Fall Routine & Thoughts on Consistency
We’ve now completed six full weeks of school and since we happened to be in Minnesota last week visiting grandparents, we took the whole week “off” school to enjoy our trip and a break from routine. I say “off” in quotes because learning never really stops. We didn’t do any math or read from our science text last week, but we still read picture books and hiked through the woods. We raked leaves and jumped in leaves and collected leaves and counted acorns and talked about fall and spent lots of time with Grandma and Grandpa. We harvested vegetables and cooked and ate them. Learning is a life and all these things are so important too!
I took some time during this week off to think about our schedule and tweak it slightly to better reflect what we are actually doing. Here’s a look at it, if you’re interested to see how we work our days!
Note: the more I read from and about homeschoolers, the more I see that no two families are identical and there is NO one perfect routine or schedule that will work just right for every family! Take this as just one more idea of something that you could do, or that you could modify to make work for your own situation. Or if it’s totally not your style you can toss it and find another idea that works better!
– Our routine remains very loose and not tied to any particular times. I find that life is too unpredictable right now to plan on certain times and it would just make me stressed to see Math on the schedule for 9:00 and not be able to start it until 9:30. Other people might enjoy and thrive on the discipline of sticking to a time slot – if that’s you, then do it!
– I do not plan out the number of pages we will complete each day. Actually, I don’t even plan how far we’ll get in our books in a year. Will we finish science in February or in July? I have no idea, and I don’t really care. More on this later.
– We still use Fridays as our catch-up day. It’s also piano lesson day, and sometimes park day or errands day. It’s so so good to have extra time built into our week!
– It’s working very well and we are making good progress. Somehow I never thought I would be this “unplanned” or “one-day-at-a-time” kind of a person, but, four kids later and here we are!
We are not strict about time slots, nor are we completing huge amounts of paper work each day. HOWEVER: I think this routine is working well for us because we are CONSISTENT. Little habits add up over time, and short but consistent lessons are working very well for us so far this year. It’s surprising to me how much we can accomplish in just a 10 minute lesson when a) the child is focused and b) you do it each and every week day for six weeks straight.
We start with morning time each day, and then work through the subjects on our list for the day. “Weekly Items” are reminders of things I want to include, and we fit them in on afternoons or on Fridays as we have time. I try to remember each day that our curriculum and our schedule are meant to serve us – not the other way around. The length of each subject or lesson depends on the child and how they are doing that particular day. Some days are good, high energy, happy attitude days – then we work longer. Other days everyone is tired and grumpy and lessons stay short. Other days we might find a “spark” of interest and pursue that spark instead of continuing on in our workbook.
Why is this loose routine working? Here are the positives I see and the reasons we are enjoying it:
– I never feel behind. This may seem like a small matter, but Mom’s feeling about school is very very important! The day I wrote this, Thursday, Big Brother’s schedule said “Math” and we did math. We might do 1 page some days, and 10 pages other days – but as long as we do something, we are not behind and I can check it off. At the end of the week I can look at our schedule and see every subject that we covered – and even if we missed one or two, it’s still a hefty list that reminds me of all the learning that happened, and I am pleased.
– Our boys do not hate school. This is also important to me! Because the lessons are generally short, and because I watch them carefully and adjust each day to meet their abilities, they are rarely overwhelmed with their work. Sure, there are some days where they complain and don’t want to “do school,” but because we are consistent and because I do not push them into over-long lessons, 99% of the time they accept our routine cheerfully.
– Major flexibility. We are free to meet a friend for a last-minute play date, take an unplanned field trip, or cancel book work to enjoy good weather without ruining all our plans for the year. We simply pick things back up where we left them, tomorrow, or next week.
– My school goals are focused on the children understanding and progressing rather than “finishing.” We do not move on without understanding a concept. I look for learning and growth each day, and we can repeat or review as needed without fear of “getting behind.” We can also skip ahead if something is moving too slowly for the child! This is why I say I don’t care when we finish the science book. I’d rather finish it in July and feel that we enjoyed and understood it than finish it in February and feel it was forced down our throats. I do want our boys to feel the sense of accomplishment that comes with completing a book or course at the end of a school year, but there is no prize to the homeschool that finishes first. Furthermore, if you take a long-term view and believe that learning is a life-long pursuit, you will never truly “finish” – and that’s a very good thing.
– The boys still have plenty of free time and play time. This is valuable, important time and I want to protect it.
Here are a few possible negatives that I see to this form of (not) scheduling:
– I need to stay diligent and not allow laziness to creep in. I do not have a planner telling me how much I should be accomplishing in a year – all that keeps us moving forward is me. I am more than willing to cut the phonics lesson short if Middle Brother is tired, not feeling well, or just not getting it – but I don’t want to cut it short for my own convenience or comfort or because I’d rather drink my tea in peace while the wild ones play outside.
– There comes a point when progress becomes too slow for understanding. Going back to the science book example, if we took this to the extreme and didn’t finish our book until two years after we started, we would most likely have forgotten everything from the beginning of the book and would have a hard time making the connections the authors hoped we would make. I hope to keep moving enough that we can keep the big picture in mind and not become bogged down in the details of each little lesson.
– I must watch for times when I can challenge them to work harder instead of always stopping at the first sign of weariness. Part of education is learning the discipline to work, to stick with a task and finish it even when you’d rather not. It’s a learning process for me to know when to let them take a break, and when to encourage them to keep working. We are still figuring out this balance!
The next challenge I see on our horizon is Baby Sister dropping her morning nap. We’ve had such a lovely 2-hour block of quiet each morning so far while she sleeps but I know those days are numbered. We shall cross that bridge of Noisier Mornings and New Routines when we come to it.
Enjoy your weekend ~ upward and onward!
Originally written October 10 2020
