Kortney Garrison

This principle right in the middle is all about identifying points of tension and taking small steps to relieve the pressure before things go south. At our place a 4 Day School Week has become a house rule, and it’s made all the difference.

As much as it lies within us, we keep our school schedule for four days every week. Becky at Clean Mama says to “build in a day that accounts for life’s surprises, because you know they’re going to happen.” Our catch all day shifts to hold what we most need–a day of laundry or bulk cooking, a day at the library and park, a day to catch up at work. That means that I am never all that far behind. There is always a catch up day full of grace waiting for me.

The important thing to remember is that it’s not a day off. Thinking that I was getting a day off made me grumpy when my day was still full of work. But like Ma Ingalls said, a change is as good as a rest.

How do you build space for rest and renewal?

If you are new to The Lazy Genius, here’s the Starter Kit! 20 episodes that will get you energized and moving in the right direction!

And you can find all the posts in this series right here.

Kendra Adachi says that “routines are onramps to somewhere else, not destinations themselves.” This is counter to so much that we hear about building routines. There’s always a bit of magical thinking involved when people talk about routines: if you build it, they will come. But not a lot of thought about what exactly it is that’s coming!

To Lazy Genius our homeschool, we are going to make one simple switch–curriculum for routine. If you think about it, curriculum is the queen of routines. When you say we’re doing math, most likely that involves working through a printed resource on a daily basis. The biggest routine most homeschoolers have is their curriculum. It’s the onramp to the destination called education or schooling. It’s what gets us where we want to be. But it’s so easy for that onramp to become the worse kind of backseat driver, shouting barely intelligible directions about the turn we just missed.

Newsflash! When a chosen curriculum stops serving our ends, then it’s time to make adjustments. Most often I think this happens in pacing and scope. Curriculum is written for some abstract 4th grader. A 4th grader who is ready to move at a certain pace over a certain number of days. But 4th graders don’t exist in the abstract. The person that actually matters is the 9 year old who lives in your house.

The true magic of homeschooling happens when we begin to wisely adjust the routine curriculum to our own living, breathing 9 year old. Then, we can begin to view our curriculum as the onramp instead of the destination.

If you are new to The Lazy Genius, here’s the Starter Kit! 20 episodes that will get you energized and moving in the right direction!

And you can find all the posts in this series right here.

If you have ever experienced the disconnect of purchasing a highly regarded curriculum and it just not working, then this might be the principle for you. You hear about a great new resource and it seems like it would solve so many problems. You make the investment and begin, but it’s just not a great fit. I am 95% sure that it’s not you, and it’s not the curriculum. It’s your season.

When we try to live outside our season we come up against roadblocks and difficulties. It can look like too many activities…or too much at home time. It can look like too much structure…or not enough rhythm to our days. Any time we are putting someone else’s ideals on our lived experience, we’re living out of season.

Seasons can be actual, physical seasons. Where we live, Winter is cold + dark. If I’m pushing through like it’s still Fall, there is going to be a big disconnect between my expectations and our reality. There can also be seasons of life, like a season of sickness or unemployment. The season of babies + nursing + interrupted sleep comes with so many challenges. All little kids, all teens, a mixture of both–you get the picture.

Seasons can also be blessedly short! This spring was a perfect storm of pandemic + busy work + end of the homeschool year blahs. I knew I didn’t want to throw in the towel in May, but I was going to need some serious support. For these six weeks that meant, a few takeout meals, lots of rest and downtime, and time outside. I had to consciously give myself the resources I needed so that I could get through the season.

JRR Tolkien said, “It does not do to leave a live dragon out of your calculations if you live near one.” Our days as homeschoolers are filled with dragons! Living in your season acknowledges the real limits of our time + attention. Living in step with our season gives us the little bit of grace we need to do this work for the long haul.

If you are new to The Lazy Genius, here’s the Starter Kit! 20 episodes that will get you energized and moving in the right direction!

And you can find all the posts in this series right here.