But What do You Actually Do All Day?

Deciding exactly how to spend our time can be a daily struggle.

(Isn’t how to spend your time the ultimate life question anyway?)

There are so many enticing philosophies to pull from, a need to balance my desires and goals with my daughters’ desires and goals, a household to keep, and one person in charge of setting the pace from 8:00-5:00:  Me.  I was frustrated by how little I felt I was accomplishing education-wise the other day, so I sat down and made the following list for self-encouragement.  I wanted written proof of a pattern of goodness to our days, a bare minimum mental checklist of sorts to help me actually “see” our “work”.  Here’s what I wrote happens on most days:

*We read books out loud A LOT.  Sometimes it’s over breakfast or lunch, or before nap, or at bedtime, or as a family after supper, especially in the fall and winter.   We discuss the books as we read them.  

*Play—lots and lots of play—all different kinds—and sometimes Mama joins.

*A “household” task/s—putting up laundry, cooking, cleaning-up messes, meal clean-up, and/or feeding animals, etc.

*Something “school-ish” (math sheets, writing sentences, crazy math, spelling, Montessori stuff, art).  Most of the time, I pick what these activities are.  They may last more or less than an hour.

*Jenna plays the violin.

*Discussion.

*Silliness and Laughter

Two days after writing this list, I came across one of Melissa Wiley’s (a Charlotte Mason/unschooling mom/author) blog entries referencing a “rule of six” in her daily homeschool rhythm.  In her words:

“…six things that I strive to make a part of every day we spend together:

• Good books

• Imaginative play

• Encounters with beauty (through art, music, and the natural world—this includes our nature walks)

• Ideas to ponder and discuss (there’s Miss Mason’s “something to think about”)

• Prayer”

*Meaningful Work

Turns out, according to Wiley, what we/I have been doing is very much like what Charlotte Mason advocated for education to be.  Quite simply, Charlotte Mason says that children need:

Something to love, Something to think about, Something to do

Reading about this was a sweet little shot of validation.  A “rule of six” kind of list is not only sufficient, it can be the curriculum for a four and seven-year-old .  Yes, I may go ahead and add to it if when we want to.  But at the very least, when I am asking, “now what?” and “are we doing what matters most?” I can keep coming back to the simplicity of our own rule of six (which will actually be seven J) 

It’s like returning to the breath in meditation. 

Our Rule of Seven

*Good books

            *Imaginative Play

            *Encounters with Beauty (art, nature, music)

            *Something to think about (discussing ideas, exploring projects, asking questions)

*Meaningful work (adding in the importance of doing useful things cheerfully and well, with reverence and attention)

            *Movement (our bodies crave it, especially outside)

*Love and spirituality (prayer at meals and/or the end of the day, spiritual reading, gratitude, bucket book, work for others)

Often, there is overlap.  I want to grow in each of these areas, ESPECIALLY in the spirituality realm.  

I also want the girls to be more cognizant of what we do.  I love how Melissa Wiley does that with her children, ending her day like this...

"When the girls were younger it worked so beautifully with a little fingerplay we would do at bedtime. We would hold up a finger for each thing on the list. “What did you play today?” I would ask, and eager stories would bubble forth. “Who remembers what books we read?” “Where did we meet beauty today?” It was such fun, at the end of the day, to listen to their reflections about what we’d done since breakfast. At the end of the list, we’d all be holding up the five fingers of a hand, and then we’d clap our hands together and that meant time to pray."