A Little Homeschooling Snippet

I've been meaning to post about our homeschooling for some time--partly as a way of reminding myself what we've done, how far we've come (hopefully), what has changed over time, or what I discovered once and might have forgotten. But between my wordiness and interest in all manner of philosophy and practice of education--and the varied things we actually do--a "homeschooling post" seems overwhelming. So I never sit down and type one out.

But I intend to change that by doing shorter posts--just snippets of what homeschooling is like in our house right now. Hopefully these posts will add up to a more complete picture and record of what we've done once a year is through.

This first one is about logistics: how does one manage and contain home schooling supplies in a small house without a dedicated school room?

In other words, how do we combine bibliophilia + small house + four children + a tendency towards disorganization + lack of time without degenerating into complete mess, crazy, and chaos? Ha, I don't really have an answer to that.

But I'm making small steps of progress in organization, and I'm pleased with how our homeschooling cart is helping in this endeavor. For now, it's a great solution. It's just a small, wheeled, metal cart from Ikea:

I pull this cart into the dining room at breakfast time so we're ready to go for our morning time routine when everyone finishes eating. After memory work and Bible story, I pull from the cart our calendar, book of nursery rhymes, poetry book, Aesop, Explode the Code, and flower or bird flashcards (depending on how far we get in morning time before Clara needs Mama time!).

Later I push the cart back into the computer/Lego/Clara room, and Josiah and I often work for a bit together there--perhaps on math or reading/phonics while the girls play elsewhere. It's also easy to access the current literature and history if I load them onto the cart, and then I switch them out when we're done with one book and replace it with a new one from our bookshelves. I like that the big kids can push the cart themselves and so fetch or return it for me, too. (Unfortunately, they are tempted to ride on it!)

It doesn't seem like it should be a big deal to take a few extra steps to fetch things from another room in this small house, but having everything I need on the cart within reach has really helped our school mornings run more smoothly.

Sundays

I was paging through a hymn book the other day and came upon the section of Sabbath-day hymns--hymns about the peace, repose, and rejuvenation of celebrating the Lord's Day. Ha! I thought. Not for people with four small children! 

In my experience, Sunday is often the hardest day of the week. The rigmarole of getting ready and out the door on time is a tiring process in itself--and that's before teaching ten k-1st graders in Sunday School; keeping the peace (and relative quiet) between children during the service; handling multiple bathroom trips; corralling unwilling troops to head home; dealing with post-church meltdowns; preparing lunch; settling kids for naps . . . and by then it's time to think of dinner.

For me right now, Sunday is not about taking a day off or getting a break. If I have any expectations along those lines, I set myself up for a case of the grumps. (And often Sunday is harder because I'm dealing with a houseful of bad attitudes and crankiness!)

Instead, Sunday means girding my loins for battle against the flesh and the devil. A peaceful day is the result of a fight--a fight against my temptation to prioritize myself and my desires--a fight to rest in God and not put my hope in ease.

Sunday's rest is of a different sort: can I rest in God and enjoy His peace even when we're already late and Jeremy is still shaving? Can I set aside annoyance and be gentle when a child wails about missing shoes? Can I kindly address the scuffle in the pew instead of giving into consternation and anger? Can I endure parishioners' backward glances with a grin? Can I listen and sing with as much eagerness and attention as I can muster, despite the tiredness, complaints, poking, etc.? Can I think about others above myself? Can I open my home to guests without getting up tight about how presentable it is? And so on and so forth . . .

Giving into stress means giving up the peace I can find by trusting God. I've got to preach it to myself every Sunday (and plenty of times in between, too!).

Meanwhile, here are some happy, peaceful sort of pictures from the Sunday before last to belie what I just said about Sundays being hard:

Jeremy usually has Plans for Sundays (beyond church etc.) that involve a Project. Last week's was moving a couple apple trees from the back yard to the front. This sounds simple. But, like all projects, it's a little more complicated and time-consuming than one might expect. The children's affinity for mud doesn't always help the process.

We planted bamboo along our backyard side fence as a barrier and shade, but that will crowd out the apple trees Jeremy planted a couple years ago. We're running out of room for trees in the back yard, so after we got our old tallow/mulberry tree taken out a couple weeks ago, Jeremy figured we could move the apple trees to that spot in the front.

Josiah lost a front tooth the Saturday before last via a strategically placed elbow from Dad during a wrestling match. :) (Josiah hoped it would come out when they were wrestling, since he didn't want to just yank it.) Last Tuesday he lost the other front tooth! Now his smile is quite different--and so is his pronunciation of s. 

Abby wanted to play photographer and so took a picture of me

What fun they had making canals in the mud!

Abby

Lydia and Abby

We're trying a new system of keeping Lydia's hair mostly in braids to prevent the terrible knots that develop between hair-washings. (These knots make Saturday night baths and combing a torture to mother and daughter!) It helps that she looks so cute in braids, of course.

I'm not exactly sure why Abby doesn't seem to have quite as many knots as Lydia . . . her hair is a bit shorter, but it also seems to have less of the fine bits that mat so easily.

In less than two weeks these twins will be FIVE!

Because one project wasn't enough for Sunday afternoon, Jeremy opted for a second--trimming the pine tree's branches that overhang the house. (Birds roost on those branches, and their droppings are eroding our fairly new roof--much to Jeremy's consternation.)

Ladders--like mud--are terribly attractive

Oh, this funny girl is just too cute!

Abby skinned her knees earlier in the day and was showing off her bandaids