Mundanely Marvelous - Homeschool Schedule

It’s been a week.

Professionally, I’m making a change. It’s my last week with a wonderful company in the education industry and after a couple weeks off, starting tomorrow, I’ll be entering a new industry (construction), new role, new company. I updated my LinkedIn profile and apparently aged ten years overnight.

I’ve been up and down and all around with feelings and tasks. Transitioning out of a role, at least the way I do it, is intense. It takes major organizational skills. It forces me to put myself to task. All those little to do items that weren’t urgent but still need to be done floating around in my brain had to be collected, documented, to the extent possible, completed or advanced and transitioned to a colleague. Luckily, fresh off our annual time at the beach for Andi’s 5th (!) birthday, I was mindful enough to decide:

This would be the week where I would not only try to remember, but actually honor (and give myself credit for) the reality that all time spent with children is “homeschool.” And we spend a lot of time with our children.

Here’s the different and, dare I say, successful, homeschool schedule we followed this week.

Monday – I have no clue because I had to leave the home all day to feed Abi and Abu’s animals and care for their plants and do laundry at their house (we still don’t have a washer or drier at home), and, oh yeah, work all day. Thank you, husband! I do know they baked a banana bread with dad, which we took to their homeschool co-op award ceremony that evening. We had a lovely time together. This also led to a conversation and the children’s discovery that, because we take the “academic schooling” real slow and as “life” permits, we “school” year-round and the school year’s not over for us until that Kindergarten math book says we are. More on that below.

Tuesday – Everyone, and I mean, everyone, did morning chores. All I had to do was ask.

“Luc, can you please walk Ollie?”

“Andi, can you please feed the ducks and take them out to play?”

“Layla, can you please fill Ollie’s food and water bowl and keep your brother company on the walk?”

It was amazing! All I had to do was prep breakfast. And dad got to make up for his 24-hr shift on Monday. He worked.

We viewed a Taylor Swift interview together and practiced active listening and comprehension. Yes, if you read this blog, you probably know I’m a fan. But that’s not why we watched. We watched together because I was sneaking it alone before my shower when I realized she was saying things worth sharing with them. Most importantly, given what I want first grade to look like for Luc, she said: “There’s something mysterious about writing. The more I write, the more I keep writing.” Then she went on to share how good she feels when she writes and the creation process, etc. Lovely! And things tend to go down better when mom/teacher isn’t “preaching.”

Later that day, I reviewed the letters “e”-de-“elefante” and “i”-de-“iguana” with the girls, which was the homework Spanish-teacher-Abi left while she was away and would surely ask about when she returned (this Friday!). And later still, I suggested Luc read aloud to his sisters and guess what? He did! For a while! Fluently, enthusiastically. He wanted to maintain their attention; and he did. Oh yeah, and I worked all day, and we went bowling for dinner.

Wednesday – Blur. But we had pizza for dinner and watched The Big Green. Amazing, and not just because it elicited a discussion on poverty all around us, and our privilege, after Luc shouted out “they can’t be poor. They’re in America!”

Thursday – Total blur. But I was beaming with pride when Luc, sounding distressed on the ride home from another trip to care for Abi’s animals and do, you guessed it, laundry, said “Mom, we have to take my math book on vacation. I’m only on page 50. I have to finish it. Summer is only two months!”

Holy smokes!!! My six-year-old took ownership of his education!! This, folks! This. If he chooses to go to college, he is much less likely to flounder. He is already getting so much practice with prioritizing and balancing his responsibilities with his fun. This is one of the reasons we homeschool.

And it’s working.

So tell me…what’s the most mundane thing you did this week that somehow still made you smile?