Simple to complex, complex to simple.

I mentioned that I’m homeschooling, yes? These little hooligans:

Well, not so much the littlest one. She dances when we sing the ABCs, so we count that for baby school. And the one just up from there, in the orange shirt: he’s only 3. He joins in on a lot, and then he gets to play.

The bigger two are my main victims.

Anyway. Teaching your kids at home, as with any complicated, long-term, important endeavor, brings with it a need for planning and a lot of room for guesswork, research, second-guessing, redoing, overplanning.

I’ll just give you an example. Below is my lesson plan from a week ago:

Yeah, lots of detail.

Here’s my lesson plan for this week:

You might notice that this week’s is, well, much simpler. Because guess what? Sometimes simple is better.

In this case, a simple plan works better for me. I know what each of those subjects is supposed to be, I don’t need to complicate it, and just having a space for a checkmark is motivation.

We’re actually doing the same work, but the plan is much simpler. And the doing is easier, because I’m not getting thrown in a loop by those details when I glance at my schedule. I can see, at a glance, what’s left to do.

Are there things in your life you can simplify? Planning doesn’t have to encompass all the details or possibilities. If you’re overwhelmed or feeling defeated on something this week, step back. Get a bigger picture. Start from scratch and focus on the elements that are essential. If you get those in a good place, the details will either line up behind them, or fall away because they’re not important after all.