It was not my plan to homeschool our children but I found myself there. Today I'm sharing some of what came after in the hopes of helping a homeschool parent. My plan is to do a few more posts on the subject so today I'm looking back a year and a half and remembering the misery I was in and sharing one decision that changed our lives dramatically for the better.
One lesson I hold dearly is this: if mama ain't happy ain't nobody happy. If I don't like the materials, the daily rhythm, the atmosphere, the vision, the length of time, or the space there is no hope of success. I realized that I, not the box curriculum creators, not the internet, not the neighbors, or our friends, I am the sun these little hearts and minds orbit and all the factors that diminish my joy for homeschool darken their day too. There is not much separation between schooltime, choretime, naptime, playtime, and prayertime. It is all life and it's all happening in my home with my facilitation.
That said, I was not happy, and felt guilty about it but also, I'm stubborn and want to see things through. A BIG positive change was the decision to bring us all into one room for school. Prior Everett was working in his room, Will and I were working in this awkward tiny pass-through area that wasn't comfortable and Beauregard was running amok all over the house. I'm a person who likes designated places and spaces for each activity and object but working within our home meant there wasn't an extra room to use as a school room, or was there?
Our home has three bedrooms (occupied by the five of us), two bathrooms (not so good for homeschooling), a kitchen, a dining room (already doubles as my laundry folding station), a living room and that weird pass-through area I mentioned before. With Everett in his room we never saw him and his littlest brother was always sneaking in there to distract him. We were using Abeka curriculum then as I hadn't the confidence to pick my own materials yet. My first breakthrough was actually changing curriculum. We currently use the Robinson Curriculum and love it. ( https://www.robinsoncurriculum.com ) I'll do a post of that in the future but I have to mention it first because part of the course of study is no t.v. except for an occasional documentary or movie approved by the parent. No t.v.? Could it even be done? Would we still be Americans?
No t.v. basically rendered our living room useless. I realized there was no "living" going on in that space. In fact, it's where life went to die as we passively absorbed the adventures, luxuries, sins, materialism and creativity of others. I knew the obvious solution to my disconnected, cramped home school. The living room needed to be the schoolroom.
But I had a hang up! Admittedly, it was a superficial one. I liked my living room! I had taken time and effort to arrange and decorate it in a manner that gave me a nice dopamine kick each time I walked in there. It took me two days of fighting this inner thought war before I settled on lifestyle over looks and it has been the BEST decision.
We bought a $50 table off Marketplace and picked up a free cabinet from the same to house supplies and a chalkboard fit perfectly in the t.v. cabinet to cover the t.v. and is still easy to remove for family movie night on Friday. Voila! We had a new heart of the home and honestly, I still think our room is beautiful and it gives me the feels to work in a pretty, calm space.
There is no more fighting over shows or worrying about inappropriate content they'll encounter. In this room we not only educate ourselves and our children, we study the bible, have conversations, play chess, draw, paint, build, play instruments, make plans, and have life in this schoolroom. The heart of our home is full. Our family is closer than ever. I'm able to better manage our schedule when we are all together and Beauregard naturally joins us and reads books, plays with toys or draws on the chalkboard all while his brothers are setting a good example for him. If you think you don't have room for a schoolroom in your house you may be surprised what really matters to you when you give your spaces a second thought.
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