How, When, and Why to Pace Yourself
Your curriculum has arrived, your school room/nook is set up, and you're all set to go! Everyone is excited to start a new school year, you're Instagramming a cool project every day, and then suddenly the six year old totally refuses to hold a pencil all day, the toddler has a total potty training regression, and the baby is cutting a new tooth. Life is horrible, and you fear your homeschool year is doomed. Don't despair! This is normal!
Because some days are great and some are horrible, it's important to pace yourself and set up coping mechanisms so that you all look back fondly on the fun and conveniently forget the fights. In the early grades, this is most easily done by keeping lessons short, even if they're ready to learn another phonics sound, taking frequent breaks (recess at 10:30, always!), building in down time in the afternoons (even the energetic extroverts can sit quietly with books or an audiobook for an hour while Mom takes a break), and having a four day week. When the kids were little, we'd do our normal routine most of the week, but on that fifth day, I loaded everyone up in the car and told them we were going on an adventure. It might be to Bible study, homeschool play group, a trip to the zoo or botanical gardens, or even just to Costco (where I let them taste every sample, no matter how junky). During covid lockdowns, our local playgrounds were closed, so it was probably more likely to be a hike followed by popsicles, a trip to the beach, or a play date with another trusted family. My three year old got a kick of riding in her car seat with me to go pick up a drive up order from Target! Regardless of your situation, it's a change of scenery and a chance to reset the day.
As you lesson plan, it's also wise to expect that the kids will be highly motivated in August into September and totally unmotivated in February. We try to be more aggressive with schoolwork in the fall so that when we all inevitably feel burned out during the winter, I don't feel bad about spending a whole day doing messy art projects, letting the kids build a fort in the living room and acting out whatever we learned about in history for a week, and setting the school books aside in the afternoons and playing board games. The winter doldrums season is when I plan my cuddle up and read days, when we do math on the kitchen floor, when I pull out the Raddish kid recipe binders and let the kids menu plan and cook for a week, and when we welcome visits from grandparents and get to do extra fun field trips because I have two extra sets of eyes to wrangle kids.
In September, your kids might be excited to do the 3 R’s as well as history, geography, science, art, art history, music appreciation, and foreign language every day. Good for you, but it’s not going to last. By October, you've all come to your senses and are focusing on grammar, math, and writing, listening to the historical fiction read aloud on audible during lunch, skipping art for the month, just playing your music appreciation CDs in the car on the way to Grandma’s, and pulling out the geography workbook only when someone slips up and says, “I'm bored!” Remember, public school kids don't get all the specials every day, so you don't have to do it all at once, either!
So feel free to plan big to start out, follow your passions, and introduce your kids to all the fun topics you’ve always wanted to explore together. But pace yourself and don’t plan to do every subject every day, week, or even month.
