chaos [key-os]: a state of utter confusion or disorder; a total lack of organization or order.

Would you be surprised to know that while I spent the summer talking to you about your schedule, my whole world was in chaos? It was a good kind of chaos, in that there was a moving forward going on, and eventually a physical moving – to a new house. But the “new” house started out as a really old house, which had to be peeled to its bones and put back together before that move could happen. Then of course, there was the actual move, which is a hateful task. Honestly, I painted for at least 100 hours, but that was still better than the actual move from one house to the other! And the best part, (I say sarcastically,) is that I still have to paint the former house and get it ready to go on the market.

It was an amazing experience, a learning experience, for me and my kids. But after the first three months of this experience, I felt that summer break had to end. School just had to get back on track. But how?

I’m not here to tell you how I waved my wand and created four more hours in my day and a pleasant atmosphere in which to do a lovely day of school. No. I’m not that good. I’m just here to tell you some of the ways my schedule helped and some of the things I did to move forward each week.

I have my weekly schedule broken down by day, which means that Tuesday always includes Shakespeare and Thursday always includes Plutarch. Each day starts with things we do together, and ends with things the kids do separately. However, I have one severely dyslexic child, so “things they do separately” still includes me working with him. For the most part, I have to be fully involved in all four hours of their school day.

Frankly, I just didn’t have four hours each day during this crazy time, so I had to make some adjustments.

1. Just because I didn’t have four hours to accomplish a full school day, didn’t mean I would do nothing. I knew what was on the list, so I just began working down it. Bible and hymn first, copywork next, and so on until we ran out of time for that day. The next day I picked up where we left off. Because I had organized my schedule with varying types of brain activity, I didn’t have to rethink what we were doing. Sometimes this meant that my little girls didn’t have school at all, and just read something as a free read, or packed some boxes, while my son and I did his extra hour and a half from the previous day.
2. I knew at this rate I was going to be lucky to finish one week worth of school every two weeks, so we started back in July. As it turns out, some weeks we only accomplished one day worth of school, so we will likely need to continue on into next summer a bit. But we were always moving forward.
3. You know I get pretty particular about doing school together, which creates community in your home, but during this time, I had to make allowances. I frequently handled house business while the kids set a timer to do copywork or read the Bible to each other. They found their folk song on YouTube and sang along, and at times, they even did dictation with each other. I’m sure moms with big families know all about this – at times you have to let one kid help another kid, because there is not enough mommy to go around.
4. I mentioned that my son has severe dyslexia, but that doesn’t stop him from understanding the more complex books. There are options like Librivox and R.E.A.D.S. that allow him to listen to his books, or read along, but not every book is available, and very often I need to read to him. Sometimes I get around this by recording the section (on my phone or computer) before he wakes up. Then he can listen to it during the day when I’m busy.
5. It’s a story in itself, but this same son did a huge amount of work on our remodeled house. He built stuff, which requires measuring, cutting, thinking. Like any Charlotte Mason “subject” this didn’t just fall into one category. It was math and handicraft, logic and creativity. He had to following instructions but still think for himself. It was a HUGE, fantastic learning experience for him. That can’t be disregarded.
6. Back to those audiobooks, sometime we listened to things in the car on our way back and forth between houses. Our poet is on Librivox and so is one of our history readings. Even my Bible app will read to us. Frequently I left the house with a sticky note in hand with what school we would do on the way to the next stop.
7. After a long day of hard work, we often sat outside of the new house and just rested. That is when we met our new neighbors. Not the people kind, (although they stopped by too,) but the rest of them. Of course, the little girls helped less on the house, so they spent hours on end inspecting the new surroundings. So nature study was happening without effort, as is usually the case if you have already established that habit in your lives.
8. Despite all this seemingly positive forward motion, there were still times that I got discouraged. That is when I turned to one of my dear Charlotte Mason inspired friends for encouragement. Notice I didn’t just say “friend”. What we CM families are doing is something extra special, which I’m not sure can be understood by all others. I know that sounds so rotten, and exclusive, but frankly, the kind of encouragement I needed was not, “You shouldn’t be so hard on yourself. Maybe the kids should go to school this year, while you get things settled.” Or, “You know, there are these DVDs you can pop in, which will teach the kids without you.” No, the encouragement I needed didn’t look anything like that.
9. Lastly, I had to let some things go. We love our co-op friends, but I had to bow out of that commitment. I knew I could still be a member, but not attend, but then it would hang over my head. A decision I would have to make week after week. So I decided that had to be pulled from our schedule.

Maybe you aren’t renovating an old house, or moving. Maybe you have a new baby, or a sick parent. Maybe you are sick or have a child that is rebelling. Maybe you have had to take a job outside the home or it’s harvest season on your farm. I don’t have all of the answers, of course, but I would sum up in this way.

1. Take the time to make your schedule up, then you have something to follow without that being just another decision for you to make.
2. Be flexible. Sometimes the ideal is just not attainable.
3. However keep moving forward with school. Don’t give up.
4. Know that this is just for now, so live where you are. Enjoy that infant or those distracting toddlers, sit with your sick parent, put your whole heart into that rebelling teen. You will not get this time back.
5. Enjoy the people in your life even if you all seem to be on edge and angling for a fight. Make time for the fun things you all enjoy.
6. Make time to notice and enjoy the beautiful nature God gave you. It’s a gift. Don’t ignore it.
7. Start each day with some standard routines no matter what. You don’t have a full day to “catch up”, so you need to “keep up” with some of the basics. You decide what those basics are.
8. Get plenty of sleep at night. Don’t burn the midnight-oil and then be a grump the next day. Stress makes us more short tempered anyway, but add lack of sleep to that, and you have a bad combination.

Blessings. It’s all blessings. I love my new house, and it looks like this week we will finish a full, complete week of school inside of 5 days. We will get back to normal at some point, or find a new normal.

One of our new neighbors. We noticed eggs one day and then the next day there were babies! We were able to watch their progress every single day until they finally took off on their own.

 

Can you believe this silly neighbor?! Unfortunately this little guy didn’t make it. He disappeared long before he should have been able to make it on his own.

 

My son learned how to use many tools and one day he used them to make each of the kids a bird house.

 

Whenever we had a day at home, I packed. I had boxes and boxes of books. Cocoa says, “Don’t forget to take me.” That green stuff on top of the boxes is moss my girls collected. If you have never studied moss, don’t put it off. It’s so cool!

My brother in law was point-man on the whole project and he would say to my son things like, “Hey, build your parents a closet.” If things didn’t go well, he would just help my son take it down and start over. He was so good at letting him try things.

Lots of calculations.

 

A little nature study going on…and a little freaking out on mom and dad’s part. We had no running water yet, or soap, and ya’all know some of those cool mush are poisonous! She lived.

 

This is a sunrise, people, not a sunset. Just saying. 😀