Lose the Clock, But Not the Timer

I'm a scheduler. There. I said it.

I've done MOTH (Managers of Their Homes). I've done 'em all. I DO learn something new each time. Sometimes I RE-learn those forgotten lessons... Like the one that says, "Do NOT put times on your schedule! YOU'LL BE SORRY!" But no. Gotta learn it the hard way, even if I learn it quick.

This time all it took was a trip to the bathroom. Yep. Son needed a rather l o n g break in the restroom, but THAT wasn't on the schedule! You gotta love cut and paste on Excel; particularly CUT. DELETE. It's outta there! The times column is gone. Replaced by a nice limit as to how long to spend on each item. That would be SHORT limits, as in "Short Lessons" which Charlotte Mason advocates and may very well be the thing that sets us free from "I HATE SCHOOL" .

This was my first step: re-create the schedule. After total chaos in the day, order seems appropriate. Especially order that brings joy and productivity. When you focus on "short lessons"--anywhere from 10-40 minutes, depending on age--it's amazing the things that you can fit in a day! We can do art again. And spend time drawing. And time outside. It's amazing what you can do when you get math done before dark! Oh. And there's music and ALL the wonderful things I'd dropped because I was "doing too much" and making the day too long. Now they are all on the schedule throughout the week and we always get done with our main subjects by 12:00 or 12:30.

Now I don't do them the same, and some I've had to discard the previous curriculum, but the point was to learn them, not choke on them! We've brought back some wonderful old favorites such as reading and studying the hymn writers using the Mr. Pipes series. No one ever says they "hate" that!

Ordering the day is the perfect ideal. It is one of the things that first attracted me to MOTH: the idea that you can make a list of everything that you'd WANT to do in a day, then schedule it. The fact that you may not be able to get those three hours of math in can be tough! But 30 minutes can work too! Heehee! :)

The truth is, we are doing a 15 minute lesson, with 15 minutes starting on problems. Then later, he has another 15 minutes to finish. He really likes this much better and seems to remove a lot of pressure. If he still can't get it done, it doesn't feel as if he hasn't done a thing, wasted a lot of time, and it's the end of the world, if you know what I mean.

I can't tell you the burden that has been lifted.

We still must continually work on breaking our old habits and establishing our new ones, but we'll get there.

So far, so good!

So Much To Tell: The Schedule

We have three days of school under our belt and are making all kinds of progress! I must tell you how grateful I am to my prayer buddies who lifted us up this week. Thank you, thank you!

Let me just tell you how thankful I am. I'm thankful that Monday's only happen once a week and that the first Monday of a school year only happens once a year! Yuck. Now, while it wasn't completely horrid, it had it's rough moments and they were looonnggg moments. Our day began at 7am; school starting at 8:15am and ending at 4:30pm. Yep. It was a long one.

I'm happy to report however, and am oh so grateful, that Tuesday came in two hours less. Whew. Today lessened the load still further by another 15 minutes. I'm hoping we'll sit comfortably at 1:30ish.

Getting everything done was not an issue since we literally had all the time we needed. I'm thankful, again, that experience has shown me that things will settle down as time goes on. The schedule that I made for the first week lasted half the day as I "let it go" for better results. The next schedule I made didn't get used at all, and I'm contemplating whether or not we've had enough days to justify truly attempting a third! I will say, nothing would have come together if it weren't for check lists. LOVE check lists!

Overall, daughter's lessons did not take near as long as I thought they would, and son's are about what I expected, give or take a bit. It shouldn't take too long to find a balance.

I'll add that time-wise, we've all gotten up on time and done very well getting ourselves together, breakfasted up and moving. By last night, however, this Mommy was feeling it. Just a wee bit on the tired side (iow--wiped out!). That carried forward to dragging myself out of bed this morning, rather than the bounding out that I had hoped for.

I'm excited to share more about what we are doing. It's going to be a great year!

Just Routine?

I was thinking about another chore routine the other day, when it hit me. The more diligent I become in caring for my family and our home, the less need there is for a system. Diligence, in this instance, has come to mean doing what needs to be done, when it needs to be done. And when there is time.

Over the years I've struggled with establishing a daily, weekly, seasonal way of "doing". I'm organized by nature, so this seemed a natural extension of that. Then I would become so frustrated with the inability to keep up. Especially in light of the many disruptions of life. I was always trying to overcome, and always falling short.

But, as I was having my moment of inspiration, I realized that everything does get done! If it's summer time and the trash cans need cleaned, it gets done. It doesn't need to be planned for the 4th Thursday of June each year! I look in the bottom of a can, say "ewww gross!" and send the boy out to the hose with that can and all the rest of them.

Whether or not my eyes are focused on keeping our home, and keeping the family well, is up to me. No plan can establish that for me. It has more to do with my desire to serve my family and be in obedience to the Lord.

At the same time, routine can be key. But habit can be better. Following a step by step procedure can be great, but I'd much rather spend my time in the kitchen in habit, rather than work. I'd rather our morning be full of the habit of "helps", rather than the drudgery of a list of chores. There is most definitely a fine line. I think I've found that line in my heart relationship to all that I do. As I've accepted and claimed my position as help meet to my husband, child of the King, and even mother to my babies, I've come to a place of peace in the doing. Where the blessings come from God rather than a completed check list. Thankfulness is key.

I was walking through Target yesterday, taking my little one to the bathroom (and we all know how fun it is to run from one side of the store to the other with a full cart, a ton more to do, and a child yelling she needs to potty!). We were moving quickly and all of the sudden I had an internal glimmer of what the look on my face must be at that moment. My heart became thankful as I realized she hadn't had an accident, she'd done what she was supposed to do--tell me. We had a cart of full of yummy fruit and things we needed (and even a fun new croquet set) that we could pay for. It was a beautiful day. We were together. No body was fighting (that came later at the grocery **grin**). Was there any reason to be glum? Just because of an interruption? Just because things didn't go MY way?

Ahhhh. Thankfulness! The habit that affects EVERYTHING! So while routine is peachy, habit is better. So here's a hardy farewell to all cleaning management "systems". May they never cause me strife again! Not to say that there is nothing good to glean from them. Not to imply that list making is bad. They, too, can be a useful habit. It's the slavery to them that changes the focus. May we learn good habits instead, and implement them. May thankfulness be the order of the day.

"O Lord, that lends me life,

Lend me a heart replete with thankfulness."

William Shakespeare

Scheduled Reading

I'm very excited about a plan I came up with to conquer our reading woes. Now, our reading woes are probably different than most. Ours are not related to whether or not we want to read, but the bloomin' fact that we want to read too much. Of course, the idea that there could ever really be TOO much to read seems ludicrous, however we love to read and have a LOT to choose from.

That said, and the very fact that most of our curriculum is literature based, we could easily drown in books. My solution involves using a blank calendar. I've chosen all the books that we will read for each subject based on availability and time. I've recorded one for read-aloud and one for son to read on his own, for each topic. I've assigned them days on the calendar based on the size of the book. Then I've split the number of pages by the number of days to read each title.

Now we know exactly what to read and when. There is no floundering in search of the perfect book. No forgetting I meant to get a certain book and having to settle for something else. And NO letting valuable reading time slip by! There are always two books being read. We've begun using this method over the last month and are very pleased. One thing I have realized though, is that I should keep Saturday and Sunday free for catch-up reading for there are days when reading doesn't happen. (I initially used those days for scheduling.) Of course, I want to bean myself in the head when that happens, but I'll try not to get to frustrated. I've been quite happy how willing he is to read on Saturday and Sunday, too. Reading is becoming more of a daily habit and less of a weekday school task/chore!

I made son his own copy of the calendar for his notebook so he knows exactly what to read and when. I did not break down the pages for every book, but will do so periodically as a gather them a month in advance. Overall, I'm hoping this will add to his ability to self-govern his time and responsibilities. We'll be doing that a lot this year as we add his sister to the fray.

I truly believe that this will keep us on track better time wise. We didn't finish our Truthquest volume last year because of not scheduling the subjects (why we are now reading history!), so I have great hopes.

Flying By the Seat of My Pants

It's amazing to me how God uses certain things to spur us on to better things.

It finally hit me. Everyone talking about finishing up their year and planning for next year. My decision to go year round seemed a little more than daunting, and certain regrets have crept in. I realized that I don't care for the idea of not having an end...and not having a fresh beginning.

Suddenly, I'm motivated. But we've taken our time this year. We haven't rushed. We've done very well...and we haven't. I feel behind and haven't been able to even imagine an end in sight.

I like a big picture. I know that about myself, but for some reason, I haven't given myself one and have found myself floundering. I don't like floundering.

I just read a great series from SCM talking about long term planning. Then another great bolt of lightning hit me. I...me...the planner...has no plan! No big picture. I visited Donna and printed out some blank planners and started filling in columns for son's remaining school years and subjects. I wrote in what would happen when, and what materials or curriculums I thought I'd use. I now have a big picture. I have to say, it's very freeing and it's so nice looking at when we're going to do state history, composition, and biology. It's nice having a plan, regardless of whether that plan will change.

After I finished the Big picture, I started a weekly (broken down into days) plan for finishing what we've started with the objective of finding an end to our year; a completion. A jumping off place. A bench mark. Is that enough figures of speech!! :)

I thought we'd be able to finish our "year" before nice weather; REALLY nice weather. We're not. It looks like we're going to go through June. This is going to be the year Mommy messed up with the schedule, but it won't happen again. I've learned my lesson. So we'll be schooling AND gardening at the same time this year. It's going to be a lot of work. But for some reason, I don't think it'll be a bad thing. I'm looking forward to it because I'm looking forward to following a plan.

So far, this week has been one victory after another. We've revisited our "Flying Creatures of the Fifth Day" which we left half done back in Sept or Oct (even though we absolutely loved it!). We've picked up our "Burgess Bird Book" which we were reading aloud (and also totally loved), along with our bird study. It had also been abandoned. We've bumped up the pace on our "Truthquest History" and "A Child's Geography". We've become more focused on our notebooking than we have been for quite awhile. And, last but not least, we're doing it all per a plan that actually has an end goal that is not too far from sight.

I think again about focusing on the things that God accomplishes, rather than what I accomplish, and I remember that He is still doing a great work within me. He's building me up, providing me with the means to do the job put before me, and He's preparing me for what comes next. God's Providence again and again.

As we've started our days earlier, worked a little harder, and a little longer, we've had a coming together in regards to study habits, scheduling, and even our meal time. Momentum will be our enemy or our friend. I'm sure we'll have both good days and bad, but for now there is only one other thing I have to think about...

There's just 3 days left till the convention!

Every Day or Periodic

I believe with Spring finally around the corner, I'm turning my own corner. I'm coming out of the hum-drum mode and sparks of thought are flying. Lots of itty bitty light bulb moments are helping me reach new milestones in my planning, homekeeping, and daily caretaking of my family.

Spark #1: We are more daily driven as a family, than periodically driven. I'm referring to routine and the ability to easily move from one task to the next. I'm beginning to see that things I do daily, whether for lessons or homekeeping, come much easier in both time and motivation. At the same time, things we do less often, don't always happen. It's those things that have become obstacles and have restricted our progress, to a degree.

Lesson learned? Well, this may seem dumb to those of you to whom this comes naturally, but I'm slow. Anything I have down for once or even twice a week (especially if not a two-day back to back) is not happening. Re-think, re-do. One "for instance" on my list was art. Even having a different sort of art each day did not help. What DID help was having one part of art always the same everyday, plus something different. This came very naturally with Bible, and I've also applied it to history and it works like a charm. It's routine.

Spark #2: Laundry! Throwing in laundry everyday and even sorting it does NOT work for me. I'm now on to laundry system number 47--One load. Just one load. Everyday. To completion. That means put away. It's ALL about getting it put away! That still leaves me with gathering it once a week, but I'm NOT depraved enough to do THAT everyday--yet. AND! What I've discovered is that the kids don't mind folding and putting away their clothes when there isn't a 100lb basket full each time I ask them! Who'd a thought?