Last week I started organizing all of my home school materials. I cleared out a few shelves in the laundry room and lined up all of the books I have purchased or found at garage sales, or was given as home school hand-me-downs. And I started to get really excited. Something about seeing it all lined up and beginning to think through our "routine" sparked a vision I had yet to see.
I have been so consumed with what others might think of our decision to home school that I had sort of forgotten one key factor: I am going to LOVE this. I was made for this! I went to college for this! I played school my entire childhood. I taught Sunday school for a decade and was a Bible camp program director. My mind is organized in lesson plans! My brain thinks in educational objectives!
So the next day I went to the ABC Toy Zone with a little list of things I'd like to include in our home schooling. And I about died of excitement. I wandered the aisles with my list and the nice lady helping me find everything and felt dizzy with math manipulatives happiness.
The fun part about this year is that it is Kindergarten. And our actual formal lesson time will likely last only about an hour each day. That will include math and reading. There are some incredible curriculums to choose from that were created for home school families, and the approach that resonates the most with me are the teaching ideas of Charlotte Mason. I plan to write a post on her but her thoughts on education sort of boil down to: read to your kids books that connect their hearts to people and places and time periods (ie: not text books, but good stories) and get your kids outside in God's creation as much as possible. Explore poetry, music and fine arts. Create good habits in the home, put the emphasis on quality the first time around, and focus on building self-motivated, disciplined, life-long learners.
I may have just botched that explanation, but from what I've read so far, that's what has inspired me the most. The truth is, Rory and I are excited for Life School. All that our kids see us do each day is learn new things. They'll hear us talk about maybe getting goats, listen to us ask God about getting goats, and then watch us research all we can about caring for goats. Finally they will find themselves in their car seats as we go to pick up our new goats and test all the things we learned on paper until we learn what works for us. We learn by doing, by building, by trying, by failing, by trying again, by dreaming things up and then accomplishing those dreams. That's likely our greatest goal for our kids in Life School: This first year we want our kids to learn to love learning.
So Kindergarten will include 45 minutes of math and reading, Bible lessons at bedtime and then each week or two we will have a different unit study. And that may look like any sort of combination of library books, art projects, map study, field trips or dramatic play. Can you imagine how fun this is going to be?!!
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Another funny thing began to happen as I began gathering up my teaching supplies. I started thinking through my entire "typical" day as a home educator. And as a mother of a baby. And as a home maker. And as the lunch lady. And dinner cook. And laundress. And dish girl. And maid. And involved community member.
And I started to get a little panicked.
Soon I was googling, "organizing your home" and "time management for a new home school mom" and "menu planning." One of my biggest goals for this first year of home school is simply to get a rhythm and routine and structure to our days. I have told Rory many times that I will be my biggest challenge to overcome as I learn the self discipline it will take to keep all these plates spinning. The years of having all little kids are truly a haze of keeping everyone alive and fed and relatively clean. I feel like this next season might be the one where I surface a bit. Maybe not all the time because little kids come with so many unexpected daily demands, but maybe there will be some gained order over my days. Maybe. At least I'm feeling a teeny bit hopeful...
So with all this excited (home school) and nervous (home making) energy I ended up on Fly Lady's website. Over the years I have had many friends recommend her site though nothing seemed to gel. But something is different this time. I feel open to any suggestion, and if keeping my kitchen sink shining is the key to my tidy house, I'll try it! (that's her first lesson...)
Then my sister came over and I showed her my home school cupboards and told her of my plan to take the next two weeks to go room by room in my house and purge, organize and systematize the daylights out of every drawer, cupboard and, well, anything. I asked her if she wanted to join me and she lit up like a light bulb. As she left and I told her, "we are starting with the bathrooms! when you get home take a picture of your bathroom and send it to me. Then purge every drawer and cabinet, deep clean that baby so every inch shines and send me an after picture!"
You have never seen two women more enthused to clean their bathrooms. And though that spirit waned in the process, I do have one sparkling and organized bathroom to show for it. The next morning we talked and decided we were on to the fridge! This meant the outside had to be organized and washed down (even the dusty top) and inside every surface was to be cleaned. I even cleaned my oven as a bonus. It's actually all very addictive. Over the weekend I hit the garage and it was so clean you could eat off the floor. (Which was immediately proven by the chipmunk breakfast the cats were eating as I took the trash out the next morning. No kidding.)
And today I painted my laundry room! We have lived here for four years and somehow last night was the night I felt inspired to buy the paint and tape up the walls. Today I gave it two coats and I cannot believe it took me four years just to do it! And now that I know I can paint a room in a day, no wall is safe.
Tomorrow I am heading to Annika's to tackle her Paper Organization. We're going to create some sort of "office space" for her...maybe in her basement, maybe in a little nook, maybe just on a few book shelves. We both have homes that are short on spare rooms so we're going to get clever. And I know something awesome will come of it.
All this to say, Jump On In! We are on a roll. September is right around the corner and life is going to pick up real fast. So pick a room a day. Or pick a problem area. Or go read some Fly Lady and join me as I wear my tennis shoes each day (her second lesson) and shine my sink. It feels good and is contagious. Send me a picture of your before and after. This is going to be fun!
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