Looking Through The Window of Duck's House

"Seize the moment to grow in the love of your children. Love and education will be intertwined if you don't focus so much on the structure of your day. Enjoy your kids today and take the time to go outside and just have fun."

Our school schedule has been the same for many years, but life's challenges got in the way and changed the traditional look of our school days. With some self evaluation I have come to terms with what our "new" school day looks like.  As I am writing this, it is my prayer that God will use it to provide encouragement for you to gracefully accept the changes that arise in your school world as well.

Our typical day before was that I got up at 6:00 AM and Duck got up at 7:00 AM. Time to make the beds, get dressed, get to the chores, eat the breakfast and be ready for school by 9:00 AM.  When that didn't happen somehow the entire structure for the rest of the day would be off.


After homeschooling for 10 years now, I have come to realized the importance of seeing that we are at home and homeschooling doesn't need to look like what traditional school looks like. Isn't that the very reason why we are homeschooling anyway?  I know for my family I want my child to enjoy being at home and enjoy learning and putting the strain of this structure on her was really wearing her down.


Our past summer didn't look like a typical one to me. We had to work through some of life's struggles, which we did just fine, but then came the time to drag out the books for a new school year. With the family challenges in place I really had to examine what our school day was going to look like now.  By God's amazing grace I was able to work through our situation and never one time got stressed out about what our new school day looked like. It wasn't until recently I realized that although as moms and teachers we think that every year will be the same structure of getting up, doing the chores, eating breakfast, and the starting school, that with every year our kids are another year older. It is important to re-evaluate our schedules and be ready to make the necessary changes as they are needed. Our kids will be so much happier in the end.

The time had come for us to see some change in how we are doing our daily routine. I have lightened up on the structured day of our schooling. I am not getting Duck up at 7:00 AM now. If I know she is tired, I let her sleep as I have come to realize the more sleep she has the better natured she is during the day. She still gets dressed and makes her bed, but the morning chores isn't as time structured as it was before.  I have found that she willingly sits down and just picks a subject all by herself and does it without challenge. I haven't even been telling her it is time to start school she does it on her own.  This is a huge blessing to me. This had been a struggle of ours for many years and I am thankful for this now.


I am still using the workbox system as this is working for Duck, but I am not such a stickler about her moving from box to box and your break will be here and your snack will be here and oh no... you mean there is an unexpected field trip or fun time thrown in the mix. But we didn't get our lessons done. Nope, none of that now. I have really just learned to let it all go. We still get the basics done. Math and grammar are important areas to me and in Ducks case, as you can all see who follow this blog, she is continuing to write all the time. When there is more time in our day then we work on the other subject areas that we are covering this school year.

With the wisdom of my best friend I have really seized the opportunity to see so many more lessons that can be learned through life than anything she could learn in a workbook. I am just really seeking the opportunity to let her learn at her own pace (per say) and give her more control over what she is reading and writing about. This time of our personal development and growth has allowed us as a family to get through some of life's difficulties and still succeed at homeschooling without the pressures we often place on ourselves as teachers. Some of those areas of pressure include;  are our kids learning "enough" because we didn't get that spelling lesson done or that grammar lesson on adverbs or prepositions.  We all know how important it is for our kids to be able to pull that dangling participle phrase out of the report they may have to write when they are grown up. I feel what we have gone through as a family is an important life skill learned and the fact we are still getting our work done in a less structured environment has been the best learning opportunity my child could have ever gained.


What I'm trying to express is to remember that although our kids may be playing, cooking or cleaning they are still learning. I have really had to come to grips with the fact that although structure is good and healthy, sometimes God places obstacles in our lives and in our families for us to grow together. I know for me, that sometimes our structured day was actually a hindrance and a pressure because I didn't get everything I felt needed to be done, done. Allow your structure to be tweaked and turned around. God will continue to bless you with His grace and mercy and your kids will continue to blossom and grow in the end. Take it from me, change isn't always a bad thing. Seize the moment to grow in the love of your children. Let the structured day go so you can see the "real" learning opportunities all around you. Those opportunities are so much more fun than that worksheet or text book sitting on the desk.  Love and education will be intertwined if you don't focus so much on the structure of your day. I wish I had only learned this a few years ago. Enjoy your kids today and take the time to go outside and just have fun.