Thu 14 Jul 2005
In thinking about the atmosphere of my home it is inevitable that the subject of scheduling comes up. This time of year I am busy building a skeleton of our schedule for next year. While I have always just naturally held to some sort of schedule I think you will be surprised by my thoughts.
Without a doubt scheduling is a tool. Like any tool it can be wielded with skill or it can clumsily cause destruction. There are men who can build furniture with kits and tablesaws and there are men who can build cabinets with a couple of handtools. We each have 24 hours in our day. A schedule will not give us more time. Sometimes a schedule can even steal that time.
If the atmosphere of your home is rich and varied, not filled with computer time, television, movies and gameboys, then you can build an atmosphere of learning without the help of a schedule. I have to admit that in many ways a rigid schedule is a crutch that makes a mother feel more productive. The truth is that you can lead your children to the subject at hand but you can’t make them learn. That is why creating an atmosphere of learning is a greater tool than a schedule.
Some of you are like me and feel safer with some sort of schedule in place and some of you tend more toward the bohemian. I believe the key to successful home education is not in the schedule but in the atmosphere of the home.
The real issue that Charlotte foresaw was not scheduling but dawdling. Now there is a major problem for all and sundry. Whether your child is scheduled from sun up to sun down or whether he is free to pursue his own interest the enemy of true learning is dawdling. Have you ever had a child that could do his math in 30 minutes one day and take 4 hours the next? Yes, Ha, now you think I am going to tell you how to cure the child but this blog post is already over long so I will leave you with the dawdler and suggest perhaps rereading Charlotte’s Ourselves.
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Great post. I’ve been thinking about scheduling in a CM education a great deal since our term began. For instance, I know that the children are *supposed* to do their lessons in the morning (when they are fresh) so that the afternoon can be free, but I also have a toddler who naps all afternoon and a baby that needs my attention more in the a.m. It has made sense in our family to save some of the lessons for the afternoon while the little ones are napping. I try to still do things like reading instruction and handwriting in the a.m. so they aren’t overly tired for those lessons, but our “schedule”, I’m afraid, is tending toward the bohemian (that cracked me up) more than I ever thought it would.
Like you said, though, the atmosphere is still one of interested learning, even if we are reading Fifty Famous Stories in the evening with Daddy or finally doing some brushwork while I cook dinner. Our “school” blends in and out all day with the rest of our life and I really like it that way. It’s so different from what CM suggested, though, that I do second guess myself. I suppose I need to just be comfortable with our own little brand of CM - being rather deviant in some areas.
Thanks so much for the encouragement!!!
Blessings,
Jacci
Comment by JacciM (November 13, 2007 @ 11:16 am )
“…the enemy of true learning is dawdling”.
I tend to agree with you. I’ve given up on schedules. I can’t keep them and all they do is make me feel horrible about myself. We have an “abstract/random schedule” (LOL), hope for the best and take one day at a time. I know most mothers aren’t like that and probably get a lot more done than we do, but I try to do as you’ve noted….keep the atmosphere ready for learning. We have deep conversations all day long. I keep lots of good books out, the art supplies out and the microscope out…I do the best I can. I figure I’ll have this homeschooling thing down by the time my youngest graduates.
Thanks for the comfort. I feel so much better about myself today after reading this. We tend to be hard on ourselves, don’t we?
Comment by Michal (November 13, 2007 @ 12:22 pm )
You are so right! I broke out of the rigid daily schedule years ago. However, I do have the list of things I would like to have accomplished each week. The days ebb and flow, but I have in mind an overall arc of the readings for my son, who is a tenth grader, causing me to feel the pressure of transcripts, SATs, and college as the countdown continues . . .
Thanks for the gentle reminder!
Comment by Tammy (November 13, 2007 @ 7:19 pm )
“creating an atmosphere of learning”…
I like that!
But, I’m still holding on to my schedule…
even if we don’t always follow it!
Comment by keri (November 13, 2007 @ 11:59 pm )
Wow… this post really convicted me. Sometimes, I get so focused on following our schedule, that I lose focus on creating the atmosphere. I love what you had to say on this subject! Thanks!
Comment by Brittany (November 14, 2007 @ 3:14 pm )
I don’t do schedules. I do outlines of each day. I list the subjects and activities I want to cover and then we fit them in whenever we can. Life doesn’t run on schedule, at least mine doesn’t. I like routines for my kids, but like to stay flexible as well. Who says school has to happen only in the mornings or only within a scheduled chunk of the day? Charlotte Mason, maybe. HMMM. Well, anyhow, I always have been a little rebellious…
Comment by Della (November 15, 2007 @ 2:51 pm )