Homeschooling With Ease
Often when we’re out and about, she gravitates toward younger girls. They quickly construct imaginary worlds or play tag or climb trees.
This girl’s mama said it was a gift. Her girl is an only child and often lonely. They played together until the sun went down.
Mabel Nadine turns thirteen today.
In late September I traveled to Nashville for work. Sarah Mackenzie had turned in the manuscript for her new book just a few weeks before. She said she felt like she wanted to be in the daily habit of writing, to keep the gears oiled and ready. I figured she could use some company, so I decided to join her. All weekend I kept mentioning Sarah’s plans to write everyday in October. By Saturday night when we were saying our goodbyes, 7 women had committed to 30 minutes of writing every day in the coming month. Would work emails count? How about blog posts? I said, it all counts! And we started out.
My focus for the month was getting ready for a November poetry workshop taught by Holly Wren Spaulding. I wanted to get in the habit of showing up, so that when I added in prompts and provocations from Holly, I could respond. I spent my quiet, darkening mornings with haiku cards and stacks of books, my black pens and composition book. The workshop was wonderful, and I could meet it with my full attention because I’d been writing all month long. Though you wouldn’t know it from this blog, the habit has pretty much stuck! My notebooks are full to bursting.
I spent the month of December going through the year’s journals, finding poems or fragments that seemed promising. I copied them out by hand on loose leaf paper. By the end of the month, I had a reservation for a night away during Christmas break and a stack of poems that needed revising. Just as I was returning from the writing retreat–there was jazz and wine and a walk through the vineyards to a waterfall where I saw a hummingbird drink–I saw a notification that Solitary Plover was accepting submissions for the Winter 2018 issue. I found my three most Niedecker-like poems. It wasn’t hard, I have such an affinity for her work. I held my breath, sent in my first ever poetry submission, and it was accepted!
How has it taken so long to arrive perfectly in place? It feels a little late to just be having children who sleep through the night, to just be revising and submitting poems. And yet…the road has risen up to meet me at every step. I have arrived exactly where I need to be. At home, at rest, belonging. Comfortable in my own skin with good work that uses every bit of me.
We spread an abundant and delicate feast in the programmes and each small guest assimilates what he can–Charlotte Mason
Enough is as good as a feast–Ma Ingalls
Jennifer Louden writes about a practice she calls conditions of enoughness. She says big tasks–like writing a novel or educating a child–are so big we tend to get overwhelmed with their size and scope before we even start. So she offers conditions of enoughness as an antidote. She makes a container for her work. And when it’s full, when she’s met the conditions, that’s enough.
Here’s an example from housekeeping. It is a truth universally acknowledged that house work will expand to fill any available space. As much as outer order contributes to inner calm for me, there are other things on my list that call for my time and attention. Enter the Apartment Therapy list. If I am keeping up with laundry, meals, dishes, and this 1 extra thing each day, I can count on meaningful progress. I don’t clean like this every month–usually start thinking about it before guests come or a shift that is going to take my energy for a season (school starting). The list is my container, my condition of enoughness. I don’t have to clean the whole house today, just what’s on the list. Then I’m done, and I’ve got forward momentum without overwhelm.
You can read more about Jen’s ideas here. But here’s my homeschooling version:
I am knee deep in discerning what an average, human-sized homeschool day looks like for us. Leadership Education has been invaluable in this process. It’s not all about scaling things down. It’s about crafting a day that’s nourishing, spacious, and sustainable. And I am making sure to include the children in our daily celebrations, honoring the work that they do each day.
This idea has been slowly taking shape in my mind this season. And it will take 10,000 days to work out. What do your average days look like?
Austin Kleon publishes 100 Things that made his year. Here’s my 81 thing version!
