Our Weekly Schedule (for Nosy Nellies!)
/I'm so glad you're here! I was just thinking about my last post where I shared our plans for the upcoming school year. Several people had questions about our participation in Classical Conversations and also, "How will you do all of that?" lol.
I wanted to address those questions because I think the answers may be helpful. When you see someone's homeschool plans written out, it's easy to miss all of the context behind how those plans actually fit into a family's week. So, here's a little more context about ours.
Why We Participate in Classical Conversations
For context, there really aren't many cooperatives in our area. I am convinced that community is incredibly important for myself and the boys, so we are very much a "co-op" family. Aside from that, classical education is also a passion of mine.
While I don't agree with every aspect of the method Classical Conversations implements, I think that it's mostly very good material. Because there is nothing perfect under the sun, their mostly very good curriculum plus a very precious group of families means we are a CC family until the Lord directs us otherwise.
How Does CC Fit with Our Other Curriculum Choices?
Isn't CC "rigorous?"
Let's remember that rigor means stiff, rigid, and inflexible. Rigor is not the same as challenging or requiring diligence.
In the elementary/Foundations level, CC is memory work. That's it. Families can choose to do wayyyyyy more with the memory work, like mapwork, using the history for in-depth study, following their science sequence, and adding other content like Apologia. But also, you can just do the memory work, and that's it.
Because of my goals for the year, we are just doing the memory work. That's it. So, we have community day for three hours one morning per week, then we will practice the memory work at home (or in the car) for a few minutes each day. That's all.
Fortunately, CC is in Cycle 3, which is their "American history" year. They don't follow the same kind of cycles other classical programs do. That works out perfectly because my Constitution & Citizenship curriculum fully supports and aligns with much of their Cycle 3 content. It's not a week-by-week perfect alignment, but generally speaking, they'll reinforce each other.
CC is a very challenging curriculum in middle and high school, which is called "Challenge," unironically. So once the boys are in middle and high school, if we stay with CC through those years, you won't see me adding a bunch of additional content.
Challenge is indeed challenging.
How Will We Do All of It?
Well, I won't be the only one doing it, which is incredibly important to keep in mind.
I'm always hesitant to share information about our family's rhythms and routines because I am fully aware that most mamas who homeschool do NOT have a whole extra adult at home all day long as well.
Because Danny works for Gentle + Classical too, and he handles his work in the mornings, he has the afternoons to basically fill in where I need him.
As a side note, people sometimes wonder what Danny does for Gentle + Classical or in general. Danny ships all the packages you receive. He keeps the inventory updated and moved from one warehouse to another, deals with shipping issues, and fights continuously with USPS. He also handles all the farm animals—feed, hay, etc.
Additionally, our 55+ year-old house is actively falling down around us, and with 10 acres, there's never not something to bushhog, mow, trim, rebuild, or otherwise tend to. So when he's not rebuilding a bathroom from the floor joists up—his current task—he's managing our property in some way or is with the boys, who are always in the midst of this with him when they aren't just playing.
He also takes them to their MMA at night, does all the dishes, and helps tackle laundry and random bathroom cleanings. These are just a few things he does. Mostly, he keeps me sane, which is like a full-time job. ;)
The other day, as I sorted all our curriculum, I felt overwhelmed and asked for his help. I showed him my beautifully planned school week, which is very full and definitely not easy. There was no way I could do all of it, have any margin in my day to keep from feeling super overwhelmed, and also do my work for Gentle + Classical—emails, social media, ads, website maintenance, writing curriculum, and managing the two amazing ladies who work for us. Plus, I'm now writing a book that's due next June, so there's those 55,000 words too.
I felt panicked because there wasn't one part of my work or their school that I felt like was "disposable."
So, Danny started grabbing curriculum, looking through it, and telling me what he thought he could handle or would enjoy doing. Honestly, it was really fun, and I came away from it way more excited about our school year.
At the end of it, our week will look like me writing early in the morning, doing school with the boys until about lunch, then handing him the baton to take over for the afternoon lessons.
Dividing Our Homeschool Day
Because I know you like a visual, here's our planned week, which we submit to the Lord and hold loosely!
The pink is me, and the blue is Danny. Also, the last block of the pink where we are doing math, grammar, and handwriting is both super independent—using CTCMath, spiral fact practice, a one-page grammar workbook, and a one-page handwriting practice—and it can be completed earlier.
So, Daxton may finish literature with me and choose to roll right into his math and other work so that he can have a longer break. Lastly, Danny can also handle all of those subjects as well. So if I need to do some housework, have a break, work out, whatever… he can take that block too.
In this way, he and I both have time to do our Gentle + Classical work, the boys have a challenging school day—which is what we have decided is right for our kids and our family for this year—and no one person is handling too much work.
I get to teach the stuff I love: Latin, Literature, Citizenship, and CC memory work. Danny handles math, spelling, Bible, and science, which he's looking forward to (as much as he can lol).
Why I'm Sharing What Our Week Looks Like
I'm sharing all of that for a few reasons.
First, so you can see that I'm not Superwoman. Our situation is unusual and an incredible blessing to our family. That's not lost on us for a second. If Danny ever needs to return to outside employment, the way this looks would pivot drastically.
You can also see how we are utilizing "shifts" and time blocks to accomplish our goals of work, family, and home education. We are ALSO employing outside help through online classes for subjects that we find important but don't have the margin (or knowledge) to do well. I think that's super important to note.
Our week balances some challenging work (hello, Latin), some fun and connection work (hello, Citizenship—with debate and civics—plus hands-on Physics), edifying work (hello, Apologetics and Bible), and core skills we need to keep working on, like spelling, cursive, grammar, and reading fluency.
We also have one morning with community, followed by a lunch usually filled with a hardcore football game or soccer; BJJ and Kickboxing five nights per week with friends; church on Sunday mornings and Wednesday nights; and an afternoon of free play with some nature collection or a walk on Fridays.
And as "ideal" as all of that sounds for me, given our family's goals and vision statement, I hold it all very loosely.
The Veritas Press classes may be paced too aggressively for us. Dad may stink at spelling instruction lol. Whatever happens, it's definitely 100% certain that this plan will need to pivot, reset, and refocus throughout the year because while I can make academic plans, I certainly cannot control the future.
That's an important part of planning our homeschool too. We can thoughtfully consider our children, our goals, our available time, and the work we believe is worth doing. Then we make the best plan we can and submit that plan to the Lord. As the year unfolds, we can adjust accordingly.
Where's the Morning Basket, Erin?
That's a great question.
Essentially, the contents for the morning basket—art study, folk songs, poems, and Scripture memory—are all coming from Constitution & Citizenship. We will definitely be doing that on Tuesday and Friday.
I currently don't know if we will have time to work through those menus on Monday and Wednesday. Ideally, I'd love to, but the boys will be reading so much amazing literature through their classes and reading practice that I'm not too stressed about it.
Twice a week is beautiful too!
Ultimately, that's how we're approaching this entire school year. We have a full plan because it reflects the goals we have for our boys and our family right now. We have two parents sharing the teaching, outside teachers helping in a few areas, independent work built into the day, community throughout the week, and plenty of things we're excited to learn together.
And we have every intention of changing that beautiful plan when real life inevitably requires it.
I'm so glad you're here! I was just thinking about my last post where I shared our plans for the upcoming school year. Several people had questions about our participation in Classical Conversations and also, "How will you do all of that?" lol.
I wanted to address those questions because I think the answers may be helpful. When you see someone's homeschool plans written out, it's easy to miss all of the context behind how those plans actually fit into a family's week. So, here's a little more context about ours.