Schedules, Schedules, Schedules

It’s that time of year. Facebook and blogs and Yahoo groups and forums are full of people’s schedules. I used to write mine up in great detail on Excel — talk about Throwback Thursday (even though it’s Saturday!)

Here two of my schedules from the past:

Best laid plans of yesteryear

And what about now? How do I home-educate four children between the ages of 8 and 15? Well, now my schedule looks like this:

My plan for this year

How have I gone from ticky-boxy to book-stacky? Basically, three things have changed in the past two years:

• I have fully embraced the idea that homeschooling is as much as about a relationship among the family as it is about a relationship with our studies, and therefore, I’m committed to teaching the kids together as much as possible.

Homeschooling is so much more than just studies

• I have fully embraced the idea that recording what we’ve done is as successful an approach as planning what we will do: more so, in fact, because the stresses of “falling behind” are gone entirely, and the joys of “capturing the moment” are here to stay.

Recording what you've done is less
stressful than planning what you might do

• I have fully embraced the stage of the children’s lives that they can both work together, and work independently; this means that we study together in the morning, and the afternoons are free for play/handicrafts/Spanish/music lessons/hobbies, or further studies for the older two.

Afternoons are free for hobbies

Sometimes, my friends accuse me of being very off-hand with my approach, as though it’s as easy as falling off a log. I think I give this impression because I’ve been homeschooling for twelve years now. With time (and children’s maturity), one tends to grow into their individual rhythm.

However, if you want to embrace an all-together policy of home-education as I have, then it's possible for you to start now. Here are some suggestions.

First, following a flexible educational philosophy like the Charlotte Mason method. Sometimes, her method is made to seem overly complicated if you look at various websites. The hoops to jump through are made to seem overwhelming, as though each child has to have his or her own complete curriculum, and therefore, you have to spend your entire day in leaping from one child to another to support their studies.

To me, that’s the way to madness.

This is what madness looks like

Look — what they tell you is that their way is a CM curriculum, and I say to you that my way is a CM curriculum.  In fact, both ways — all ways of homeschooling — are curricula, because the definition of curricula is those subjects which you study. If you happen to study the lyrics of Janis Joplin songs 24/7, then that’s your curriculum. It doesn't have to be someone else's pre-set way of educating your children.

It’s a bit like saying you’re on a diet. Everyone is on a diet. Diet is what you eat. Some people are on a low-fat diet, or a low-protein diet, or a low-Starbucks’-vanilla-latte diet, but a diet is just describing that which you eat. Period.

That's the English Cream Tea diet

So my curriculum is the collection of subjects that we’ve chosen to study, and we do so by using the Charlotte Mason method.

Charlotte Mason, by the way, was a Victorian teacher whose forward-thinking ideas about education continue to be ground-breaking when it comes to churning out thinkers instead of hoop-jumpers. (She would have abhorred today’s focus on teaching to an exam rather than igniting interest in a subject)

In short, the CM method is characterised by:

• short lessons
• use of living books as opposed to dry textbooks
• employing narration, dictation, and copywork for Language Arts skills
• nature study
• art- and music-appreciation
• free afternoons to work on handicrafts, outdoor pursuits, or other personal interests

Our CM-inspired timetable consists of reading really good books for about 20 minutes each, sometimes getting to six or seven of them in a morning. We rotate through about twenty books at a time, and generally they have a similar theme. 

This autumn, we’re focusing on North America at the time of the early explorers, including the indigenous peoples who already lived there. Our science is botany with a focus on trees. We use Life of Fred for secondary school, and a mixture of Singapore and Shillermath for primary. We’ll also dabble in artist study, composer study, quantum theory, Shakespeare, US politics and economics, character study, and of course, biblical history and Christian faith.

We’ll work our way through this whole stack of books in the year, supplementing with great documentaries like Crash Course, local workshops, trips to museums, concerts, plays, and even creating a lapbook or two.

Most of these supplemental activities are reserved for Fridays, because we only “school” four days a week (see my blog post about the importance of Free-Day Fridays for us).

Free-day Fridays are just plain fun!

I realise this has been a really long blog post — probably the longest I have ever written — but I wanted you to know that it’s possible to combine your kids for a great learning experience. If you have babies or toddlers, you will be a few years away from this luxury (I used to employ a lot of Montessori-type activities to keep the toddlers busy: Tot Trays is a great website for ideas), but start getting everyone into a routine of learning together in the mornings, and it won’t be long before your youngsters are right in the thick of it, discussing which Canterbury Tales is their favorite, or arguing whether light is a particle or a wave, or saying they're sad because we'll only be in the penumbra and not the umbra of the solar eclipse. 

Honestly, with a diet of great books and great thoughts, stuff like this really happens!

My Purple Space, or How I Find Quiet Time When Homeschooling

It's one of the frequently asked question by newbie homeschoolers, or people thinking about taking on the responsibility/fun/adventure of doing so: How do you find time for yourself if the kids are around all day?

Here's my thoughts about finding time/space for just such moments: I call it my "purple space".

The colour for the stage of my life right now is characterised by the color purple.  Not like "Color Purple" of Alice Walker's novel of that name, though by the end of this post, you may think there are analogies between the two concepts.

My purple is literally the color. I color-code my belongings. My iPhone case, my Bible, Kindle cover, MP3 player and its case, the shell on my laptop, my water bottles, and even my eyeglasses, are all purple.*

These are a few of my favorite (purple) things

I am purple in our household because it's noticeable at the bottom of my bottomless handbag, but it's not flashy. I'm purple because it's sometimes the cheapest option. I'm purple because it suggests authority and royalty while also being a cool, calming color, and even feminine in an "I'm-not-pink" kind of way.

I am purple because I'm a mother of four homeschooled children who know few boundaries -- life is an adventure, to be explored, used, often discarded. The home is their classroom, laboratory, refuge, and headquarters. My purple things are marked out as though my signature were on them -- "These are NOT part of the curriculum!"

I have never seen the children borrow, use, or sneak the purple things -- the purple code is inviolate without my having to ever spell it out for them.

I think there's a life lesson in this; to ponder over. Carving out the purple spaces in my life are just as important as buying my pens in purple ink, so I know they will be found in the pen pot on my desk when I need to write something down.

For me, that's 9:30-10 am every morning most mornings. I have completed my shower, dressing, teeth brushing; put on a load of laundry; fed the dog; poured my coffee and made my two peanut-butter-cracker sandwiches. I close the door as the children go through their long-established morning routines, and take my time out of the day.

The Celtic Daily Prayer book I use reminds me of whom I am -- loved and gifted for some spiritually greater service, but dependent on God for that identity, that mission. I'm reminded to praise Him, thank Him, honor Him. I'm reminded to be "lowly and meek, yet all powerful" (from the Celtic benediction) -- thus, to use my words for giving life and encouragement, and to view all people as God's creations, whether or not they acknowledge it themselves.

Centered, refreshed, still: for just a few moments, I am in my purple bubble.

Then at 10 am, I set aside my purple pen, close my purple Bible, and take my purple peace with me into the technicolor world.

*My husband said that I should clarify that purple is NOT simply my favorite color -- that award goes to very bright, spring green.

A Look at Free-Day Friday

At the beginning of the year, I made a mistake. I told my kids we wouldn't school on Friday.

Hooray! No school on Fridays!

There was method in my madness -- the year before, Fridays had been Busy Timmy's day to have private swimming lessons, and by the time we all trooped back home, it was about 11, and shortly thereafter, we would all head off to the afternoon youth group I run.

Busy Timmy gets ready to collect
children from the local school
to come to the youth club

Needless to say, that doesn't leave a lot of time for study.

No time for Life of Fred
on a Friday, I'm afraid.

It's true that, over the years, I've come to the conclusion that it's actually a good idea to carve out a day where you can a) have social calls from other home-ed people, b) invite newbies over for a chat, c) schedule workshops without disrupting the other school days, and d) catch up with chores, laundry, and housework.

So, why am I now re-thinking my announcement of a free-day Friday? Because Busy Timmy's swimming lessons got changed to Thursdays, and my lovely plans for afternoon reading with one child at a time got scuppered when I moved my Dreaming Spires classes to meet on Tuesdays and Thursdays ... our long-standing Monday afternoon play-date ... music lessons ... Wednesday afternoon youth-group leaders' meetings ... thus, afternoon school has just disappeared from our schedule entirely, which was never part of my original plan.

The temptation is to renege on my original announcement about Friday, and reinstate it as a normal school day in our home -- that is, chores before 10, then Blocks 1 to 3 until lunch. Yet, I have discovered recently that Friday is not a dead loss after all, and for two reasons:

First, we are actually covering a lot of ground in our studies during the rest of the week, even though we only sit at our school-room table on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday mornings. The two older ones have additional work for the Dreaming Spires classes which they do in their own time, and Thursdays is a Bible study/literature co-op with another family in a town about 14 miles away.

Do we really need to give up our Friday free-day if this is the case?

Oh, no! Say it isn't so!!!

The second reason is that Friday can actually be a really lovely time to spend some low-key one-on-one time with each child. With one of them, I'll read a book (I love reading "Money Mystery" with Phoenix). With another, we'll play a card game like Zeus on the Loose (sneaky way of strengthening maths!). Another one wants to show me his video animation, and the fourth wants to do food technology.

Rocky's taste test:
carton orange juice, or fresh-squeezed?

Meanwhile, they're each having a session of Spanish with the au pair.

Phoenix (aka Ellie Firestone on Amazon)
 gets translation help with her short stories

So Friday is not lost after all. It's just a different route to the same destiny, and that is trying to create an atmosphere of learning in our household a la Charlotte Mason. So we'll keep free-day Friday, and all will be glad!

"Awesome!"

Planning for the New Academic Year

Some people love Christmas.  Some people love Spring.  I love the weeks just before the new school year, when I call up my spreadsheets and download all my book lists and sort out the schedule for the kids.

I'm nearing completion on Phoenix's weekly schedule.  Hers is the most complicated because she is going to start Ambleside Online for Year 7.  It looks pretty challenging, but the best fit to go along with our fortnightly history co-op that's studying Our Island Story.

Yr 7 is great for this because it looks at the Middle Ages in greater depth than Our Island Story, so she'll be reading books by Churchill about the Birth of Britain, selections from the Venerable Bede, and lots of mediaeval literature, amongst many, many others.

She's even got readings from Charlotte Mason herself: character study in Ms Mason's book "Ourselves".

Exciting, therefore, that the new CM Live! on-line co-op class is going to allow her to discuss these challenging works with her global peers.

Why not have a look at the on-line co-op for your own pre-teen?

One of the things I've been contemplating this year is Phoenix's copywork selections.  Do I carry on with the Yr 7 selections as provided by former Yr 7 mums, a collection of sayings and paragraphs adding up to 129 pages?

Or do I take a leaf out of my own book (see earlier blog post about Killer's copywork) when it comes to encouraging quality of quantity?

Truth be told, Phoenix's handwriting is fluid but messy. She has been trained in the Getty-Dubay italic hand (a choice made because it seems more universal than the various cursive options), but penmanship is leaning toward poor.

Ages ago, I bought Penny Gardner's little book about Italic Handwriting.  She has since put out another edition, and it seems like her additions to the original are downloadable for free on her website.

Within this supplement are, I think, selections to practice, and so Plan A this year is for Phoenix to tackle these quotations in a methodical and exacting way with the aim of improving her penmanship.

I feel another "before" and "after" post, so watch this space as things progress.

How Do You Schedule Your Homeschooling Day?

Personally, I like the idea of "routine" rather than "schedule" -- I'm quite a free-form person at heart, but have had to get more structured for my kids' sakes.

So, I've gone with the "middling" description of routine, so it's still a bit flow-y without being chaotic.

Maybe it's still a bit chaotic

We wake up about 8 (or so ...), and while the kids have breakfast and do their morning jobs (normal toileting like getting dressed, brushing teeth, as well as chores, which include some that are done every day like emptying the dishwasher and some that are the same each day of the week, like putting out new toilet paper rolls in all the bathrooms on a Tuesday), I get my own breakfast, throw on a load of laundry, and have my quiet time.

We start promptly at 10 every day. First, it's prayer and Bible song and Bible reading and Bible memory verses. This is followed by history.  We're currently reading this book: The Story of the World: Ancient Times v. 1: History for the Classical Child (Story of the World: History for the Classical Child).  We follow that with science (Jeannie Fulbright's Anatomy and Physiology).  

Strengthening the muscles
of our hands

Sometimes, the Fulbright is a bit dense for my younger ones, so they might drift away to do some colouring, drawing, or work in some kind of workbook like Thinking Skills.




Then the kids break up into separate categories -- my oldest and youngest play together for 15 minutes while I do maths with my 9-year-old, and the 6-year-old does her copywork and map skills or handwriting or art (depending on the day).

Busy Timmy's favourite part
of the school day is playing
with Phoenix all by himself

Then my oldest does her math while I help my younger two with their math, and 9-year-old does his copywork, guitar practice, and map skills/handwriting/art.

My younger two finish off their work-day by watching the Spanish language videos called Salsa. I read to the older two from Plutarch or Shakespeare or Robinson Crusoe or poetry. Then the 9-year-old finishes with Salsa while, some days, I do dictation with my oldest one by using a Geography textbook that she enjoys studying from.



By now, it's easily lunch time.


The kids play some computer game after lunch, and then if it isn't a day for shared art with a friend, or Spanish conversation, or music lessons, or a friend is visiting, then we'll get back together and do either art appreciation or music appreciation or something from the Keepers Club manual or just bake/cook/(in good weather, play in the garden).

Friends AND Baking:
The Best!

I also make it a habit to read to each child before bedtime, so that's when we get to our free reading from Ambleside Online (as opposed to the mounds of books they free-read on their own that aren't necessarily on the AO list). Many nights, I try to get Daddy to play a board game with them while I go for a walk.

There are lots of variation on this theme, but we stick to the general idea most of the time.

I've tried much stricter schedules and have written them all down and ticked boxes, but it always seems to move back into this undulating ebb and flow of education being simply an atmosphere and life (and a bit less of a discipline!).

Staying Home ... or Not

To my mind, there’s nothing better than staying home to learn and to live.  We spend our 2 1/2 hours every morning in our school room, not always getting through "the plan", but always focussing on something that’s interesting and stimulating.

The picture to the right, for example, was taken on a day we had been learning about whales in the Apologia Science text, called "Exploring Creation with Zoology 2: Swimming Creatures on the 5th Day."  The photo shows how long a blue whale actually is, tracing back to our starting point where the sidewalk ends in the distance.

One welcomed addition this year is our opening routine.  We do stretches called "yes, no, maybe", starting with our heads (yes and no are self-explanatory, but maybe is tilting your head side-to-side to point each ear toward your shoulder).  

Then we have adapted an idea called Five Rhythm Dance to a music appreciation segment.  Using something like "Bolero", we start off with slow, very long movements for a few minutes, then move into karate-chop type gestures.  Finally, we switch over to "Ride of the Valkyries" and do crazy dancing. 

Finally, we choose something like Vivaldi’s "Winter" and just lie down and listen.  The kids are learning about composers and compositions while getting some exercise.  

We try to stick to routine most days, because if we go out too many times in the afternoon each week, or have too many people over, we have problems with the "living" part of our day — that is, we can’t keep up with our daily fire-fighting chores, much less get ahead with de-cluttering.

Never the less, there are times when opportunities arise when a field trip or friend’s visit should be welcomed: carpe diem, seize the day!  We took one of these when we received a voucher from the local wildlife park which saved us one child’s entry.  It was enough to pack us off to the animals for a day.  Hardly anyone was there, so we had the swings and slides to ourselves, could stand front-row to watch penguins eat, and pet all the goats and sheep until our hands felt like lanolin gloves.

So, there are distinct advantages to being an eclectic homeschooler, especially that of having an adaptable routine.  We just call such flights of fancy by the name of "nature study"!

Are there any routines you find helpful?  Post them in the comments box below.