CH050: Keeping Track of the Day’s Work (with Virginia Lee) - Convivial Homeschool Audio Blog - classical & cheerful homeschooling moms

Summary: <a href="https://www.simplyconvivial.com/ch-season9">Season 9: Real Life Homeschooling Tips</a><br> <br> Listen:<br> Mystie: Alright, so in this episode we’re going to talk about keeping track of what needs to be done. If you have multiple children and multiple subjects to teach (and that’s pretty much all of us) then we have a lot to keep track of and a lot to make happen. So, I thought that we’d talk about different methods and strategies for keeping track of all that stuff. So, how do you keep things straight in an average homeschool day?<br> Virginia Lee: Well, I think my biggest battle in that is, honestly, just myself. I have a lot I want to get done in a day and a certain way I’d like it to happen by a certain time, and so, I really have to spend a lot of time just thinking about what are the underlying principles for my day and for these people that God’s gifted me with before I think about how to manage everything.<br> Mystie: Yeah.<br> Virginia Lee: So, I just spend a lot of time reminding myself that my children are born persons, being Charlotte Mason homeschoolers that is one of the key philosophies of Charlotte Mason and principles for our home, and so just whatever method I employ I have to remind myself am I respecting that fact that my children are born persons? It’s not about getting X number of things done by a certain time.<br> Mystie: Right.<br> Virginia Lee: And that just keeps me from steamrolling over everybody. Whatever you use to keep track of your daily stuff and make sure your daily things are going to happen we have to know what is our reason, what is our goal for doing all of this? We want our children to learn to care rightly about things, to serve their family, to be good stewards of their time, and to have a joyful personality through it all, so I think even when we’re thinking about what we’re going to use we have to be really aware of how am I modeling this and the things that I’m choosing to balance with is the stuff that’s me poking and prodding them through the day or rewarding them because they want marks and prizes, or am I allowing natural consequences of the good and the bad, that kind of thing. So, I guess that’s my biggest thing. I feel like there are a lot of different ways to manage how you’re going to juggle everything in a day for yourself and your kiddos but the most important part is to really think about what is my vision, what is my goal here, who are these eternal souls in my home, and what I choose to use, is it respecting that?<br> Mystie: And even how I’m implementing it.<br> Virginia Lee: Oh yes. See, here, I’m thinking about ‘OK, how am I going to organize this?’<br> Mystie: If you don’t know why you’re doing each of those things on the check list then you really don’t know how to prioritize. So, you really have to start from that why: why are you doing each thing? Why are the things prioritized the way that they are? And, why are keeping you track? Why are you managing the way that you’re managing? When you know those things I think it allows you to be flexible.<br> Virginia Lee: Especially when you’re not having an average day because, I mean, let’s face it—that’s probably not the norm. Average is to not have an average day when you have multiple different ages and people. So, I feel like I can say this is what we do in our house but sometimes I worry about that because then I think that people think, ‘Oh well, let me see your checklist. Let me see what timers or if you’re using something like that. Those things are helpful to see of other people’s …<br> Mystie: But that’s not really the best place to start. You can’t just adopt someone else’s strategies and methods and the way that they’re doing it, the little things that they’re doing and get the same results, because it’s really those underlying principles and the why.<br> Virginia Lee: And the remembering who our children are. So, I think a big thing in my home,