To Appreciate Beauty: School Schedules

It's that time of year! I've been to the revitalizing annual Childlight USA conference, we have had some lovely short vacation time and a break from structured schooling. The children finished up our combined and tweaked school year based on year 5 of amblesideonline, although a few term 3 books carried us into the summer months.

So now we begin afresh. There is something to the newness of creating a new schedule for a new year. Every year is different as each year the children have grown in different ways. This year Maura joins the big group. Last year was her first year of formal schooling and Kaley graciously tutored her for me in between her internship for most of the year. That gave me a chance to work with the 4 other children as a group and chase toddlers while Maura was able to receive lots of fairy tales and stories that are special to a first year of school. That worked well for us last year. I don't know that it will ever work out that way again. This year Max and Josiah are older and play more quietly while we are reading.

So this year I have modified year 6 of ambleside for 5 children ages 7-13. This will be a transition year for my 13yo. Each term he will be adding more independent work. Next year most of his history and literature will be separate from the younger children. There are certain subjects we will always do as a group, such as: Shakespeare, Plutarch, geography, poetry, nature study, composer and art study as well as some reading aloud.

I delight in getting books in the mail, hunting down used books and mapping out our days. I do tend to pile a lot on our plates and sometimes have to pare down. I think of the first schedule I make as my most optimistic attempt. If life flowed gently and easily this is what we would do. I try to hold it lightly in my grasp as I know some of it might not work or might need to be tweaked. That just has to be okay. I do feel it is important to have a broad liberal curriculum. Just as we need lots of variety of healthy foods for our bodies, our minds need lots of ideas to work on.

The most challenging thing for me about scheduling our year was not choosing books or deciding which subjects to teach but how to teach such a spread of ages without burning myself out. I appreciate Charlotte Mason saying how much easier it was to teach a class of children on the same level as a few children all at different ages and levels. The hardest thing for me is meeting everyone's needs and not wearing myself out. I love what I do! I don't want to get burnt out. I like to think of our home school as a one room school house. Because it is! But somehow that helps me plan it out a little better. Maybe I'm still pretending I'm Laura Ingalls...