Little Keepers at Home

I'm finally getting to the more sketchy part of our daily schedule.  Breakfast to lunch flows very smoothly.  Not always at the assigned times, but in the assigned order.


6:00~ Mommy wakes up, makes bed, exercises, showers, time with the Lord, gets dressed, does hair and make-up.

7:00~ Breakfast helper wakes up to get a head start on their morning routine and then helps make and set the table for breakfast.
7:15~ All girls wake up, make beds, get dressed, get hair done.
7:30~ Breakfast
8:00~ Brush teeth, morning chores
8:30~ Bible
9:00~ School
11:00~ Weekly chores
12:00~ Lunch

After lunch can look very differently on most given days.  Some days we go places.  Some days Mommy is so tired we all take naps ALL afternoon!  But some days we actually stick to our afternoon schedule.  Those days are the best of all!

12:30 is our afternoon "pick up" which is basically 5-10 minutes just to pick up the main floors that may have gotten messed up between morning chores and then.

1:00 is reading time.  Ella is down for her nap by now, so we four girls snuggle up on the couch with blankets and enjoy a few peaceful chapters.  Right now we are reading "On the Banks of Plum Creek".  The girls LOVE Little House on the Prairie and are known as Mary, Laura and Baby Carrie most of the time.

1:45~ The girls head for naps, or at least lay down with a couple of books.

3:00 is Little Keepers at Home time!!!

The Keeper at Home books are put out by Keepers of the Faith.  I finally bought the book this last fall and loved many of the ideas it presented.  It focuses on four areas to teach your young daughters in:  Godly Girlhood, which includes scripture memorization, Bible reading, ministering to neighbors etc., Basic Skills, which covers everything from ABCs to card making to embroidery to pressed flowers, Homemaking, which teaches them the beginnings in areas like baking, money sense and table setting, and Nature, where they learn about birds, butterflies, flowers etc..  And I've just touched on the different sections!

Since these books were made to be filled in and used for individual children, and since I already have four daughters I decided to take the lessons and tweak them to better suit our needs.  First I went through and dropped just a couple of sections that I didn't see as very practical for us, then I added a few ideas I had (like herbs!  Go figure!).  Then I switched it all to a three-ring binder.

Each section has certain requirements that get checked off as they are completed.  When all of the requirements are completed, the page is signed by Mommy and Daddy and it is officially passed.

Bethany working on her upper and lower case alphabet.

Lydia working on her embroidery

As I've said many times before, it amazes me what our children are capable of learning when we devote some patient and careful time and instruction!  This is one of my favorite parts of the day, when I can watch my girls learn and grow into to capable young women.