When a former public school teacher saves my homeschool day
Hi, I'm Laura. And I write candidly about life as a homeschool mother of four and my many, many creative outlets.
Yesterday was one of those days I wanted to give up. I saw the mountain of dishes. The typhoon of papers all over our school room, along with crayons, math manipulatives, books and toys. I saw toys from the porch flooding into the living room. Jelly dried to the hardwood floor under the dining tables and so.. many.. crumbs. Old pretzels. Forgotten toys. And don’t get me started on the state of the table itself.
I joked with my niece, “We’re drowning, aren’t we?” And we laughed, because sometimes we laugh to keep from crying, right? These kids didn’t need to see that. So I saved my tears for later in the day. When I would question whether I was fit for the job.
It’s hard to work in such a disordered space. And so yesterday wasn’t a great, homeschool day at all. We did our phonogram lessons, and that was that. The end.
I shared all this and a bag of chips with my dear husband before bed. He listened. And while he brought the dog back inside and went upstairs to check on the kids one last time, I fell asleep. He did not. He had drunk too much coffee back at the office and couldn’t go to bed. So he got to work instead.
I woke up to a tidied, organized school room and a cleaner kitchen. The mountain of dishes had been decimated to an island. And suddenly I could breathe in hope for my chosen vocation. Adam had stayed up into the wee hours of the morning to help me regain confidence. He not only brought order through cleaning, he also gave thought to the school day, recalling his own days as a teacher in the public school system.
This morning he reminded me about the necessity of clear rules and procedures. At our old place, we had written up rules and displayed them on a board on the wall. Since moving, we haven’t brought that back. With four kids, we needed to do it but it was easy to put if off. With my niece and nephew here, it’s clear that structure and order is essential. I can’t keep flying by the seat of my pants and hoping for the best. Sure, we might get through our lessons that way. But everything else will be a disaster—and I may lose my mind!
Adam shared these rules as ideas, which I immediately implemented. After our morning time, when we discuss the date, sing a song, memorize both a Bible verse and poem, and discuss our feelings, I took time to go over each rule.
Raise your hand to talk to the teacher.
Always say please and thank you.
Work with diligent hands
Always clean up your own mess.
Play with gentleness and kindness.
My readers read each rule and then we discussed them.
Adam said teachers spend a significant amount of time teaching and reinforcing rules and procedures at the start of the school year. I don’t hear about this much from home-school veterans. Our community tends to major on flexibility, perhaps leaving this conversation to homemaking and discipleship. But I think it’s an important conversation to have, especially if you have several students.
We’re managing a lot as mothers, wives, homeschool educators and homemakers. And if we have taken on the mantle of teaching our kids, that is a whole job. It’s going to take a toll on the house. Period. So we need to give ourselves grace. However, we also have to find ways to tend to the chaos so that the overwhelm doesn’t derail us from the good work we’ve chosen.
Adam tended to the chaos.
Can we all just stand up and give him a round of applause? And if you’re a fellow sister in the Christian faith, can you also give God a shout of praise with me? Maybe even run around the room a lil’ bit, do a little dance.
He also gave me the idea to wear something while I teach that would signify to the kids and even to myself that we are in school mode. I chose a light scarf. And the kids really seem to enjoy the visual cue. I’m about to put it back on as we wrap up our play break.
Oh, and speaking of play breaks, he gave me the idea to incorporate learning blocks as a way to structure my day. So the plan is to finish breakfast by 8 and have the first learning block from 8-10a. Then they have a play break from 10-10:45. The we have the second learning block from 11-12. We break for lunch and a short play break. Then we have our last learning block from 1-2:30pm. At 2:30 we break to reset the schoolroom, clean up any other big messes and then they can go play.
I can’t speak yet to how well this has worked as this is the first day, and the block schedule is not my priority today. However, I have it in the back of my head as I lead us through the day, and it’s working quite well. I usually take a 10-15 min break after every lesson. But this gives me a good chunk in the middle of the morning. And they get some good time outside, which is all they really want any way.
We will wrap up at 2:30p at Adam’s recommendation because I need to know there’s a definite end, no matter what. That our time isn’t going to stretch on forever and eat into meal prep time, etc. That I have time to recover.
So what’s the point of all this?
Sometimes we hit a wall. We mistake that wall for the end of the road. When really it’s a new beginning. We may need to change some things. But it’s hard to see that ourselves, when we already feel so stuck and discouraged. We often need help from others. And if you’re a homeschool educator, consider hearing from teachers in a traditional setting. They have a lot of wisdom.
And since I know Adam will read this, “Adam, you have a lot of wisdom. Thank you for your help and encouragement. I am one blessed lady!”
Great tips! And well done, Adam!