Captain Me Planet

We consider ourselves unschoolers.  Because I can’t stick to a schedule more than 3 days in a row.  Because our oldest hates workbooks.  Because we all like to sleep late when we feel like it.  Because we like to do what seems  best for that day.  Because there is no boxed curriculum that really fits all of us, and it is too expensive to buy per child.  Per interest.  Per phase. 

And, because, I love the idea of child interest led learning.  

Private Girly wants to knit a scarf?  We get Knitting for Dummies (me, not her).  Private Youngest wants to make a car out of a cardboard box and blocks?  Here’s the duct tape.  We need to build our math chops?  Hey, get some construction paper, a marker and make a life size board game, with the prize of a buck to the one who makes it to the end fastest (each right answer gets a child one construction paper block further ahead).

But Private Oldest is giving me gray hair.  If left to his own devices, it’d be  media, media, some Gameboy, a little more media, and a couple of hours on my computer, surfing the Lego site.  He cannot be left strictly to his own child led interests.

He reads voraciously.  He loves to build with Legos.  Writes stories.  Plays hard outside.  Has just earned his second belt in Karate.  He has other interests.  He just prefers to, if he were able, to either watch, or participate in and watch, something on a screen.  A computer screen, TV screen, video screen.  He’ll play with an old cell phone or digital watch for half and hour.  He is the child that will literally watch the test pattern.  Once, when I told them they could not watch cartoons because it was just too noisy, he said, fine, I’ll turn off the sound.  Right, that’ll last long, thought stupid me.  I told him to cut it out after 45 minutes.  45 minutes of soundless cartoons.

So around here, largely due to our media monger, we’re SemiSchoolers.  A routine helps.  Waking them up by 8:30 most days helps them fall asleep sooner in the evening.  Having lunch within the same 45 minutes period of time daily gives them something to count on and serves as the transition time in our day, from Mom-directed, to self directed. Giving them specific tasks to accomplish, including lessons, leaves less time to want to gorge on media. 

Is there a typical day?  Yeah.  First of all, I had these children, sacrificed my bikini worthy belly for them, and they make a big mess.  So I put’em to work. Arise, get your own room ready for the day, if it’s a wreck, and come down for breakfast.  Help me with breakfast.  They’re big enough.  Brush those teeth we’re spending a fortune to straighten, and come back to give me a hand.

Basic laundry sorting.  Bringing it down to the mudroom.  What needs vacumming, spit shined.  Is the dishwasher emptied and ready to receive the first of probably 3 loads for the day?  Do sheets need cleaning, or towels cycled, and is there toilet paper in each bathroom?  And has the dog been fed this week?  Are the gerbils still alive?  Next month, I’m thinking baseboards.  Muwaa haaaa haaaa haaaaaaaaaaaa.

And then I consult a loosely laid out set of lesson plans.  Instead of Mon., Tues., Wed. and so on, I just label them, 1., 2., 3. etc.  That way, if something comes up, like we go see the great grandparents, or work all day in the yard, I don’t feel like we’re behind.  I hate feeling behind.  So this way, we’re not.  We just stopped at lesson 3, and can pick up at 4 when we’re back to lessons.  However long it takes, like if the children visit their grandparents in Atlanta, or Texas, for the week.  And if lesson 4 ends up taking 3 days, because they really get into it, then we’re still unschooling.  With a plan.  See?  No guilt. But no hard agenda.  Semischooling.  Is this word in the Urban Dictionary?  I need to get credit.

It also helps me stay atop of math progress, and carve out time to make sure I work with Girly and her reading.  It keeps me disciplined, just enough, but not too much.  And then we have lunch, and they get free time.  Or we run errands.  And it’s only 4 hours til time to gear up for dinner, baths, etc.  Know what else?  They bicker less.  Probably because they have less time to get bored, and pick pick pick.  Which seems to be the past time of choice when they’re bored.  Which drives me to drink.  And it’s a bit awkward when I break out the Pinot at 2 pm.

What am I communicating, rambling on about?  We shift and change when the needs of the children shift and change.  At one time, more structure wasn’t needed.  Now, it is.  And this is the beauty of schooling at home.  I can appraise what’s going on, and add, delete or shape what the children need.  No teacher with 25 or 30 other children can assess so intimately what I am blessed to assess.  Is it constant?  Exhausting?  Confusing?  Nerve racking?  Intimidating?  Yes.  All of the above.  

But between the gifts God has given us, and His absolute love for our children, and their well-being, we’ll figure it out.  They are not alone.  Even if I’m occasionally completely imcompetent.   Or, more accurately, often completely incompetent.  In the end, we, as their parents, know them better than anyone, trained professional, or not.  And I’m grateful for the chance to use this knowledge.