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How to Organize the Chaos (Chore Charts & Home Learning Plan)

/ Sarah Janisse Brown / Leave a comment

Thirteen years ago, all the kids were 12 and under and I organized EVERYTHING. Now that they are all ten and up I organize very little moment by moment activity, I just make sure the basics are covered. Running a home with 8 kids under 12 was a very different season. Above is our “chore chart” for that season (see others below!). It was a great way to motivate and keep things on somewhat of a schedule. So funny that Esther at age 10 was going to the coffee shop for two hours a day. We lived on Main Street and she loved having her chill time there.

This was my actual Home-Learning Plan five years ago. It is simple for parents and delightful to kids!

  1. Logic Games
  2. Read Favorite Books
  3. YouTube Tutorials
  4. Nature Time
  5. Online Math Games or Serious Stuff
  6. Kitchen Time
  7. Spelling Games
  8. Complete 5 Workbook Pages or 5 Fun-Schooling Journal Pages
  9. Play Outside
  10. Art & Drawing
  11. Just Dance
  12. Chores
  13. Online Games (a reward for chores and school)
  14. Family Time and Board Games
  15. Movie Time
  16. Music Practice
  17. Dyslexia Games
    You can do these activities in any order, but Movies and Online Games should be close to last.

For chores, we would create new schedule once every 3 or 4 months. Everyone liked knowing exactly what areas of the house they were responsible for.

Chores are largely about teaching life skills and serving others. This journal can help!

Turning Home Into the Epicenter of Human Life

/ Sarah Janisse Brown / Leave a comment

My house is a place of creativity, innovation, technology, tradition, beauty, art, music, good food, and education. Fun comes first!
As the one who organizes and orchestrates the events and environment for over a dozen children and an adventurous husband, I’ve embraced an opportunity to throw out the common uses of the rooms in my house.
Most houses were designed to serve as a place of relaxation and comfort for hardworking couples, and school age children. As a homeschooling mom and home-based entrepreneur I began to rethink the way Americans use their homes.
I saw the impractical design of a home as an opportunity to transform the underutilized living spaces into something far more useful and exciting.

What It Looks Like
Our kitchen is now a “Science Kitchen” and a place for fermenting, cooking classes, experiments, a place for making body-care products, and for inventing new remedies and recipes. In the past our kitchen was a birth center, where a few of our kids were born!
Our living room is a lending library and music room where family and friends gather to create music together and to read, share and borrow books. Our living room is also a place where children can play with puzzles and puppets. Sometimes it becomes a church, where we gather daily for Bible stories, worship and prayer.
Our dining room serves the usual purpose of a space for family meals, often squeezing two dozen of us around three tables! But often we set up the space as an Art and Game cafe! Watercolors, beads, and rubber stamps await the touch and imagination of creative kids. We added a coffee bar with three espresso machines and a beautiful assortment of ceramic mugs and flavored syrups. During the week the tables are used as a school space for my five or six youngest kids.

The nook attached to the kitchen is a tearoom, with a DIY tea making station complete with about twenty healing blends of loose leaf teas made from herbs, flowers and spices which were grown in our garden, foraged from our woods and meadows, and imported from around the world. On our recent trips to Italy, Greece and Israel we searched for local blends to bring home and recreate.
The media room in the basement is a Preschool Paradise – even though our youngest child is nine. We fill my house with young moms who have little ones every chance we get.
Our office is a studio of creativity, design, publishing, and relaxation for myself and my team of collaborators who often drop in to work on projects with me.
Our garage is a charging station for two Teslas and a Cybertruck. It is also a gym for my kids who are into fitness and bodybuilding, and another part of the garage is a pottery and jewelry making studio. My husband has a workshop in yet another section of the garage.
Half of the old barn has been renovated into a DIY creative space for neighborhood homeschoolers, complete with a Lego city, shelves full of games, a small stage, and loads of art supplies. The other half of the barn serves as an art studio for our daughters who are studying oil painting and drawing. The space also includes the set for a podcast studio.

Keep reading by clicking here.

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How AI Can Make Us All Feel Like 1950s Housewives

/ Sarah Janisse Brown / Leave a comment

In every era of rapid technological advancement, humanity faces a crossroads. Today, as AI and robotics threaten to replace human labor on an unprecedented scale, we are confronted with deep questions: What will happen to our jobs, our purpose, and our value? How will we spend our time, our energy, and our lives?

This isn’t the first time we’ve faced such a dilemma. A striking parallel existed in the 1950s when household technologies revolutionized daily life. Tasks that had once demanded weeks of effort—gardening, raising meat and eggs, canning food, sewing clothing—were suddenly replaced by mass production and modern appliances. The washing machine, refrigerator, vacuum cleaner, and telephone transformed the role of the housewife, freeing up vast amounts of time.

For many women, this was both liberating and disorienting. The work that once defined their survival and value within the family became unnecessary. They were no longer the primary producers of food and clothing, and their contribution shifted. Many entered the workforce or turned to consumerism and leisure.

But this “freedom” came with unforeseen consequences. Fast-forward 75 years, and we see a society grappling with obesity, mental health crises, loneliness, and fractured families. The very technologies that promised to make life easier have left many people without a sense of challenge or purpose.

Now, as AI advances at breakneck speed, we are entering a new era of disruption. Entire industries may be transformed or rendered irrelevant. What will happen when robots and technology handle most of the tasks that once filled our days? Will humans—like the 1950s housewives—find themselves with too much time, too little purpose, and no meaningful challenges?

Humans need to be challenged. We thrive on purpose, on working hard for something that matters, and on the satisfaction of overcoming obstacles. If AI takes over the bulk of our work, the question is not “What will we do with our time?” but rather, “How will we use it meaningfully?”

Click here to consider some answers to these questions, and discover some actionable points for you and your family.

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The Story of Our First Co-Op

/ Sarah Janisse Brown / Leave a comment
Photo from a 2022 Co-Op at Olive Branch Farm

Simply Living

A new co-op introduces Indianapolis area families to the joy of cutting back to the basics in life.

By T.J. Banes, first featured in the Indy Star on April 29, 2002

While many 20-something women may be running the career fast-track and juggling duties at home, Sarah Brown is slowing down and inviting other women to do the same.

She recently formed a family co-op called Simpler Times, which introduces people to the joys of basic living. News of her effort has spread by word of mouth, and her mailing list now includes more than 200 names.

Most co-ops start with a shared interest in benefiting a local economy, said Phil Schutt, grocery buyer for Bloomingfoods Market and Deli in Bloomington. That co-op, which specializes in locally grown organic foods, has two locations and has been in operation for 26 years.

Sarah wants people in her co-op to share their goods and services in exchange for points. No money will be used.

Twice a week, her 3-acre property comes to life with the company of other moms and tots, working the garden. Occasionally, her husband, Josh, 24, has to stop a farm animal from munching on the Brussels sprouts.

“I’d say I’m traditional, but not modern,” said Sarah, 25, the mother of Isaac, 3, Anna, 2, and Esther, 7 months. “I just don’t want the rest of the world to influence what I do and when I do it.”

Karen Kornelsen, 25, a stay-at-home mother who lives on the city’s Southeastside, said she loves being outside barefoot digging in the dirt.

Recently, she set out plants while her 9-month-old daughter, Laura, slept in a backpack. “Being part of Simpler Times allows me to fellowship with other women and to bring home fresh produce so we can eat healthy.”

Eventually, the co-op’s harvest will become part of a twice-monthly trading day on Fortville’s Main Street.

Both the garden, and the trading day, mark the beginning of Sarah’s attempts to spread the simple life to other families. In addition to produce, families trade homemade baked goods, crafts, used clothing and books.

Click here to read more and find out about the perfect tool for you to use in setting up your very own Co-Op!

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Summer Day Camp at Olive Branch Farm!

/ Sarah Janisse Brown / 1 Comment

Do you have a child or teen ages 8+ interested art, music, dance, singing, voice, painting, improve, YouTubing, costumes, piano & acting?

Time: 11am-5pm

The Olive Branch Arts & Acting Camp would be Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays for four weeks in a row starting July 18th.

The cost will be $75 per week. If you sign up for all four weeks the final week is free.

Let me know if you have a child ages 8+ that will be joining us! If I get 10 “yes” responses in the next couple days we will launch the camp.

Dates:

July 18-20

July 25-27

August 1-3

August 8-10

Since the camp is organized around a three day project each week, we can only accept participants who can commit to a three day week. Your kids can come for one week or all four.

Join this group to learn more: https://www.facebook.com/groups/230250036494994/

Sarah’s Mom Tips – Challenging Attitudes During School

/ Sarah Janisse Brown / Leave a comment

Is your child freezing up, looking for an escape, or fighting and arguing when it’s time to do schoolwork?

When your child picks a fight or freaks out at school time, do what you can to change the mood.  You may need to change your attitude and expectations. 

Here are some ideas to de-fuse the stress:

1. Give the child a sweet and healthy snack to munch on while doing schoolwork, make this part of the routine, they will look forward to it.

2. Don’t use fluorescent lighting – it causes anxiety for many children. Natural warm lighting is much more comforting.

3. Turn off the distractions and turn on peaceful music.

4. Give your child some words of encouragement or a compliment, and avoid harsh words, criticism, and forcefulness. If you must correct the child first give a compliment, next give the instruction, then say something positive.  The goal is to keep learning time from triggering stress, fight, and flight mode.

5. Give your child a hug, cuddle, pat or scratch their backs.  Comforting touch is a powerful de-fuser and helps the child to ease into a good mood. Compliment, next give the instruction, then say something positive.  The goal is to keep learning time from triggering stress, fight, and flight mode. Children need the home to be a place of comfort, acceptance, and unconditional love.  Children need mommy to be a source of peace, encouragement, and gentle guidance.

6. Use a calm voice and be helpful.

7. Get out of teacher-mode and into mommy-mode.

8. Make the first and last activity of learning-time their favorites.

9. Smile.

10. Dump curriculum that stresses them out – there are many options that can work better, children can’t learn under stress.  Skip journal pages or workbook pages that the child is not ready for.  You can come back to them later, or do those yourself while the child watches.

Guess what? These behaviors should be a warning sign that your child is slipping into “survival mode” because they associate schoolwork with failure, humiliation, confusion, or fear. What do they fear? It could be many things.  Usually fear of failure or a fear of being humiliated if they make mistakes. Children need to home to be a place of comfort, acceptance, and unconditional love.  Children need mommy to be a source of peace, encouragement, and gentle guidance.