Summer is a Good Time to Practice

My family owns a lake house that is only fifteen minutes from my house, and it is by far our favorite place to spend our summers. Some days it’s just our immediate family, and other times the whole extended family shows up, including guests, and it becomes a party!

There is a standing rule for dinner: each family brings their own meat to barbecue and a side dish that is enough to feed their own family. This way, if we end up being the only ones out there on a particular night, we have enough to eat. But if more families show up, we share our side dishes and have a potluck.

In order to facilitate this summer lifestyle, some planning has to take place, because once I leave the house with the kids, I do not return until bedtime. This can be a good thing if I’m prepared, or a bad thing if I’m not.

I get up in the morning and make dinner first thing. This may include throwing some things in the crock-pot (my absolute favorite kitchen tool,) or it may mean I just do all the prep work for dinner. I have to think of every detail, because I don’t want to end up out at the lake with my salad, but no dressing. Furthermore, I do not want to end up at the lake needing to do a bunch of prep work. I will not be very happy with myself if everyone is having fun swimming and I need to cut vegetables.

About this time my kids are starting to wake up, so I make breakfast. I want to be sure they have a good breakfast, because I know they will be expending a lot of energy during this day.

Once breakfast is finished, we all work together to pack a lunch and any snacks that we will want that afternoon.

With all of the meals for the day complete, the kitchen gets cleaned fully, to be left until the following day. Really! All kitchen work is done for the day, and we are all still in our PJs!

In our family everyone has a set of morning routines and afternoon routines. Basically it’s a list of everyone’s chores. These routines include personal hygiene, care of pets, including food pets, and housework. Because we will be gone all day at the lake, both sets of routines have to be completed before we leave the house.

Lastly, everyone makes sure they pack what they need for the day. Each child is responsible for themselves. This includes a swimsuit, dry clothes, and even a sweatshirt in case the evening is cool. They may choose to pack something like a sketchbook and paints, or a book.

And out the door we go! Our meals are done or prepared, (we take it all with us,) our chores are done, our house is clean, and we can have fun, with peace of mind, for the rest of the day.

I hope you made it this far, even if you don’t have a lake house to go to, because I suspect there is someplace you can go. Charlotte Mason said that, “A journey of twenty minutes by rail or omnibus, and a luncheon basket, will make a day in the country possible to most town dwellers; and if one day, why not many, even every suitable day?” CM vol 1 pg 44

Why not have a routine for the summer: Mondays at one park, Tuesdays at another, visit me on Wednesdays ;-), swim in the neighbors pool on Thursday, and spend Fridays in your own backyard. But don’t neglect the new morning routine just because you are staying “home” that last day. Do it all, and enjoy your day outside without worrying about what needs to be done inside.

“…make a new rule of life, Never be within doors when you can rightly be without.” CM vol 1 pg 44

I have several friends who say they will continue school this summer after taking just a short break. I think this is a fine idea, but if the actual reason is because they don’t want to lose their school momentum, and because they don’t want to get bored with nothing to do this summer, then I would make a suggestion. What if this summer were used to practice what Charlotte Mason says about being outside? What if you added a lesson to the morning routine I described above, and then as you got better at this new habit of preparing for your afternoon out, you added another lesson? Eventually you might find that you can do a couple of hours of school in the morning before you headed out for your afternoon in the fields.

You could use this summer as a time to practice. 

Imagine if you started the next school year as a professional-morning-routine-mom! Instead of kissing goodbye to summer, instead of gathering around the table to start another school year with an attitude of doom and gloom, you would be able to tell your kids, “Let’s keep doing the same thing we’ve been doing, with just a couple more hours thrown in for school.” In fact, as the heat of August sets in, you could just up the school hours by a half hour per week, and no one would feel the pain of the end of summer.

In the PNEU schools all students started at 9:00am. Students in grades 1-3 finished school at 11:30, grades 4-6 finished at noon, and the rest finished at 1:00. Afternoon hours were free from bookwork, and were supposed to be spent doing nature work, taking walks and playing games.

In order to pull off a schedule like this, two things must be in place: 1) a school schedule that you adhere to, and 2) a morning routine that frees up the rest of your day.

So think about what I’m suggesting. Think about using this summer to practice doing what needs to be done in order to implement a true Charlotte Mason education method in your home.

“Let me repeat, that I venture to suggest, not what is practicable in any household, but what seems to me absolutely best for the children; and that, in the faith that mothers work wonders once they are convinced that wonders are demanded of them” – Charlotte Mason, vol 1, pg 43

Related: 
Good Morning Sunshine!
Out-Of-Door Life – An Outline