May-May working on one of her dissection projects.
As a ministry family, people often feel very free to impose their views on how they think we should do things. This is especially true about our homeschool. In fact, people will sometimes question my kids about their school. I'm not talking about the "what grade are you in, what's your favorite class" stuff. No, they will corner my kids and ask what time we start school, or give them an oral pop quiz on American History, just to see if I am doing a good job in their eyes. For my part, I have never questioned a traditionally school child on why they weren't in school that day, or why they had a snow day or snow delay. Yet people feel it is their duty to make sure I have my kids in the "proper" number of hours and days. They want to ensure themselves that we are studying what they think is appropriate (we do, and probably go much deeper than a traditional school.) Amazing. I guess they don't have enough other things to think about.
So, I will open my home a little in this blog and tell you how we do things. This is just what works for my family. If you homeschool, please follow your heart and do what is best for your family. That is what will work best. And by the way, what we are doing is working for us. My kids score in the 98-99th percentile on standardized testing every year and they are several years ahead in some subjects. They manage to do it without overworking, getting weird or becoming egotistical.
Before we get into what we teach and how we teach it, let's start with schedules and routines.
There is a vast difference between having a schedule and having a routine. A schedule means you must be at a certain place at a certain time every day. If we are not careful, we can become a slave to our day planners. If we don't start school at precisely 8:30am (our target school time), then the stress levels go through the roof and everyone starts scrambling. It has been my experience that learning does not take place at optimum levels in this environment.
A routine, on the other hand, means we do certain things in a certain order. If something comes up, like the baby has a blow-out diaper and pitches a huge fit over having it changed, a schedule will come to a screeching halt (Don't laugh. This happens at our house). Now we are late, because we didn't schedule this delay into our planner. A routine can take this into stride. The routine will still get done, even though it didn't happen at a set time. We just change the diaper and pick our routine back up where we left it.
For example, a schedule says school must start at 8:30am, and Bible class will be from 8:30 -9am. Then we will have Algebra until 10:00 at which time World History will begin, etc. That sounds great and will really impress your neighbors. But what if the kids start asking some really great questions in History. When they are engaged enough to be an active participant, they are learning on a higher level. Do we shut down the conversation because the clock said so? What if the kids totally get their Algebra lesson and buzz through it. Do we give them busy work until the clock says we can move on? Who is running this school, anyway? (Here's a hint. It probably shouldn't be an inanimate clock or day planner). Don't get me wrong. I use a day planner. It helps me stay on track and reminds me of all the things I need to accomplish each day. But I use a pencil -- with an eraser. My planner is my tool, not my master.
A routine allows us to flex with our day. Everything ends up getting done, and we are all more at peace as we do it. Besides, there is a lot of learning taking place when your kids see how you lovingly take care of the needs of a toddler, or when they learn to cook breakfast with you. This is service at its finest, and you can't get that from a textbook.
We all have to follow a schedule sometimes. Orthodontists don't like it very much when you show up 20 minutes late because you had an unexpected opportunity to observe a ring-neck snake. You will just have to leave the snake this time (some of you are really glad about that. But you get my point). It is also important to teach our children to be respectful of others by being on time to appointments, church and the like. The key to so many things is balance.
So, what is our routine? It doesn't always work out like this, but this is our basic routine:
Get up, cook and eat breakfast
Do Morning Chores
School starts at 8:30 (or thereabouts. On Thursdays we purposely start later because we
were out so late the night before. I let the kids sleep in a bit, because I can.)
School Subjects are generally in this order: Bible, Character Training, Math, History,
Science, English, Logic, Piano (We took a year off from Spanish, but will start
that again next year), Independent Studies
We break for lunch around 12:30 and finish our table work after lunch
Free Time for kids, Housework and Office work for me
Dinner Preparation and dinner at 6-6:30pm
Evening Chores
Evening Devotions
Kids' Bedtime (around 8pm for Pickle Mickle, 9:15 for the boys, and May-May does
more school work and other projects until she is tired -- she sets her own bedtime
because she is mature enough to govern herself well)
My Study Time, Office work, Housework and any other projects I need to do
until it is way too late
Bedtime for the adults (this is usually around 12-1am, sometimes later. Don't do as I do.
Go to bed early. Trust me on this.)
I don't sweat it too much if we get a late start on our day, unless I see we are developing a slothful habit. Ministry requires a lot of late nights and long weekends out of our kids. Having a slightly flexible routine rather than a rigid schedule helps my kids recover from the hardships and maintain the joy of ministry life.
