Making School Work With & For You

I'm in several groups on FaceBook and recently have seen a few mama's asking how to get everything done in the day, that they felt they were always behind, and that they felt they never had time to do the fun things or to truly stay on top of housework and cooking and all that things. 

Any time I see that question I feel so bad for that mama who is trying so hard to get it all done, but feeling like a failure and getting discouraged and on and on and on. 

Now, lest you think I totally have my act together, I DO NOT!! 😂 

I have days where I feel like I can't get ahead in anything. Where we skip classes cuz Mama just can't. Or the pile of laundry rolls over into the next day. Where we eat quesadillas and/or spaghetti two days in a row because that's all I can do. 

Two of my girls went over to a friends how to learn 

how to can. They did only a small amount of their school 

work and I cancelled the rest of their day

 because this is very much school! 😊

We also don't do classical conversation type education. My children are always learning, but often it's informal learning. Each of my students does age appropriate work and is doing very well in school. But I keep our school demands on the lower side of things. But this approach works for us and the kids are succeeding. We do a *ton* of character training, both formal and informal. This is the main focus of our home. (Bet ya never would have guessed that one haha!) 

Whether you have very high academic standards, if you do unschooling, or you're in the middle like me, you still need to make school work for you. Some of us need to have a slower pace to life, we aren't super go-getters, don't have amazing amounts of energy, can stay up late and get up early to accomplish we set out to......I'm certainly not like that. 

Homeschooling is an extension of your daily life. I just told a mama to think of it this way: if you have a space in your home that is driving you nuts or isn't' work well for you, what do you do? You find a solution, you get creative and make it work for you, and/or you declutter. It's the same with schooling! If the curriculum you have is overwhelming, don't do it all. Take a black marker and mark out stuff if you need to not see it. Cover it up with a piece of paper. Honestly, this is one of my reasons I refuse to buy a box curriculum. Between that and my low budget, I steer far away from them. 😆

I had some chicken I needed to get cooked up and 

anted to do it before it got too hot, so school went outside with me. 

(pssttt!! Here is a little secret. Just because the book says you need to check out this and this book, read them with your child, then ask them these questions, then go out for a lovely walk and collect these specific items, then come home and make this craft, then get these ingredients and so this experiment........they will NEVER EVER know if you did or didn't' do it!!! I promise!!)

I prefer to teach my kids in my own words. If I have to read an entire lesson plan on how to teach them......you won't find me doing that. Nope. I've already been through school, I'm teaching my kids on another round through school, why would I want to have to read a lesson too???? 😂 We are using Fix It Grammar this year (and loving it by the way!) and I often use the teachers guide/answer key to check their work because I'm not 100% sure why. And then there are times where I have no idea why they marked it as that so I'll read the notes they have that explains it. So it can be helpful to have a guide!! But I won't use it day to day to teach a class. It's just too much for me. 

Part of why it's too much for me is the amount of kids I have and the number of students I'm teaching. But looking back, I felt this way even when I only had one student. I just have more of a reason now with the numbers changing. 

My Gramma went Home to Christ in April, so we canceled school for a couple 

of weeks while I traveled for her funeral. I love having our school work for us so 

we are free to minister whenever it's needed. 

If you get anything out of my ramblings today, take this: it's okay to not do it all, to ditch classes/curriculum, to not do all the projects and reports and crafts. It's okay to just check out a book on a bug or rock or planet that interests your kid and do a huge or tiny nose dive into it and call that science for the week. (Speaking of science, I don't do that formally until high school. Until then, we just explore their interests by reading books, watching documentaries, and answering their million questions.) It's okay to keep lessons short and sweet and spend more time playing that sitting still. This is actually backed by science, especially in boys!! If you can't take my word as a mama of 5 boys, take the word of science haha! (An excellent book on this is Boys Adrift by Dr Leonard Sax) 

Make your school work with and for you. Take some time off from school to think about what you want out of your school and your days in general, to revamp your day, to explore options that will work better for you. I'm a HUGE advocate of Kindergarten only needs to take 15-20 minutes max (some days less). Add an additional 15-20 minutes for each higher grade and that's all school needs to take. So even high schoolers only need 3-4 hours to do their school work. Of course you can always do more. But it's okay to do less and have them be free to minister to others, to work alongside you in the home, to play, to explore their own interests. This approach has worked for me in the 16 years of my homeschooling career. Hasn't failed me yet. 😊