February 6, 2025 • 11 mins
Consistency in parenting and homeschooling sounds great in theory—but in practice? It can feel impossible! In this episode of Making Everyday Magic, I’m breaking down how we maintain a steady homeschool routine and family life without burning out.
I’ll share the systems and habits that help us stay on track, plus how we embrace flexibility to stay consistent in the ways that truly matter. Spoiler: It’s not about perfection—it’s about showing up and finding what works for your family!
🎧 Tune in now to discover how to balance structure and flexibility for a homeschool (and home life) that works for you!
#HowWeAreConsistent #MakingEverydayMagic #HomeschoolConsistency #HomeschoolTips #ParentingConsistency #HomeschoolRoutine
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Consistency.
It always comes down to consistency.
Welcome back to making Everyday Magic.
My name is Shanna and if you are new, herewe are homeschooling family of four
who is in our eighth yearof homeschooling.
We have a 12 year oldand an eight year old.
Today I wanted to pop on.
I wanted to share with you
(00:21):
how we are consistent.
Before we goany further, guys, please scroll down,
hit the big red subscribe button,turn on that bell
for notificationsand give this video a thumbs up.
As always, you can find me downin the comments or over on Instagram
at Making Everyday Magic.
Recently,I have been sharing a few routine videos
(00:44):
and this is somethingthat I have talked about.
If you have watched my channelconsistently,
over many,many years and many, many videos,
I view
consistency as the solutionto like everything.
It is, really important to meto build consistency into our homeschool,
(01:08):
our parenting, our home life, our chores.
It really makes an absolutely hugedifference when it comes to setting up
systems.
For example, recentlysharing, morning routine videos
and I discuss how we got to now
where everybody knows what to do,when to do it, all of the things.
(01:32):
Being about,
we have set ourselves up with a consistentplan, consistently followed through,
and people have requested thatI share like how how did we get there?
It's not overnight, of course.
And I've been thinking on this video topicfor a little while, so I feel like
I have condensed it down to five things
that you need to do to develop consistency
(01:55):
and something that is not part of that,but I think is incredibly important.
So important.
I will probably discuss it againat the end of this video,
is to have reasonable expectations.
So before you start any systemor any plan, it needs to be reasonable.
So yes, in our morning routine
my kids can get up, they know whatthey're supposed to do, yada yada yada.
(02:18):
But my youngest is eight,so I would not be expecting a three year
old to get their own breakfast,get themselves dressed,
and take care of a petlike that is unreasonable.
So if you do not firsthave reasonable expectations
for what can be achieved, I feel likeyou will be consistently disappointed.
(02:39):
For example, I have seen on, many,
many homeschool groups
people being upsetthat their kids have not followed
throughwith what they thought they were doing,
but they didn'tcheck in on the progress of their ten year
old consistently,and therefore were shocked to find out
(02:59):
that their ten year oldhad not been making consistent progress.
Because, again,that is an unreasonable expectation
for a ten year old to be self-governingwhen it comes to their homeschool.
So again, reasonable expectations.
Okay, so that first of all,put that in your pocket.
You must be reasonable.
Now the five thingsI think help us make consistency.
(03:21):
The five steps that I take our plan.
So number one is plannumber two is communicate.
Number three is follow through.
And number four evaluate.
Number five is adjust set plan.
I am somebody who,when I get an idea in my head
even like for these videos I sit down.I like to map it out. I like to plan.
I like to plan our homeschool.You're going to go.
I like to make a plan for thinkingconstantly about
(03:44):
how are we goingto get the most out of a morning routine?
How am I going to do that?
What all do I need to do?
How can I plan this out?
Number one is just have a plan.
You know what you need to get done.
How are you going todo it? What's the set plan?
Number two is communicate.
So the way that we can makethese things happen in our home
(04:05):
is because I have communicated the plan.
I didn't ask these people to show upand do something.
They had no ideawhat they were supposed to do.
So I am very clear in my communication.
I am very clear with this is your job.
This is what time we start school.
I communicate this so well.
Everyone, even Tad,who is not an active part
(04:27):
of our everyday homeschool life,can tell you homeschool starts at 9 a.m..
He can tell you our school daystarts at 9 a.m.,
because we have effectively communicatedthat.
Another way that I like to communicatewhat my expectations are is checklists.
So we do have our flow printed.
I have very clearly communicated to youwhat I expect to do.
I have very clearly communicated to youwhich chores need to happen on which day,
(04:49):
because I made you a printout
with all checkboxesthat you can take care of yourself.
So plan.
Communicate.
Communication is usual really,where a lot of this starts
to go off the rails because peopleare not clear in their expectation.
Communicate, communicate.
And when you say it,make sure they say it back to you.
If I say school starts at 9 a.m.,then I'm like, what time do school start
(05:13):
that say back to me that wayI know that they have heard me now,
number threeand this is the hard one, follow through.
This is where best laid plans
go off the rails
if you are not consistent,if you do not follow through.
For example, school starts at 9 a.m.,
so if you're not ready and expectingeverybody to be there at 9 a.m.,
(05:35):
if they're constantly having to wait onyou until ten,
they're not going to take it seriouslyand show up at 9 a.m..
This is often very truewhen it comes to parenting
and your methods of disciplineor your expectations.
As far as appropriate behavior,if today it is okay to jump on the bed,
but tomorrow it is not, you are notbeing consistent in your follow through.
(05:57):
So if you say
you're going to do something,you need to model that behavior and do it,
and then make sure that you are holdingeveryone else
to the same standard follow through.
Number four is evaluate.
If I say school starts at 9 a.m.
and every single
day we are struggling to make that happen,
(06:17):
but we could easily make it happen by 930if every single day we started by 930.
But we cannot possibly make 9 a.m. happen.
Do you know what we need to doin this evaluation process?
Number five, we need to adjust.
It is so important
to consistently check in with your systems
(06:38):
to make sure to evaluatewhether or not they are best serving you.
So yes,you might want to have something happen,
but it is just never gonna work out.
And so you need to be willing to evaluatehonest reflection.
Black and white data.
Take your emotions out of itand then adjust.
(06:59):
If I never adjust my expectations,
I am going to be unhappy all of the time.
If I am inflexible,it is not going to work for me.
And I do this even with my own routines.
So my morning routine is not the sameevery time.
Even my planning routine, the plannerI use, I am constantly reevaluating
if I feel like there is a hiccup,if I feel like there is a way in which
(07:22):
I am not best served by something,I will evaluate and then adjust.
Because when you do find the sweet spot,for example,
my children's morning routineby getting them on an alarm clock
and we will discuss the night beforeif it needs to be a 7 a.m.
alarm or a 730, depending onwhat all they have to do in the morning.
(07:42):
They know they get up, they get breakfast.
If they can get moving in
a reasonable amount of time,they are allowed
to watch an episode of somethingwhile they eat.
Then they get dressed for their day,make their beds, brush their teeth,
come downand take care of their guinea pig,
and then by 9 a.m.
and oftentimes they will go ahead, sitdown and start pulling things out earlier,
(08:06):
or they'll askif they have a significant amount of time,
if they can do something elseuntil 9 a.m..
But because we've been consistent,
it took us a while to figure outthe system that worked.
But once we were consistentand found the pieces
that do allow us to have successin this manner, it is amazing.
So if you can plan,if you can communicate,
(08:29):
if you can follow through,then evaluate it, adjust as needed.
You too can build consistency, not just inyour homeschool, but across the board.
And again, I want to remind you
that reasonable expectationsneed to be high.
Do not expect your childrento do something they are incapable of,
(08:51):
even when it comes down to things.
For example, like our chores.
So we will set our chores for the kids.
We usually you guys know I love a theme,so I will give myself a theme.
But oftentimes my kids,we will go ahead and assign to them chores
and they're free to do them aheador after to make sure it's done
by the end of the week.They have that freedom.
(09:11):
But I go ahead
and kind of set out that intentionfor what is happening, on what day.
So if we are out of the housefor most of the day on Wednesday,
an easy, lightchore for that day is to sort your laundry
so we can do laundry the next day,or to clean out the car.
It's really easyand just take out the trash.
Take outanything that doesn't belong there.
Give it a little quick vacuum,super easy, super quick
(09:34):
so that I'm not asking them to tacklea bigger task on a day
when they don't have the time.
In that manner,we allow it to be adjusted and flexible,
and we are setting everyone up for successin their chores.
Their chore isn't scrubbed itbathroom down because again,
they're 12 and eight, but it is.
One child will clean the toiletand the other child will wipe down
(09:55):
the counters.
These are reasonable in my opinion,expectations of them.
I'm not giving them a broad topic.
I'm giving them a specific task.
I have communicated clearlyand then at the end of the week,
because it is important to evaluateat the end of the week, I can go check
and make sure that they've checked offall of the boxes on their chore chart.
Then I know that they have earnedtheir allowance
(10:16):
by evaluating the workthat they have done.
At the end of the school day,I know where they are.
We are measuring progress,and if we are consistently, consistently
falling behind where we should be,then we adjust to.
So like I said, I feel likeit is a nice little sidestep system.
I really do wish that I could apply thisto every aspect of my life
(10:38):
and follow through,
but I am not as consistentas I would love to be in all aspects.
But in homeschool, I feel likewe've nailed the town pretty well.
So this is my formula for consistent.
This is how we have gottento those self-sufficient morning routines,
and really how I've become a homeschoolsupport staff in our homeschool day.
So guys, I hope you found this helpful,entertaining, or informative.
(11:00):
If you did, please scroll down, hitthe big red subscribe button,
turn on the bell for notifications,or give this video a thumbs up.
As always,you can find me down in the comments
or over on Instagramat Making Everyday Magic.
I would love to hear your thoughtson consistency.
Do you have itor are you struggling with it?
Or do you feel like you're falling short?
What do you feel likeyou're doing really well?
If you have any further questions,I do have a Q&A video planned coming up,
(11:24):
so feel free to shoot me a message andI will try to get that into that video.
Guys. That's it. Bye.
Consistency.
It always comes down to consistency.
Welcome back to making Everyday Magic.
My name is Shanna and if you are new, herewe are homeschooling family of four
who is in our eighth yearof homeschooling.
We have a 12 year oldand an eight year old.
Today I wanted to pop on.
I wanted to share with you
(00:21):
how we are consistent.
Before we goany further, guys, please scroll down,
hit the big red subscribe button,turn on that bell
for notificationsand give this video a thumbs up.
As always, you can find me downin the comments or over on Instagram
at Making Everyday Magic.
Recently,I have been sharing a few routine videos
(00:44):
and this is somethingthat I have talked about.
If you have watched my channelconsistently,
over many,many years and many, many videos,
I view
consistency as the solutionto like everything.
It is, really important to meto build consistency into our homeschool,
(01:08):
our parenting, our home life, our chores.
It really makes an absolutely hugedifference when it comes to setting up
systems.
For example, recentlysharing, morning routine videos
and I discuss how we got to now
where everybody knows what to do,when to do it, all of the things.
(01:32):
Being about,
we have set ourselves up with a consistentplan, consistently followed through,
and people have requested thatI share like how how did we get there?
It's not overnight, of course.
And I've been thinking on this video topicfor a little while, so I feel like
I have condensed it down to five things
that you need to do to develop consistency
(01:55):
and something that is not part of that,but I think is incredibly important.
So important.
I will probably discuss it againat the end of this video,
is to have reasonable expectations.
So before you start any systemor any plan, it needs to be reasonable.
So yes, in our morning routine
my kids can get up, they know whatthey're supposed to do, yada yada yada.
(02:18):
But my youngest is eight,so I would not be expecting a three year
old to get their own breakfast,get themselves dressed,
and take care of a petlike that is unreasonable.
So if you do not firsthave reasonable expectations
for what can be achieved, I feel likeyou will be consistently disappointed.
(02:39):
For example, I have seen on, many,
many homeschool groups
people being upsetthat their kids have not followed
throughwith what they thought they were doing,
but they didn'tcheck in on the progress of their ten year
old consistently,and therefore were shocked to find out
(02:59):
that their ten year oldhad not been making consistent progress.
Because, again,that is an unreasonable expectation
for a ten year old to be self-governingwhen it comes to their homeschool.
So again, reasonable expectations.
Okay, so that first of all,put that in your pocket.
You must be reasonable.
Now the five thingsI think help us make consistency.
(03:21):
The five steps that I take our plan.
So number one is plannumber two is communicate.
Number three is follow through.
And number four evaluate.
Number five is adjust set plan.
I am somebody who,when I get an idea in my head
even like for these videos I sit down.I like to map it out. I like to plan.
I like to plan our homeschool.You're going to go.
I like to make a plan for thinkingconstantly about
(03:44):
how are we goingto get the most out of a morning routine?
How am I going to do that?
What all do I need to do?
How can I plan this out?
Number one is just have a plan.
You know what you need to get done.
How are you going todo it? What's the set plan?
Number two is communicate.
So the way that we can makethese things happen in our home
(04:05):
is because I have communicated the plan.
I didn't ask these people to show upand do something.
They had no ideawhat they were supposed to do.
So I am very clear in my communication.
I am very clear with this is your job.
This is what time we start school.
I communicate this so well.
Everyone, even Tad,who is not an active part
(04:27):
of our everyday homeschool life,can tell you homeschool starts at 9 a.m..
He can tell you our school daystarts at 9 a.m.,
because we have effectively communicatedthat.
Another way that I like to communicatewhat my expectations are is checklists.
So we do have our flow printed.
I have very clearly communicated to youwhat I expect to do.
I have very clearly communicated to youwhich chores need to happen on which day,
(04:49):
because I made you a printout
with all checkboxesthat you can take care of yourself.
So plan.
Communicate.
Communication is usual really,where a lot of this starts
to go off the rails because peopleare not clear in their expectation.
Communicate, communicate.
And when you say it,make sure they say it back to you.
If I say school starts at 9 a.m.,then I'm like, what time do school start
(05:13):
that say back to me that wayI know that they have heard me now,
number threeand this is the hard one, follow through.
This is where best laid plans
go off the rails
if you are not consistent,if you do not follow through.
For example, school starts at 9 a.m.,
so if you're not ready and expectingeverybody to be there at 9 a.m.,
(05:35):
if they're constantly having to wait onyou until ten,
they're not going to take it seriouslyand show up at 9 a.m..
This is often very truewhen it comes to parenting
and your methods of disciplineor your expectations.
As far as appropriate behavior,if today it is okay to jump on the bed,
but tomorrow it is not, you are notbeing consistent in your follow through.
(05:57):
So if you say
you're going to do something,you need to model that behavior and do it,
and then make sure that you are holdingeveryone else
to the same standard follow through.
Number four is evaluate.
If I say school starts at 9 a.m.
and every single
day we are struggling to make that happen,
(06:17):
but we could easily make it happen by 930if every single day we started by 930.
But we cannot possibly make 9 a.m. happen.
Do you know what we need to doin this evaluation process?
Number five, we need to adjust.
It is so important
to consistently check in with your systems
(06:38):
to make sure to evaluatewhether or not they are best serving you.
So yes,you might want to have something happen,
but it is just never gonna work out.
And so you need to be willing to evaluatehonest reflection.
Black and white data.
Take your emotions out of itand then adjust.
(06:59):
If I never adjust my expectations,
I am going to be unhappy all of the time.
If I am inflexible,it is not going to work for me.
And I do this even with my own routines.
So my morning routine is not the sameevery time.
Even my planning routine, the plannerI use, I am constantly reevaluating
if I feel like there is a hiccup,if I feel like there is a way in which
(07:22):
I am not best served by something,I will evaluate and then adjust.
Because when you do find the sweet spot,for example,
my children's morning routineby getting them on an alarm clock
and we will discuss the night beforeif it needs to be a 7 a.m.
alarm or a 730, depending onwhat all they have to do in the morning.
(07:42):
They know they get up, they get breakfast.
If they can get moving in
a reasonable amount of time,they are allowed
to watch an episode of somethingwhile they eat.
Then they get dressed for their day,make their beds, brush their teeth,
come downand take care of their guinea pig,
and then by 9 a.m.
and oftentimes they will go ahead, sitdown and start pulling things out earlier,
(08:06):
or they'll askif they have a significant amount of time,
if they can do something elseuntil 9 a.m..
But because we've been consistent,
it took us a while to figure outthe system that worked.
But once we were consistentand found the pieces
that do allow us to have successin this manner, it is amazing.
So if you can plan,if you can communicate,
(08:29):
if you can follow through,then evaluate it, adjust as needed.
You too can build consistency, not just inyour homeschool, but across the board.
And again, I want to remind you
that reasonable expectationsneed to be high.
Do not expect your childrento do something they are incapable of,
(08:51):
even when it comes down to things.
For example, like our chores.
So we will set our chores for the kids.
We usually you guys know I love a theme,so I will give myself a theme.
But oftentimes my kids,we will go ahead and assign to them chores
and they're free to do them aheador after to make sure it's done
by the end of the week.They have that freedom.
(09:11):
But I go ahead
and kind of set out that intentionfor what is happening, on what day.
So if we are out of the housefor most of the day on Wednesday,
an easy, lightchore for that day is to sort your laundry
so we can do laundry the next day,or to clean out the car.
It's really easyand just take out the trash.
Take outanything that doesn't belong there.
Give it a little quick vacuum,super easy, super quick
(09:34):
so that I'm not asking them to tacklea bigger task on a day
when they don't have the time.
In that manner,we allow it to be adjusted and flexible,
and we are setting everyone up for successin their chores.
Their chore isn't scrubbed itbathroom down because again,
they're 12 and eight, but it is.
One child will clean the toiletand the other child will wipe down
(09:55):
the counters.
These are reasonable in my opinion,expectations of them.
I'm not giving them a broad topic.
I'm giving them a specific task.
I have communicated clearlyand then at the end of the week,
because it is important to evaluateat the end of the week, I can go check
and make sure that they've checked offall of the boxes on their chore chart.
Then I know that they have earnedtheir allowance
(10:16):
by evaluating the workthat they have done.
At the end of the school day,I know where they are.
We are measuring progress,and if we are consistently, consistently
falling behind where we should be,then we adjust to.
So like I said, I feel likeit is a nice little sidestep system.
I really do wish that I could apply thisto every aspect of my life
(10:38):
and follow through,
but I am not as consistentas I would love to be in all aspects.
But in homeschool, I feel likewe've nailed the town pretty well.
So this is my formula for consistent.
This is how we have gottento those self-sufficient morning routines,
and really how I've become a homeschoolsupport staff in our homeschool day.
So guys, I hope you found this helpful,entertaining, or informative.
(11:00):
If you did, please scroll down, hitthe big red subscribe button,
turn on the bell for notifications,or give this video a thumbs up.
As always,you can find me down in the comments
or over on Instagramat Making Everyday Magic.
I would love to hear your thoughtson consistency.
Do you have itor are you struggling with it?
Or do you feel like you're falling short?
What do you feel likeyou're doing really well?
If you have any further questions,I do have a Q&A video planned coming up,
(11:24):
so feel free to shoot me a message andI will try to get that into that video.
Guys. That's it. Bye.
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