As I was praying and planning for this school year there was one thing that kept coming up - the need for peace. This fall, we will pack up our house, leave behind church and friends, drive 900 miles to a new house, try to reintegrate with friends and family, find a new church and say goodbye to Daddy. Holding on to our Rock, our Peace in the midst of the storm, our Home port will be the only thing that will pull us through.
This summer I was introduced to the concept of "Schole", through Chris Perrin of Classical Academic Press. "Schole" is the Greek word for school....and leisure. The idea is that learning, education, should be restful! In a day and age when academic learning is defined by high stakes testing, multitasking is the norm, and pressure to achieve abounds from all angles, "schole" almost seems antithetical to learning.
We put aside the busy work.
We focus on one task at a time.
We keep first things first.
We focus on enjoying the journey - not on the destination!
Finding peace in the midst of 6 children, laundry, cleaning, cooking, church, bills, budgets, grocery shopping, doctors appointments, packing, and planning, must be a deliberate act. It must begin with me.
I began with the schedule. Curriculum was consolidated and pared down to meet individual needs while eliminating busy and extra work. Then I sat down to the yearly task of trying to figure out how one of me is going to be stretched across 6 children, 30 "classes" and a household. I got overwhelmed. I cried. I gave up.
I become a slave to the schedule. It masters me, leaving me feeling exhausted, stretched too thin and unaccomplished. There is too much to do and not enough time no matter how I try to plan. So I stopped planning. Ok, I stopped planning the hour to hour and day to day for everyone. Instead, I plan a week at a time in 5 week chunks. Each child now receives a weekly assignment chart, broken down by subject and recommended daily tasks, and all books, worksheets, maps, questions etc.. needed for the entire week. How those tasks get done, in what order and when I do what with whom is left up to life. We have a rough outline of the week. Math, literature, grammar, writing and Latin are done every day. Social Studies on Monday and Wednesday; Science on Tuesday and Thursday with Friday being reserved for dialectic and rhetoric discussions - and those that are most important. History and Literature Socratic discussion may not happen every week, but it happens when the content or student most needs it.
I am choosing to make curriculum a tool we use, not the master of our day.
I have really cracked down on chores and waking up. I wake everyone up - once. There is a list of chores that need to be done each day, once a week and once a month. I no longer assign them, but every child must be working on chores, and they all must be completed, before breakfast. If you don't help, you don't eat. I refuse to argue, beg, yell, or bribe. It is very simple. If I don't see you working, helping and cooperating, you don't eat.....and it is up to me and me alone to determine when it is completed. The first several weeks there were unhappy, and hungry, children. Sometimes they had chosen to go back to sleep after being woken. Some chose to sit on the couch and watch others work. Some were sent back to their rooms until they were ready to help cheerfully, or at least without bickering or being mean. 7 weeks into school, most of the them have realized it is in their own best interest to just do what needs to be done!
The hardest for me in choosing peace is when it is all falling apart. Refusing to argue with a child.
Giving myself a "time-out" when I need it. Taking a breath, and even delaying discipline or the next task, until I can handle it with love and grace. Taking the time to cuddle the fussy preschooler; or listen to the emotional teen; or guiding minds to discover for themselves instead of answering questions. I am trying to be more intentional about creating an environment that is peaceful for me. Not that the children's, and my husband's, preferences don't matter, they do, but knowing that I matter too and if I am not at peace, the rest of the household suffers. Morning and evening quiet time is essential for me. It doesn't matter if I read, study, play Facebook games, blog or take a walk, I need time away from noise, confusion and clutter. Frequently during the day, I have quiet music playing in the background - usually some Chris Tomlin or the Gettys while preparing breakfast, classical or several varieties of instrumental during school (the 8 year old is into ragtime right now), and maybe something a little more upbeat during the afternoon (if my preschooler has her way it is the Frozen soundtrack!). Music quiets my mind, sets my heart on things above and soothes my soul. Inevitably, the lyrics swirling through the house, or through my mind, speak to what is going on at the moment. Tomlin reminds me "My chains are gone/I've been set free" when I'm feeling cornered, or Queen Elsa pleads to "Let it go" as a preteen is grumbling.
Most important is remembering where peace comes from. The schedules, the clean house, the environment I create must all be anchored in the Prince of Peace. I must choose daily, hourly and sometimes minute by minute, to find peace in Christ. He is my Shelter in the midst of the storms of life and the Giver of fair winds and following seas. He provides grace for each and every moment, and joy overflowing through out the day. He is my Strength, my Song, my Salvation.
No comments:
Post a Comment