What's Working Well?

I see any glass as half empty and I can spot flaws in any situation, so as a salutary exercise for my own self, this week I'm writing about a few good things I see working well around my home . . . even amidst the chaos and the noise! Maybe some of my practices will be helpful for someone else, too.

1. Planning Works

I plan everything that I can. Some homeschooling moms buy an open-and-go curriculum; I make my own, but the end result remains being able to open and go. I usually start writing out the lesson plans on Friday afternoon, and then over the weekend, transfer those to an actual schedule (by the half hour) for the week. It is rare that appointments come up during that very week that I did not already know about.

2. Using Baskets Works

Some of my planning does not involve specific page numbers, but involves tackling a subject for a certain amount of time. This is particularly true of the youngest grades: "do catechism for 15 minutes." Over the summer, I will have assembled a basket of catechism supplies for my Kindergartner and I will dip into them all year during catechism time, as the spirit moves me, so to speak.

No running off to bookshelves, hunting here or there. I already know the dozen books I want to cover over the year and they are sitting in the basket marked, "Joseph's Religion."

This week, the three littlest boys enjoyed coloring their Seton coloring books while I read aloud from The Wonder Series, published by St. Augustine Academy Press.

What beautiful illustrations--both in The Wonder Days and on my little boys' pages!

I have baskets of subjects all over the house, all carefully organized and where I need them to be, and they work so well for me!

3. Teaching Chores Works

This week, Joseph has graduated to knowing how to clean a bathroom (to a sufficient level for me)! He is already six, and his oldest three siblings were newly five when I taught them how to clean a bathroom: that's how desperate I was. But now that I have three kids who can clean bathrooms well and only three bathrooms in the house, I let Joseph ride all the way till six before I realized that I really should graduate the oldest kids up onto more complex tasks and let Joseph clean a bathroom each week.

One week, I had Joseph shadow me and I cleaned the bathroom while talking through every step. The next week, I shadowed Joseph and directed him verbally on every step. Now he can do it, but I know from experience that I will continue shadowing him probably for a few months. Is that a hassle? Yes. But it will result in a child I can send to clean the bathroom any time and he will do it well and easily!

Requiring chores isn't fun or easy. Any mom knows that I could more easily clean the bathroom myself than teaching a resistant six-year-old to do so. ("Ewwww! I'm not touching that!") I keep my eye on the long view, which is that a family of eight, with a mom who cycles in and out of pregnancies, and who knows what drama life will throw at us some day, can only function with all the family members doing chores daily and weekly with a minimum of fuss.

But don't be fooled. Some kids (among mine) are more tough than others, and some kids (among mine) require a lot of discipline before being willing to do chores. Standoffs of many hours or removal of all privileges until the child cooperates are not unfamiliar to the process, but the end result of kids who calmly do their chores is well worth it.

4. Reading Aloud Works

I've noted before that I read daily for hours upon hours to my oldest couple of children for probably the first five years of parenting. I avoided twaddle and read classics above their reading level. I truly believe that this really does produce beautiful results! Even if a particular child has trouble learning to read, as statistically some children will no matter what, their hearing such reading aloud will cause them to have a well-trained ear and an appreciation of fine and grammatically correct writing.

I can no longer read for hours and hours. I notice that now, I'm reading to the younger set mostly.

I read History to everyone during Morning Snack, and have for years. My three-year-old treasures that I read a book only to him when I lay him down for nap. On occasion, I read literature aloud to everyone during Afternoon Snack. In the evening, I read aloud to the youngest three boys, and on an occasional treat for all of us, I still get to read aloud to the older kids at night.

These are the bedtime books I've been reading from to the boys ages 6, 3, and 1 this week.

When we were last in the Medieval history cycle three years ago, I borrowed from the library "The Pied Piper of Hamelin" to read aloud to the children and it was the real Robert Browning version of text, but insipid illustrations. Now that we've cycled around again, I treated myself to buying an exquisite copy of this fine poem illustrated by Kate Greenaway (1846-1901). Reading it aloud was an absolute treat of language--despite some rascally behavior from the crew--and by the end of the poem, one of my more tender children was actually crying at Browning's tale.

My beautiful new (old) Pied Piper

After I read aloud to Thomas each day at nap time, he insists on grabbing a book and flipping through all the pictures, then clutching it while he sleeps.

If I knew a mom was floundering about homeschooling and I could advise just one thing, I'd say, Read aloud the best literature you can find! Read, read, read!