that encourage it and hinder organization. She tells where to start, encourages small steps, and explores the psychology of organizing. Next she addresses fundamental principles, including keeping tools where they will be used and making the most of active storage space. Finally, she shows how to get rid of excess stuff, including how to attack those never-ending piles and junk drawers, and stem the inflow of junk into the home. These easy exercises, tips, and stories will truly help readers organize their homes for efficiency, peacefulness, and well-being.