Classical Homeschooling in Action: Sarah’s Home
The first books read at the beginning of a homeschooling journey play a major role in a homeschooling mom’s understanding of education and the learning process.
In those early days, I read books from Charlotte Mason educators and unschoolers, so our homeschool has always been influenced, in varying degree, by both.
In this post, I want to give you a general idea of what classical homeschooling looks like in my home right now.
The current season I’m in includes teaching kids aged 12, 10, and 9 while juggling the adorable madness of a 2-year old and twin 1-year-olds. The size and shape of my family has a major impact on how I approach classical homeschooling.
It looks different in every family, but here’s what it looks like in ours:
Babies & Toddlers in the Mix
Homeschooling looked a lot different when it was just the three older kids (note that I didn’t say easy – just different).
Now that we’ve got a whole new crew of babies and toddlers underfoot (praise be!), everything has been turned on its head.
Every single component of our homeschool- from curriculum choices to the fleshing out of a daily schedule- is impacted by the presence of little people who like to love on mama and cause a ruckus around the house.
For my older kids, work times are punctuated by periods of being on baby-duty, taking the toddler outdoors to blow bubbles, or making play dough cat after play dough cat to keep the 2-year-old happy.
I plan the most intensive work (in our home, this means math) for the twins’ nap time and let the toddler watch a show (gasp!) so that I can give my kids undivided attention and we can all concentrate on the work at hand.
Some days, my kids do more playing-with-little-people than they do working on their own school stuff, and that’s okay because on other days, the opposite is true.
Having all these babies in our house is exactly what God had in mind for my crew, so I’m quite certain the poetic knowledge we gain from taking care of babies and toddlers while we’re diagramming sentences and drilling math facts is in His plan as well.
Flexibility is key here- when I get frustrated by the daily juggle of bigs and littles (and I do), I have to remind myself: you are where you are and God meets you right there.
Read Aloud Everything Possible
Reading aloud isn’t just for Charlotte’s Web and the Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe (although those are great choices if you need something new!).
It’s also for science texts, history bits, catechism, fables, and fairy tales. It’s for everything.
Andrew Pudewa convinced me that older kids need to hear language read aloud even more than they need to read it themselves, so we read aloud everything we can.
Before the recent rush of babies, we’d read aloud for 2-3 hours every day. We aren’t able to get nearly that much in anymore, though it’s an ideal I will continue to strive for.
The basic principle here is that if it can be read, it can be read aloud, and I’ll probably try to do so if I can make it happen.
Big Rocks
We have probably all heard the analogy: a college professor stands in front of a lecture hall with a large vase and a variety of rocks, all different sizes.
If he puts the small rocks in first, he can’t get the big ones in at all. If, however, he begins by placing the big rocks in first, the small ones are able to fit into the nooks and crannies around the edges- all the rocks fit into the vase.
I do the same thing with my homeschool.
The big rocks are the most important things- the subjects or skills that I prioritize over everything else.
For our family, these are math, language, and Morning Time. Everything else (even formal religion class, because so much of what we do is just a living out of our faith by attending Mass, receiving sacraments, and living a life of prayer) fits in around those priorities.
When we’re feeling squeezed, we pare back to the big rocks and don’t stress too much about the rest.
Morning Time
This has become such a key part of our homeschool that I can’t leave it out. I’ve written more about morning time here and here– this is the way I weave beauty and goodness into our homeschool even when we’re in survival mode. Morning Time is a big rock.
Memory Work
Here’s where so many of our homes look a bit different from one another’s.
In our home right now, we memorize the Classical Conversations timeline, some whole-passage scripture (not verses pulled out independently), poetry, and lots and lots of Shakespeare. We don’t do a lot of other facts or tidbits.
I’m not opposed to such memory work, but when push comes to shove, I really want to prioritize the memorization of beautiful language, so that’s where we put our time and energy.
Do the Next Thing
Probably the way our homeschool is more relaxed than most others is that I don’t work toward a set of lessons being completed in a set amount of time (within reason).
My focus is on doing the next thing, doing it well, and then moving on.
We do have a set schedule (large blocks of time set aside for certain subjects or activities), but I don’t plan out when we’ll complete a particular book or resource.
In a recent conversation I had with Andrew Kern, he encouraged homeschooling moms not to fit extra work into the homeschool day, even if it was possible to do so.
Decide first what needs to be done that day, do it, and then if it gets done early- go rest. If it doesn’t, stop at your allotted time (40 minutes for math, perhaps, or 5 minutes for handwriting) and wait till the next day to pick up where you left off.
When I do this, my focus shifts from getting through the book or checking off the lesson to helping my child achieve real understanding and learn how to work diligently every day.
This means that my lesson plans look rather open-ended because I don’t know how long it will take to get through a math book or read through a stack of literature.
We take each day at a time and just do the next thing. It helps me teach from rest and remember that I’m teaching people, not lessons.
For us, classical homeschooling looks a lot like a full-to-bursting life with an emphasis on diligence where it matters most.
How do you teach at rest when they reach CC Challenge years? That’s my struggle right now.
This is tricky! I’m not in CC, but I’ve heard several families say that teaching from rest becomes increasingly difficult when you get to Challenge. I’ll pray for you!
always,,, encouraging me,,,, you are! Just love you and your transparency!
I am interested in hearing you talk more about “some whole-passage scripture (not verses pulled out independently).” I really like this concept, but not sure how long or how much you would memorize. We are Orthodox Christians and I know people who have memorized entire Gospels. Not a chapter, but the entire book. This would take a LONG time, but what an amazing goal.
Hi Arlie! I wrote a bit more about it here:
http://kindredgrace.com/whole-scripture-memorization/
I hope that’s helpful! :)
Thank you for sharing, it’s fascinating to see the variety of homeschooling approaches for families in various seasons of their life!
I have only two kids, my daughter will be 6 and my son is almost 3. You’d think it would be easy, but what makes it hard is that I run a growing photography business by myself and my husband is away for work 3 weeks every month. That really throws a wrench into homeschooling!
But what really surprises me is that despite us not following any curriculum or having any regular schedule, my daughter has learned so much over the past 3 years that it feels really silly to start at kindergarten level with her (where she ‘should’ be now), she would do great with 1st grade level learning material. This just proves to me that kids learn everything they need to know through life and play – when the parents are engaged with them. This year I’m just planning to focus on reading and math with her, everything else will fall into place. Of course that’s on top of a foundation of Christian character and directing them toward Christ in the every day.
The idea of doing the next thing is so great. Too often I’ve been focused on the next lesson, not the “doing well” part of learning. All that is changing this year, and we’ll be focusing on doing things well, in their own time instead of trying to plow through all the lessons in a book before June 1.
This was so great Sarah! I really think that this kind of realistic approach when we have babies and toddlers is crucial to maintaining our sanity while homeschooling. If we accomplish our big, important things that really is enough, and the enrichment will come naturally through good books and time spent with each other. Or so I hope! ;)
Thanks for the posts. Your website(s) are a major resource of mine for many things. I could be more effusive, but I really need to get to bed! For now, I’m just curious about the Latin textbook in the first photo. Can you tell me what it is?
Thank you again!
I am making weekly dry erase checklists for the kids. Each weekend I will assess what they completed the week before and just let them know where to pick up. This way there is no “this must get done today!” but rather a continual flow from one thing to the next. I am looking forward to this structured and yet relaxed approach.
I have also taken all their books and divided them into daily/weekly lessons so I have an average in my head of what we could get done and then each week I can see if I’m being realistic. One of the main reasons I want to homeschool was because I disliked the rush rush of school when I was little. I surely don’t want our home to be that way!
I have an 8.5, an almost 7, a 5.5 and a 3.5 year old, plus a 4 month old baby. Spinning plates!
Loved this. I call our homeschool style “Relaxed Classical”. Some days are more relaxed than others. ;)
I’m a planner, so I love to break down how many lessons per week, per month, etc. but I’ve learned over the years (our oldest is almost 13) not to let that dictate our lives.
I am embracing your “do the next thing” attitude. It did me no good to have my schedule of lessons to finish the math book last year. Towards the end of the year, when I realized my DS didn’t grasp division, I finally woke up and realized that it didn’t matter if I got through the book if there was no understanding. I am free! My new plan is diligence and do the next thing. I think I got that from your blog. ;)
Thank you, Sarah, for discussing the importance of flexibility. I don’t have babies or toddlers, and I only have two that I’m homeschooling, but flexibility along with the other ideas in this post are vital for me too. I’m pushing 50 and don’t have the stamina I once had. Also, when I am rigid with the schedule or try to do too much, I get stressed and am no longer teaching from a state of rest. For the sake of my family, teaching from a state a rest needs to be one of my big rocks and remaining flexible helps me to achieve it.
I really enjoyed this post today. I struggle with “letting go” of some subjects. I hate to admit this but I feel an immense amount of pressure to finish all of my curriculum (self-imposed mind you and of course through comparison). This is even after I have read your other posts on curriculum. I need to give myself permission to let go of the smaller stuff.
I like the visual of the “big rocks” and letting everything else filter in as it can. My “big rocks” are math, language arts, morning time and history. Everything else that I feel has to get done (handwriting, maps, art, etc) will have to be the fill-in. I will have to use a timer for the pebbles. I think there will be relief all around when we can wrap-up without trying to get it all done in one sitting.
Working on letting go will be my biggest challenge this year. Well, that and a newborn due in September ;)
God Bless,
Jen
I’m so happy Scholesisters is up and going! Thank you so much for sharing with us homeschooling mamas in this format. I have been homeschooling for 6 years now, but haven’t found the right groove yet! Prayerfully reading these inspiring and inspired words here. May God bless us all!
Thanks for sharing what classical education looks like in your home Sarah. I’m basically taking the do-the-next-thing approach with the daily subjects for my first grader. I created a basic chart for daily and weekly work that fits this style more. It allows me much more flexibility. :)
I’m expanding our read aloud time this year. Last year we mainly did literature and some poetry. And then we did fine arts on Fridays. This year, fine arts are incorporated into our read-aloud basket and I’m adding in more things like history, Shakespeare, and more literature.
oh my, that last picture is just fantastic! How fun!
Thank you for sharing Andrew’s advice to stop when you’ve finished what you’d planned for the day. I remember him saying that in your interview with him, but I’d forgotten and am glad for the reminder. In fact, we have just begun timing our subjects, and it’s working so well. I’ve found that the time allotted is usually more than enough and when we can stop early everyone is pleased. When we run out of time I have made it a point to stop anyway and that really helps the kids to stay on task with their work because they know that I won’t be pushing and pushing to “just finish one more thing” like I have in the past. I don’t think we’ll need to use the timer forever, but for now it is helping us to get into a mindset of having a time for everything and not trying to fit things in where they don’t belong.