As you prepare to start a fresh homeschool year, close your eyes and imagine waking to a brand new morning, a brand new day, a brand new school year. Ideally you wake before the children begin to stir and pour yourself a cup of coffee to enjoy while you enjoy your quiet time to fill yourself up that your overflow will be life giving onto your children.
Your children wake and begin to gather around the table to enjoy breakfast together. You enjoy your slow and intentional morning together and prepare for the day by tidying up and preparing yourself for another day of discipling little souls.
You meet again at the table to begin your school day. You sing hymns, pray over your day, and read from your devotional for your morning time. You turn to your lesson for the day and dive into your read alouds and picture books together while your children practice their copywork and narrate to you all that they have learned.
In the afternoon you gather for tea time with your paints, fine art piece, and handicrafts while your composer study plays quietly in the background. Your day isn’t rushed and there is margin to do the good work of habit training and learning practical life skills.
This is the opportunity that is available to you in a Charlotte Mason education. This is what a peaceful education can look like. Will every day look like this? Not always but, day by day , you can cultivate your time together to learn and grow through this living education opportunity that will be a beautiful invitation to learn and grow together as a family and develop a love of life long learning together.
Does this sound like what you are looking for for your children’s education and for your school days? We welcome you to join us at The Peaceful Press to begin your peaceful education today.
Here are some helpful questions to ask yourself as you get started:
1. Is it repetitive?
Are multiple curriculums or resources that you are using adding a hymn study, picture study, etc.? Maybe choose one or the other or chose different days to break them up instead of trying to fit them in all together. You could also choose to paint one and observe the other and sing one and play the other if you can’t eliminate one.
2. Does it bring joy to our day?
Are you simply checking off boxes or are you learning and growing from these resources together as a family? Do they bring you joy? Are they life giving or life draining?
3. Is it stealing our margin from our days?
Margin allows for outdoor adventures, family time, quiet time, clean up, planning, and room to breathe. Without margin in your days they will be more stressful as you try to adhere to a strict schedule to get through your day. Don’t underestimate the value of margin in your days.
4. Does it hinder us from doing other things that our family values?
Make a list of things that your family strives to do and enjoys. Plan your days with these things in mind so that they are integrated in your time. Make them a priority for you and for your family.
5. Could some of these things be on a loop schedule?
A loop schedule allows you to fit multiple subjects and extra curriculars into your scheduled once or twice a week looping through different subjects on different days or in different semesters.
6. Is there something that can be moved to bedtime or in the evening when dad is home such as a devotional or read aloud?
Sometimes thinking outside of the box can help take the pressure off if you are feeling overwhelmed. Sometimes it can be helpful to delegate tasks to a spouse if you can or to use bed time for your read aloud or devotional or Bible reading.
7. Is it helpful or hurtful to our family relationships?
Is what you are doing building up your relationships within your family or tearing them down? If things aren’t going well first check each others heart issues behind the conflict and then see how you can simplify your days to make them less full and more enjoyable. If you aren’t able to get some time out in nature then try implementing that and see if that helps.
8. Is it necessary?
Do you need it? Is it necessary? Would your school day run smoother without it?