Homeschooling Juggling Act

I've been doing formal homeschooling with John for about six weeks now. He's not yet five, so we're calling it "preschool."

I am finding it so interesting to learn how to teach. I've been learning a lot through trial and error about how John learns (both as him, and as a four-year-old, and as a boy) and some general tips about how to teach. But that's for another blog post.

Today I was reflecting on learning how to homeschool, which means teaching while managing everything else in the home. It's quite a steep learning curve and I have so much respect for veteran homeschooling mothers!

First of all, I am honing my routine of the day. I don't have a strict schedule per se, but I am finding that the more routinized our home life is, the more kids know what is coming next, so everything flows much better. Instead of kids throwing tantrums because they expected one thing next but a different thing happens, instead they just flow along, knowing that A is followed by B, which is followed by C. I think the general routine that will work well for us at these ages is:

Breakfast
Morning Chores
School Time (starting bright and early when they're fresh, anytime between 7:30 and 8:30 a.m., and lasting only 15-20 minutes)
Free Play
Morning Snack
School Time (15-20 minutes)
Free Play
Lunch (all of this by 11:30 in the morning!)

But I am still experimenting!

This morning provides a good example of other "opportunities for learning" I am experiencing (see my positive spin on things?): I have a four-month-old, so her naps are still somewhat unpredictable and I don't know if she's going down for 45 minutes or three hours. So, after breakfast I got her down for nap, me and kids dressed, beds made, and we settled at the kitchen table for School Time. (But often she is awake during School, so she's on my lap nursing.)

I got the two-year-old involved in a project (two options at the table: lacing beads and her own "writing"). There: now she should be occupied and within eyesight (lesson having already been learned that it is not good to let the toddler wander the house, entertaining herself, during School Time).

John was having a particularly wiggly day. Some days he's deeply engaged, some days he's a wiggle worm. Today was the latter and I quickly saw that I was going to cut School Time short after our reading lesson, but in the meantime I redirected him repeatedly.

We made our Morning Offering prayer and read about the Saint of the Day (St. Liberatus and six monks--a dramatic event of holy men who would not bend to the Arian heresy, so were sentenced to be set in a boat at sea and burned alive!).

Then the toddler wandered to the bathroom, as she is potty training and doing so very independently. That was great except that then I noticed as I kept teaching that she was gone too long and the water was still running. So I had to leave John to investigate, and found Mary doing messy water play, so now the bathroom and her clothing were soaked.

By the time I got back, of course, John was distracted and I had to "gather" him again--trying always to be cheerful and inspiring, but it's hard. He was almost done reading the long story part of his reading lesson when I heard the baby waking up ('ah, so this is a 45-minute nap'). I knew how hard it would be to focus John to finish his story later if we stopped now, so I tried to push him through the rest quickly, while hearing the baby crying harder and harder upstairs. So, that's another lesson and experience for me, as I would never have let a baby cry when I had, you know, just one of them to take care of.

So, then I had to interrupt our lesson to scoop up the baby (after about three minutes of crying). This meant making sure I collect up all pens (did you know that white board pens stain permanently when written elsewhere than a white board? I do!) lest we go upstairs and a child escapes my notice to go back downstairs and find unsecured pens. Then I march us all upstairs because I don't know how long I'll be up there with the baby and I don't want to leave the kids unsupervised for more than a couple of minutes.

The baby is retrieved and we all march back downstairs. I settle the baby in her Jumperoo. I settle the toddler with writing: but then ensues a tantrum because she wants to do something she's not allowed to do, and my dealing with every two-minute tantrum is one more time I've lost the attention of my four-year-old, who now has to be "gathered" again.

We settle back down and finally finish the reading lesson. I tell John that I'm happy to cut School Time short today since he is so wiggly, and that he may play. But, no: disappointing the teacher, John says he actually wants to continue and to do our Nature Reading and Poetry. 'Really?' (I am so tired!) 'Okay, honey, let's do it.' So, we read about Camels, learning many interesting vocabulary words along the way, and we read a poem about Noah's Ark, and we talk about all the rhymes in the poem. (And in the midst of the poetry, the baby suddenly needed a fresh diaper, which I delayed changing because we were so close to being done and I couldn't stand one more interruption.)

Classroom teachers have many of their own distractions to deal with and manage--some very similar, some different. I may be dealing with different ages of kids, but I'm not dealing with six three-year-olds or 15 Kindergarteners or 30 second graders. It sure is interesting to me to be learning this aspect of homeschooling management (plus add in various things happening in the background, like the laundry machine going, or the dish washer repair man showing up--as if I could compete with that excitement!).

It's an refreshing and challenging time for me, and I am glad that this year is sort of a freebie. (Even Kindergarten is basically a freebie!) If I crash and burn right now, and even if I must do a lot of experimentation, this year of schooling should be a-okay.