Shane was happily playing outside when I picked him up from his last day of pre-coronavirus school.
Shane's a loud, active, and social kid. How in the world were we going to survive homeschooling him!?
I let the question simmer over the weekend. There wasn't a need to rush in without a plan (Proverbs 19:2 is spot on for this: "Desire without knowledge is not good - How much more will hasty feet miss the way?")
Three principles guided what I came up with:
1 - Routine
2 - Flexibility
3 - Activity
First, a routine was essential. It would be good for all of us. The trick would be to define it, set healthy expectations, and stick with it until it became normal. It didn't have to be perfect. There was no way I was going to get it right the first try! There would be some things set in stone like horse chores in the morning and evening, lunch at noon, but the rest would be a work in progress.
Which leads to point #2: Flexibility. One of the advantages of home-schooling is it crafted to the individual and situation. There aren't outside rules like school buses, set class times, large classes, and standardized curriculum. Whatever I come up with, I'm going to evolve from week to week (if not day to day). If things go really well, I'll pick up the pace. If things go slowly, I'll stop and think about ways to adjust. The goal is to get Shane in moments where he is actively engaged and learning.....and to keep him busy sometimes for my sanity's sake if I'm going to be honest.
I decided that I didn't need to have set times for school. Instead, I would have a set of mandatory activities that Shane could choose between so long as all were finished. Choice is a powerful tool and my hope was that by giving Shane some say in things he would be more engaged in any activity in the moment and take more personal accountability for how he did (after all, he chose it!).
It never entered my mind to keep Shane in home school for 7.5 hours a day.
As a teacher, I have to find the best way to reach the most kids with the time, materials, and energy I have. The truth is, I'll never reach every one every time. Some work faster and some work slower and how's fast and who's slow can change depending on the day, subject, mood, and even minute! I normally have students for an hour and a half and my goal is to keep everyone actively engaged for at least an hour. I know there's going to be dead time here and there. They're kids not robots. Managing the dead time, so that kids are still in the room and preferably something positive (but at least not detrimental) is the key. Kids will need time to talk, process, connect, rest, go to the bathroom, and move (Why do you think there's recess in elementary school?).
The last thing on my mind was moving. Shane is high energy. HIGH energy. He doesn't always like to run or do something athletic, but he's always making noise, twitching in place, stirring up the dog, or jumping on me. He can get lost in electronics, but if he's on them too long his little battery charges up until there's an overflow. The moment the power goes off he's ballitzoid crazy running around full speed, talking fast, loud, and clamoring for attention with the dog tearing after him.
It's enough to drive a parent crazy. I can't keep up with that!
So Shane needed ways to get his stink out every day. Some of it could be "Go outside," but he almost always wants someone to be interacting with him. He's super social! I can't goof off like a nine-year old, so there would have to be some activities that I could enjoy with him to work his stink out and keep all of us healthy.
So, what's our routine?
For the first week, I decided on 7 mandatory activities.
1 - House chores
2 - Animal care
3 - Reading
4 - Math
5 - Bible time and writing practice
6 - Lacrosse practice
7 - Clean up something
*Unspoken - Non-electronic time also known as "Learn to entertain yourself some!"
House chores - Shane already do some stuff. He helps with the horses and I expect him to put dirty clothes in a bin when asked, take out the trash, stomp on cans, etc. I decided to explicitly list it as valuable. I tell Shane all the time, "He's able to help" and I mean it.
Animal care - Shane's been feeding the cats and the dog every morning. He did it once and liked all the cats swarming him with attention. He liked it and it became his job. I expect Shane to take Loki outside from time to time and run with him and do other helpful things. I hope that it teaches him responsibility and helps him be connected to the animals. Plus, it's helpful.
Reading - Non negotiable. I'm going to need to start reading the same stuff as him so that I can converse with him about it. For this week, it's nice to just shoo Shane to his room or the couch so I can get a breather.
Math - I'm a math teacher. It's supposed to be my specialty and Shane's naturally good at it. I always say, "Math is patterns and patterns are everywhere!" Shane had some calculation worksheets he brought home I figured I'd have him do one of a day. We bought a membership to Prodigy, so that's a decent time killer that hopefully does some teaching, as well (for parental sanity).
Bible time & writing - It's exactly what it sounds like. We read a small section, Shane picks out a verse that resonated with him, and I have him write it down a couple of times. The next day, I ask him to repeat what he wrote down and we skip ahead to a new section. I decided to start in Genesis to cover some basics.
Lacrosse practice - Shane needs to move. It'd be awesome when (and if) Shane's lacrosse program meets again he's improved so much he looks like any other kid running around. I like doing something fun AND productive.
Clean up something - I feel like I'm doing the majority of the housework. Shane leaves wrappers on tables, doesn't rinse his toothpaste spit out of the sink, forgets to lift the toilet seat, and does other small annoying things kids do. May as well call him out on them in the hopes he learns!
Non-electronic time - There's going to be more electronics. There aren't any other kids or places to take Shane. I only have so much energy in the scheme of things and I didn't turn out too bad with how much electronics I had. The kid needs to learn how to entertain himself at times, though. My goal is to have less than 4 hours of electronics a day when quarantined. Preferably, 2 or less, but I'm not sure that's realistic.
Right now, the treadmill seems to be the closet thing we have to an indoor playground. Shane likes to fart around on it. He gets away with a lot more when I'm around than when Carrie is.
My biggest fear is the dog is going to bite it hard enough his teeth punctures something and it rips out a tooth.
Shane's happy to be loud and annoying in the house, but it's taken a little bit of pushing to get him to go outside.
I'm happy I found a baseball glove! I don't have a lacrosse stick and the glove lets me jump for Shane's wild throws.
Hindsight: I think we went out 4 out of 5 'school' days the first quarantine week.
Loki watched the first time. He really wanted to join us. I don't think he even saw Bucket lurking behind the curtains.
We brought him out Tuesay. Loki loves catch.
Shane gets frustrated with how fast Loki snatches a ball he misses. I think it's hilarious. I'm trying to get Shane to recognize Loki increases the difficulty, yes, but if Shane can box out the dog? He'll be set to deal with real people, no problem!
Carrie attempted to play catch some on Tuesday! We have two balls, and we've learned to throw one for Loki to keep him out of the way. He got hit once by Shane and yelped (Lacrosse balls are really dense).
I showed Shane how to play "Wall ball" on Tuesday. I was hoping he'd be able to practice independently some!
Carrie wasn't as fond of the loud thuds on the siding. I dropped Loki in the ditch to slow him down, but he jumped out and chased after everything Shane threw!
I didn't want a dog (yet) originally, but I'm really glad we have Loki now. Shane enjoys playing with him.....even if that playing is trying to build a trap out of the treadmill.
My big goals of the first week were to establish a baseline and not go crazy. I plan to worry about progress later on, so we'll see how things go!
PS - Some of the jokes online have been hysterical. "Three hours into homeschooling and one kid is suspended for cutting class and the other is already expelled," made me laugh out loud. So did "Many parents are about to find out the teacher isn't the problem!"
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