I"m sitting here starting to form the skeleton of our weekly school schedule. Trying to use the principle of the illustration of fitting rocks, pebbles, sand and water into a jar... Remember that old story? The problem is, I"m struggling a bit over categorizing our activities and such into rocks, pebbles, sand and water. Some things are obvious. I mean, Math is a Rock. No argument there. Music practice. Family devotions. Those things are obvious. The one I'm struggling with right now is Exercise for Mama. Lord knows I need it. I have always classed it in the pebble category-- less important than devotions or music or math, more important than laundry, yard work and playdates. This year, though, I will be going to the local YMCA for my exercise at least two days a week and boy! is it hard to sit here and look at my five day jar and trying to fit two 90 minute yoga class rocks into it. The space remaining around those giant rocks looks pretty small, folks. Pret-ty small. In addition, those rocks are black with disapproval from my boys, who hate the child care room at the Y with a mighty and enduring hatred.
But I know how important this is, even for my disapproving boys. Daily exercise, bolstered by weekly group exercise and encouragement is vital to my function as a mother. As a person! Somehow I have to "sell" this experience to them. I'm looking for ways to include some sort of school activity for Judah that he can complete on his own during that hour. Jamie is easier. He finds friends wherever he is and is still young enough that I don't begrudge a morning spent just playing.
2 comments:
Off the top of my head: get him an audio-book, a cd player, and some earphones. "Allow" him to listen for 1 1/2 hours ONLY on Y days. Get him a recording device and a list of questions which he has to talk into the device to answer. He may have the next listening session ONLY after the "narration" (re: Charlotte Mason). If you aren't religious exemption I would be afraid of being reported for neglect of school duties. Maybe that's just the old days when you had to be afraid of appearing in public during school hours.
That's a cool idea, Mom! He'd love the novelty of talking into a recorder to answer questions... I'll have to see what I can find. And no, it really isn't much of a worry to have kids out and about during the school day. We are registered with the city school board and will turn in test scores at the end of the year (or do an eval), so we're totally legal and above board :)
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