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If you are just starting your school year, you have some idea how many decisions face a homeschooling parent even before you get going. If you happen to be jumping in for the first time, these decisions can be overwhelming. Have you ever noticed that, when you face such a situation, you will often reach back into your past experiences for a familiar pattern or structure on which to hang your endeavor—just so it all won’t seem so strange? First-time homeschoolers, for example, often adopt the familiar schedule of the traditional school for their home school. No one can complain if you do it that way, right? Well, wait a minute. The traditional school schedule may be familiar, but is it likely to be the best choice for your home school? Let’s stop and ask why traditional schools have a rigid schedule with periods of equal length, and an irrititating bell to set them apart. The answer is—administrative convenience. Traditional schools typically have more teachers than a home school has students. They also have dozens if not hundreds of students! The school administrator’s challenge is to schedule a large number of people and subjects, usually with limited space. Faced with these complexities, the administrator simply chooses the scheduling option that makes his/her job easier, and makes the day look organized. While you may have several children, your “school” is probably not large enough to generate a very complicated schedule, so there is no need from that perspective to resort to a traditional approach. Neither is the traditional schedule better simply because it is familiar. Let’s say, however, that you have begun with a traditional schedule because it’s just too hard to be creative with everything right at the beginning. Quite understandable, but I encourage you to try the following tactic. Pay attention to what is happening with your students. Does it seem that Tommy would really like to continue in science past the “bell?” If he is productively engaged, why not let him go a bit longer, perhaps until he hits a natural stopping point? Has Susie noticed what Tommy is studying and has shown an interest? Must you tell her “No” just because this isn’t her science period? What happens if a family outing on Tuesday interrupts the flow of Susie’s spelling lessons and she isn’t ready for the usual test on Friday? Does the world end? Probably not. Maybe she could take the test before she gets too far into—Saturday! Let’s say you have one course that will be easy to complete in 25 weeks, while the rest will take a full nine months or more. Don’t think of it as blowing your schedule. Think of that shorter course as dropping out of the picture early to give you more time toward the end of the year to complete more demanding subjects. For many families, Dad’s, and perhaps even Mom’s, employment demands have to be taken into consideration. Also, daily interruptions occur in a household that seldom impact a traditional classroom. A repairman arrives to fix the dryer. The phone rings. The UPS person arrives with a special package. Relax, these things are only problems if your highest goal is a rigid schedule. My suggestion, when it comes to scheduling, is to strike a balance. You don’t want to be so rigid that you can’t function if your schedule is threatened. Neither do you want to be so lax that important content and activities are covered poorly or missed altogether. If your children have substantially covered and mastered the material in their assigned courses during the period of time that constitutes their school year, what does it matter that your schedule didn’t resemble that of the local school? What would it matter if it didn’t look like anyone else’s schedule? It wouldn’t matter at all. Enjoy your school year! Commit your way to the Lord, and He will grant you wisdom and bless the desires of your heart.. Sincerely, Mark L. Beuligmann, M.S. Ed. Administrative Director Christian Liberty Academy School System |
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