The Charlotte Mason Girl

Friday's Fun - Getting Back At It!

It might not sound like much fun - but for me, this week of getting back into our routines has been another breath of fresh air!  Don't get me wrong - we all needed that Christmas break.  All of the carolling, cookie baking, eating, parties, gathering with family, eating,  special programs at church, gift making, eating, gift giving, and general fun for a few weeks was a blast!  (Did I mention I ATE a lot?!)  I love to spend December evenings sitting by the fire and looking at the Christmas tree, contemplating the birth of Christ and what it meant to me, as well as counting all my MANY blessings.  

 

After a few weeks of all this merryment, though, I confess I was itching to get back to a 'normal' life.  (Whatever that is!)  Back to regular bedtimes, wake times, chores, school, quiet time in the afternoon - just KNOWING what is coming next makes a big difference to my state of mind.  The children needed to get back into our routines, too - even though they didn't realize it.  All of a sudden squabbles are down, rooms are staying relatively tidy, they are even enjoying their lessons!  After all, they hadn't seen their books for awhile.  Whether they realize it or not, those lesson books are companions, and are missed when they are away.  

 

So, I'm grateful for the break we have had.  Christmas decorations are going to come down this weekend, the snowmen will go up, and we will continue on the path for this year.  It feels good to be settled in again.

 

How about you - do you enjoy getting back into routines, or do you resist giving up the freedom of break time?

 

Charlotte Mason Schedule for School and Life

This being summer, it is usually a time when our routine changes - gets more relaxed, more planned outdoor time, and I spend a lot of time with scheduling thoughts running round in my mind!  I can't help but think about our schedule for the school year as I select and plan out the studies we will use.  One of the things I love about a CM education is that our lessons, and therefore school days, are short.  I plan no more than 4 hours for school.  Even our high-schooler takes only 4 hours most days.  (Sometimes she has to use a bit more time to get everything in.)  

 

This is also something I am often asked about - How do I schedule my Charlotte Mason school day?  This is a question I can't really answer for you - I don't know what subjects you are going to cover, I don't know all the little challenges you have, I don't have your children, nor do I know about all their needs.  I also don't know your husband's schedule.  However - I CAN offer you hope that it CAN be done!  You can figure out a schedule that will work for you and your family.  

 

When it comes to scheduling your CM school day, the first thing I will tell you is that you need to remember to keep your lessons short.  When you keep your lessons short, you are training your children in the habit of attention.  When they know that the lesson is only 10 or 20 minutes long, they find it easier to concentrate and work harder, because they know the end of the lesson is near.  Each lesson feels more like a sprint than a long distance run.   Here is how Charlotte's schedule looked for her youngest students: 

 

And this is what her oldest students' schedule looked like:

 

This just gives you an idea of how many subjects can be covered in a short time.  One thing I notice that stands out is that Charlotte's students were in class for 6 days a week.  This may not work for your family.  It doesn't work for mine.  A five-day week works best for us, and one of those days is very light.  

 

Notice that even her oldest students had very short lessons - only 20 minutes long.  Have you ever noticed that you can accomplish a lot in just 20minutes?  Sometimes I will set a timer to race against as I clean a room, or mop a floor - I almost always finish before the timer goes off - and I'm ALWAYS surprised.  Most of the time, I build up in my mind that I have a 1 hour task, when really, it only takes me about 15 or 20 minutes!  The same is true for our lessons - when we know we only have 20 minutes, we prepare all our supplies ahead of time, and we get right to it - because there is no time to dawddle.  

 

So, how do you do it?  Do you have a great tip to offer those with large families?  Do you do something that really helps you get your lessons done?  Please share with us!  We can all use inspiration!

A Charlotte Mason Homeschool Day

The next question I would like to address comes from a friend in Carbondale.  She asks,  "How do you work everything in before everyone is worn out?  After lunch we are so tired!"  

Wow!  I know what you are talking about! Motherhood, and teaching on top of it - is exhausting!  While I haven't gotten to the point that I sail through every day with tons of energy, I do have some words of wisdom to offer.

First, you must make sure you are doing all you can to make or keep yourself healthy.  Get as much rest as you can - I know, it's not always possible to get 8 hours when you have children, but do your best!  Eat as healthy as you can - eat more veggies!  (I don't like to admit it, but our moms were right.)  Get some kind of exercise in.  I do a 15 minute workout, myself.  I'm striving to get it in 5 days a week.  I figure I can do anything for 15 minutes!  Even go for a walk with the children.  Anything to get the blood flowing.

Now, I don't think it's possible to fly through every day full of energy when you are doing so much.  You are running a school, a family, a household, you are the cook, cleaner, trainer-of-character, laundry maid, and more (at least until your children can help with these tasks).  Once your children are old enough, you can start training them, but that now means you are the project foreman!  While you are always going to have energy-draining tasks throughout your day, the key is to figure out how to recover.

Next, don't race at trying to get all your things done before lunch.  Pace yourself.  Yes, Miss Mason's idea of morning-only school is appealing, but it doesn't always work when you have little ones and a home to tend to.  We have had seasons when I primarily taught school in the afternoon, while babies and toddlers were napping.  We now are back to morning school, but the little ones are not as little, anymore, and they often come along for the ride when I am teaching.

Lastly, put rest times in your day.  I still have quiet time in the afternoon for everyone.  We all take a little time to read, play on the computer, watch a video, or even sleep (my personal favorite on many days!).  I keep this time relatively short for all but the littlest one.  We spend 30 minutes, maybe one hour in this quiet time.  Otherwise, chaos rules!  

So, stay healthy, get rest, pace yourself, and allow for times of recovery for you and your children.  You will all benefit from it! 

What Did You Do This Week?

I’m often asked about my schedule, or what my day or week looks like.  Well, I thought I’d give you a snapshot of a week in our homeschool.  I would imagine that we aren’t all that unique in that no two weeks are alike.  We have lots of things that cause our homeschooling schedule to be shaken up.  This past week, we took a rare family overnight trip.  For the first time in over 18 months, and the first successful time ever – we took all seven of us and stayed overnight at a lodge (not with family) and had a mini vacation!  We went to a winter rendezvous at Fort de Chartes in southern IL.  Our history lesson that day was seeing all the folks dressed in period costume (some prefer to say period dress), reading the plaques and posters in the museum, talking to the people we met about the French and Indian war, etc.  One lady visited with us for about half an hour and told us all about the correct dress for that period.  She even gave us some great websites to use for sewing patterns so we could make our own!  She told us she was a teacher for many years, and she has the gift of teaching!  She made it so interesting that we wanted to run home and get started!  They have a bigger rendezvous in June each year, and we are making plans to go back for it, and we are going to get our dresses made for the occasion!  Home Ec sewing class was planned for us this weekend! 

 

That was, without a doubt, a wonderful family vacation – and we had school at the same time!  I love homeschooling the Charlotte Mason way!

 

Daddy had the day off Tuesday, as well, so we accomplished some much needed shopping for the new home.  Wednesday was back to the routine of school and chores.  (I say that like we’ve actually accomplished it this year! HA!)  I guess I should say - it was back to the journey toward a good routine for school and chores!  We started our unit study around Thanksgiving.  I recognized immediately that the study is too young for the 14 yr – old, so she is on her own again doing her own study of the pilgrims in her history studies.

 

Thursday, it was off to the library.  We listened to Doug Phillips talk on Pilgrims vs. Indians.  It’s part of Vision Forum’s Christian Controversies in American History series.  The children and I had a great discussion about revisionist history and what the pilgrims did in their attempt to spread the gospel to the new world. 

We like the Family Vision library in St. Charles, MO.  It’s a privately owned public library.  There is no fee to get a card, and they have all Christian – or at least excellent – materials.  I can let my children freely roam the shelves, and not worry about what they might pull off the shelves!  It’s a bit of a drive, so we like to listen to good CDs as we drive.  OK, I admit, sometimes it’s just Patch the Pirate, but it’s innocent! 

 

Friday, we ran around like crazy, and ended the day with Family Activity Night, or FAN, as the children have dubbed it!  We watched a funny movie and laughed a lot. 

 

That was our unusual, somewhat typical week in our home.  See, homeschooling our children is about living life, not lesson plans and math lessons.  We do those things, but they are a surprisingly small part of our life.  Most of our learning doesn’t even take place during ‘school’!  We live together, run errands together, listen together, and work on good relationships with each other (more challenging on some days than others!)

 

How about you, what does your week look like?  Are you a mom who has a good schedule – and sticks to it?  Or are you a mom who likes to be a free spirit, and encourage the free spirit in your children?  How do you get school done, and live a life at the same time?  We’d love to hear how it works for you!

 

How to Manage Your Time in Homeschool and School at Home

Well, we are about to start a new week of school, and I thought I’d give you a glimpse into what goes on here, especially on Mondays!

 

We keep a little later schedule than we used to.  Daddy works four days a week at his job, and he doesn’t come home until after 7 most nights, and some nights are later.  He does have Fridays off, so that helps make up for the long four days.  He leaves by 8:00 am, so the days are long without him.  The biggest change to time with Daddy that came with our move to the new house was that we are no longer close enough to Daddy’s work for him to come home for lunch every day.  We started out trying to keep an earlier schedule, both for the children getting to bed, and for rising in the mornings, but then they didn’t get to spend much time with Dad on those four days, and most of it was spent chasing them back to bed – not a fun way for Dad to spend his evening!  So, we’ve moved bedtimes, and rise and shine times later.  That’s probably more than you wanted to know, but it helps explain our rationale for letting our children sleep until 8 am! 

 

(I used to think it was bad to let my children sleep later than 7, after all the kids that go to ‘real’ school have to get up much earlier than that!  What would my parent’s think?!   Etc, etc.!  Well, the Lord has given me peace about wrapping our schedule around Daddy’s, and we are doing much better in many areas because of it!) 

 

Back to Monday – Well, the children wake at 8, we have breakfast at 8:30, and are starting with our Bible time by 9:30.  This is the start of our time together, and we move right into school after Bible time.  We do whatever we are doing together – for the last week, we have been working on memorizing a poem for Columbus day and we haven’t gotten it all memorized yet, so we are going to continue that this week.  I also like to do a picture study on Monday, so we will do that next.  We have some pictures related to Columbus, so we are going to continue that this week.  (I’ll tell you more about those next time!)  Then we separate for a bit, and I work with the youngest students and we do phonics and math together, as well as handwriting and copywork.  The older students begin their stuff they can do on their own – which is surprisingly much!  My 6^th grader is doing everything else on his own, I just come in for help when he needs it, and I keep up with reading his work and checking on his math scores (they are on the computer!).  The same happens with my 9^th grader.  She comes to me with questions, and I am guiding her assignments, but she is really taking charge of her education.  Not all days are easy for her, but it’s neat to watch her get her own rhythm with her learning.  She will have great study habits! 

 

After we are off on our own for awhile, we will sometimes come back together for art, nature study, music or composer study, or review what we are working on memorizing.  The youngest students are done with their work by 11:00 or so most days, so they play or watch a video (sometimes educational!) while the older ones work elsewhere in the house.  (What a blessing this house has been!  We actually have room to spread out!)  We eat lunch at 1:00, and we are done with school for the day.  My 9^th grader usually has something she needs to finish up, and she’ll do that during quiet time in the afternoon – which we all have for at least one hour!  Then we spend the afternoon pursuing other interests, doing chores, playing outside, and I’m also working at making sure we all work together on supper preparations.  This is new for me, and it is working out very well!  We eat supper at 6 pm or so, and our evenings are spent pretty much together as a family, until the youngest are in bed at 9:00. 

 

Ok, I just read this over, and it sounds like all our days are peaches and cream.  Really, this is the ideal schedule I have on paper.  We haven’t done a full day just like the schedule says, ever, in the five years or more I’ve been using a schedule, but we still benefit from having a schedule!  We have done at least part of the schedule every day, and all parts have been done as the schedule says, just not all on one day!  There are always interruptions, Dr. appointments, unplanned errands, discipline issues that arise, and little ones just don’t know how to read a schedule!  But the schedule keeps me grounded, and when I am unsure what to do next, I look at the schedule, and we jump in where we are! 

 

Our schedule is shorter on Wednesdays, as we leave for AWANA at 6, so everything needs to run a little earlier that day.  Friday is the day for planned errands, so the mornings are spent at the library, and a run to a store, usually.  Friday afternoon is for piano for two of our girls, and so Daddy and the others spend that time together working outside, usually. 

 

This schedule has seemed to suit us for now, and I’m sure circumstances will change, and our schedule will change with them.  The key has been for me to not feel like the schedule runs my life and I have to try to keep up with it, but the schedule serves the purpose of taking the decision making burden off of my shoulders.  It gives me an easy guide when I can’t figure out what to do next.  I just look at the clock, then at the schedule, and I jump in at the current time.  This also helps the children not have to pester me with the question “What do I do now?”  They can look at the schedule for themselves and know what to do!  I am looking forward to when they can ALL read the schedule!

 

Well, this was a long post, but I hope it gives you some ideas about how to set your schedule with enough structure to guide your day, but enough flex to keep you from getting stressed out!

 

I would love to hear from you about your schedules!  Share what you do that works, and warn about things that don’t work at all for families!  We are moms, and we have so much to do, and we have taken on the education of our children on top of everything else.  This is a monumental task, but it can be done, with the Lord’s help, and with our firm commitment to do the best we can.  Our children will reap the rewards!