Balancing Diapers and Deadlines (A course in Working while Schooling from Home, with Kids of All Ages)

This next review comes from Lisa Tanner Writing. Lisa is a fellow TOS Homeschool Review Crew member, and she has written an online course, Balancing Diapers and Deadlines, to help busy moms be more productive. It is geared towards "mompreneurs" who are running a business from home but can apply to anyone involved in more than one thing (including writing a blog) on a more or less daily basis. 

Lisa has broken down her course into an introduction and seven units. 

• Building Your Foundation With the Basics
• Minimize Your Decisions
• Minimize Your Decisions: The Annual Meal Plan
• Sustainable Growth
• Growing a Business With Your Kids Around
• Boost Your Productivity
• Closing Thoughts

Now, we didn't have time to go through and implement the whole course (at a two or three lesson/week pace), but I did go through the first couple of units and skimmed through the rest of the lessons, to get an idea of what it contains. 

Screenshot of a portion of two units

Building Your Foundation With the Basics covers getting your family on board with your business, creating routines and basic structure. There were new ideas, like having a daily action plan that is created each morning, and basic reminders for when the plan gets off track. We were just talking about schedules at our homeschool meeting last night, and this concept totally relates to the back-to-the-basic idea of SIMPLE planning. It's a lot easier to adjust when one thing makes waves in one day, instead of having to adjust the whole week from one small blip.

Minimize Your Decisions is a huge Unit that tackles one of the major roadblocks to doing anything inside the home... the HOME, and keeping it organized. There are eight lessons in this unit that include tips on getting/keeping the house in shape, set chores/chore times, and an interesting reward/consequence system. There is a lesson on giving each child a day of the week to take some of the decision-making out of your hands and put it in theirs. We're still working on implementing some of the ideas in this unit, some of which we've used in the past and let slip by over the years, and others which are brand new but make sense~ Use Your Broom!

Minimize Your Decisions: The Annual Meal Plan is where I am at in the course at the moment, so haven't had an opportunity to actually implement it yet. The idea of meal planning is still something that scares me. :) I'm a what's in the fridge/what's on sale kind of person, but from my first peek at this unit, I'm thinking that it might actually work with my Fly-By-The-Seat-Of-Your-Pants style. It also includes lessons on planning for breakfast, lunch, and snacks, and creating a master shopping list.

Sustainable Growth appears to cover how to actually grow a business without burning out, including how to handle time and technology.

Growing a Business With Your Kids Around gives tips and suggestions for being able to work around or with each age group and even special needs kids, if that applies to your family situation. Lisa includes integrating homeschooling and a business, so if you ARE a Mompreneur, this will be a particularly interesting unit!

Boost Your Productivity has five lessons that appear to continue the "Make a Plan" idea as well as provides suggestions for things that help you to use our time wisely.

Closing Thoughts offers encouragement as you are planning your work, and working your plan (and sometimes getting tripped up when the plans fall apart).

There are things in this course that will apply to almost everyone and others that may not. For instance, "Let's Talk About Laundry" in the Minimize Your Decisions Unit relates much more to large family logistics (I can't imagine having to do three loads of laundry each day, but when you have 10 kids... that's the reality). However, everyone needs to do laundry, and it's good to have a plan to get it done so you don't have to think about it.

Not everyone has kids in all stages, so Growing Your Business With Your Kids Around may have a lesson or two that don't relate to your current situation. However, for the most part, there are things that will apply to most family situations in every single Unit.

Not So Nutty Nitty Gritty 

• Company: Lisa Tanner Writing
• Product: Balancing Diapers and Deadlines
• Ages: Moms
• Price: $50

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Please click the banner below to visit the TOS Homeschool Review Crew and see what others had to say, and find out how they implemented this course. As always, I hope that this review was useful to you as you choose where best to spend your homeschool budget.

Blessings~

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