Homeschooling in a Small Space

...and not going insane.

So... I was talking to a friend of mine who just got engaged. He has five kids, and will be adding 3 with the marriage to total 8 kids under 16y/o in their house. I asked if they would be moving, or staying in the area, and his reply was, "We'd have to move, with 8 kids we'd be on top of each other in this house." ...and they don't homeschool.

At this point I felt as though I'd been slapped with the silly noodle. Did he realize what he was saying? who he was talking to?

His house is 3,200 sq ft, has a recently finished basement complete with sauna, and a 3 car attached garage.


My family of six has lived in an apartment of 3 bedrooms; 1300sq ft for all of our 6 years of homeschooling. I recognize that in many parts of the world my home would feel extravagant and even luxurious with its amenities.

But still, I think I could redefine his idea of "on top of each other." He's a good friend and I am guessing that he just needed an excuse to leave the house his wife died in. Anyway, it got me thinking about things I do specifically with my day because of our space parameters.

Small Space Sanity Savers:

1. White Noise Machines- in each bedroom, before this it was me doing laundry every time I wanted to watch a movie without kids.
2. Headphones- for the piano and audio books
3. Keyboard- moveable piano!
4. Get out of the house--we take about a 2 hour break from 11-1 as this is about the time things start to fall apart and we are rolling on the floor eating each other's socks and growling like caged tigers. It also motivates us to get those brainy subjects done at a decent time.
5. Maps on table tops--under glass, or bully clipped to the coffee table day of.
6. An armoire for school stuff, in the kitchen-hides a multitude of sins.
7. Bins--"Math" bin," Language Arts" bin, and "Done" bin for all 3 kids stuff. I used to have bins for each child and realized it was redundant.
8. Lunchboxes-everyone in the small kitchen at the same time is madness, we try to take care of it earlier.
9. Bedroom with a lock--when things get really noisy and we just need 10 blessed minutes to finish the worksheet already!
10. Community Events & Memberships--we go somewhere just about every day. I know some people dread their busy schedules, but for us it's a lifesaver. We aren't at home breathing each other's air, making mess after mess, and we get out to experience quite a bit.
11. Clear Sleep, Wake Up, and Quiet Times-- I am not the best at this, but I see that where physical boundaries are small, we need more defined time boundaries to just get the space we need as individuals (and introverts).

Another friend was saying she felt she needed to be nearer her 4y/o son when he had friends over to play and make sure he wasn't being a bully. "You know?" she coaxed.

All I could honestly say was, "I've never had the luxury of that problem." Meaning, I am always within earshot of just about A-nything in my house, and while I dream of someday having a place to put bikes, and not have all my kids' clothes in one tiny closet because all the camping stuff is in the other, I know that it is far more comfortable than most of history's population, and can't bring myself to complain...too often ;)

15 Things I Wish I'd Known 5 Years Ago

Recently, I was panicking about my effectiveness as a teacher (a typical response 4-5 months into the school year). I voiced to a friend, "I just wish I could see 5 years from now and know it was all worth it."

My friend said, "Well, you've been homeschooling for 5 years now, what would you tell yourself of 5 years ago?"

This hit me hard, and a beautiful feeling of awe and gratitude came. I pondered this for all of December and realized there were a lot of things that had only recently been happening in the structure of our daily lives that would have made things easier a long time ago.

I list them for my benefit, because I am guessing many have figured these things out already.

15 Things I wish I'd known/started 5 years ago:

1. Don't compare other's best to my family's worst.

Easier said than done, but I am trying to focus on the whole child and a variety of well-rounded subjects. They might struggle with some of the same subjects they do with me anyway were they in a traditional school setting--who knows? If my child is reading later that others, or not in PreK--it's OK. Pogress is so varied at this time, and I'm taking an intentionally different route.

2. Make a top-heavy day and relaxing evening.

I am a morning person and by 8 o'clock I am completely DONE. My husband has a varied schedule, so for most of the week I am on deck from 8am-8pm, with little reprieve. I am also an introvert and so being with 4 needy people (whom I love) all day leaves me feeling completely depleted by then, and cranky if there's any delay getting everyone to bed (there always is.) So, I gave up on an evening poetry  read-aloud or constructive handicraft circle around the cozy crackling fire (which we don't have). Instead we all take this miracle sleeping pill called "Leave it to Beaver" just before bed. Its void of stimulating colors, its pace is slow, and it shows people listening to their parents; it puts us all into a settled comatose feeling of security--perfect for sleep.

3. No screentime Monday -Friday.

Let me clarify, no screentime that they get to choose or ask for. On Friday they each get a card with 10 minutes repeated around the top and bottom,  for 60min a weekend. When they want to play a game or watch a show they bring it to me, tell me the time they are using, and we both set our timers. If they are late--I mark off an extra 10min. Before they can have screentime, they must vacuum their rooms and finish their schoolwork on Friday, and have done their Saturday chores the next day. Then my husband and I see what they've already done and there's zero arguing about it among themselves.
This gives us incentive to get outside more, which I should really do with them more--like daily.

4. 1 hour of Quiet Time a day.

I forget about this on busy days--until it's 7pm and I'm exhausted. I've had to decide what this time means to me, and concluded I want them reading for at least 30min, but mostly it's for my sanity to have us all apart for a while--sort of a spacer in our day...audio books are our friend...

5. Take personal time 5-8am.

My wonderful husband guards me from little people until 8am. During this time I write, shower, exercise, or maybe just sleep. Since he is gone most of the day, and once I am visible I am available--right, right?--this is another needed space that gives me the bit of solitary I need to carry me through the day. He is so much better at producing a warm morning where as I am more suited to a military drill method of waking children--no it didn't work well...

6. Have the kids make their own lunches every morning after breakfast.

We have these sort of bento boxes, a list of how to make a lunch, and several trays/containers/bins that I pull out for them to choose from. I check it before they put it in the fridge. They can eat from them pretty much anytime they want to and travel well. If we are  on the go I can just throw them in a bag or fabric cooler.

7. Multiple calendars are not redundant, but necessary.

My husband and I coordinate on google calendars, I detail my day in a paper planner, and a huge chalkboard calendar tells me general appointments at a glance. A separate school planner with a shopping list template plans our learning. In the summer I have a calendar for possible events, and another for what we will actually do. I like to calendar...

8. Weekly prep of 3 hours--alone.

I just can't do it effectively with anyone in the house--there are too many interruptions and my 3 hours turns into 6... Again, my wonderful husband has agreed to take the kids somewhere 3 hours every week so I can get abreast of the upcoming week and write out their assignments. *A membership to the Rec Center and a children's museum preferably 30min away is just perfect.

9. Plan meals ahead, shop for them every 2 weeks.

I don't have to explain this one either. It takes discipline but the immediate freeing up of not only time, but brain space has me sold.

10. Have one Kitchen Helper with me to make dinner every night 5-6pm.

Those who aren't Kitchen Helper do dishes afterward. I do this for a couple reasons;
 1-I get resentful if I am the only one doing the work that-let's face it- sometimes is unappreciated.
 2-Children eat better when they make it, if only because they see the effort it took.
 3-I like the company and I want them to feel comfortable in a kitchen and learn to cook.

All my kids have to be home by 5pm, then I am not chasing down people, and we are on schedule for bedtime (that magical time).

11. Take off December and 2 months out of summer.
Do a 4 day school week, with classes/field trips on the 5th day usually.

This is the first year we've done this and it made such a difference for me. Starting school in July or August isn't really that big a deal. In fact, it's a great motivator when friends are calling at the window to play- eh, he, he. Our home is 1300sq ft and we always get a real tree after Thanksgiving. By the time that's up and decorations are out  (ours are limited) and the kids drag out wrapping paper to wrap their gifts all 3x each (no joke) I'm ready to crawl the walls if I've got to navigate all that and do school. It just gets too crowded in our common areas. Taking that month off gave me necessary space in more ways than one.

12. 1 hour of teaching alone with each (older) child, each day.

We go in a locked room, with a table and the kids rotate through Watching Canary (now 4), doing Independent Work, or school with me. My Y6 and Y4 have their own planners to check off with me by 3pm.

13. Group time with quick rotations of 10-15minutes per book/topic.

These are accompanied by snacks and little art projects for Canary.

14. Daily Routine posted.

When we get off track (everyday) I don't play catch-up anymore. I just look at where we should be, and pick up there. Our day is scheduled according to energy and attention span and learning a new Math concept at 2:30 never works.

15. Wash all laundry on Friday, and then fold it Saturday morning.

It's the one thing I can completely space during the week and end up with piles everywhere. This has been working. I sort it and it must be put away and drawers straightened before screentime.

Again, I'm not saying any of these should be prescribed to solve all or even any homeschool problems of course, but thinking harder about my space, my circumstances, and my support has helped me come up with solutions for my family-

and it only took me 5 years?!

How Art We Doing?

 

Mockingbird 8y/o Park Life painting

 

This is just a quick glimpse of 3 ways have done Art this year, so far. 

 

En plein air

 

One beautiful day we went to the park to paint landscapes. We tried to use the water from the pond to really 'capture' the environment as a one famous Japanese artist does (so famous I forgot his name), but the scum on top sent us elsewhere. In the water we saw the muskrat, goldfish, a Frisbee disc fly in with a splash, and somewhere in there Mockingbird saw lily pads....

 

I probably could have given more instruction for the landscape due to the frustration voiced, but live and learn and use up canvases collecting dust...

 

Mockingbird's Red Room about 12"





 

Artist Study

We are doing Matisse this term. After reading a few children's biographies during lunches, we painted his The Dessert; Harmony in Red (The Red Room) in acrylics and white chalk--because we were out of white paint... This is Mockingbird's picture again. Her work is pictured in this post a lot not because I favor her, but because she starts with enough enthusiasim to have time to finish it, and allows it to be photographed easily (unlike some people). But that's OK. This isn't for a grade or even the end product. It's for the experience, it's for fun--most of all it's for them (not me).

Painting is also a great chance for children to solve their own problems when they say, initially forget to draw in the chair--or paint over the fruit bowl and their mother refuses to step in and fix it (with mixed reviews). I love Harold and the Purple Crayon and once did a whole week of lessons in public school around him and his sword purple crayon, focusing on how he comes to a problem and his crayon leads him to solutions. (A child's version of the Hero's Cycle.) I do try to choose simple pictures by the artist that are big shapes, and might give some sense of success to young children in copying.

I gave them a piece of cardboard, chalk to sketch out the big rectangles we observed, and then paint to go at it. We talked about the curvey lines, the fruit repeating the yellow flowers outside, and where the center of the picture is. Kingfisher 5y/o painted his board a monster, all green, then all black. Mockingbird 8y/o cheerfully reassured him when he complained about his artistic ability only to (I'm not kidding) 2 minutes later, burst into song and dance about how she couldn't do anything right as she had painted something wrong. It was all I could do to not burst into laughter regarding the about-face...which worked itself out in 2 more minutes.

 

Art History

 

It's still early in the year for us (I keep telling myself) and so we have read only to Chapter 5 in Hillyer's A Child's History of Art. This book is a bit pricey and was admittedly a school gift to myself.  It has three sections; Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture. We are going to go straight through it--maybe in 3 years, maybe less.  It's wonderful; concise, applicable to a child's world, chronological, and informative- if dated. I finally went through and penciled in on a printed copy of the contents a little related project we would do for each chapter. Ambleside Online has a chart that also references the dates for me.

 

I made a big chart that has the general artistic periods running up the middle; Ancient, Middle Ages, Renaissance, Modern, Post-Modern. I found this outline from Art for Dummies helpful. On the right there is space to note Historical Events to help us relate. I found an old Janson's History of Art at a used book sale cheap enough to warrant cutting out the pictures to add to our poster as we read about them.

 

Typically, I show them images on-line, set them up to do a related project, and read the chapter to them while they work.

We do this on Sundays because they enjoy it and on that day we have the time to really spend on it if they want to work longer.

 

Related Art Projects

 

So far we have done Cave Art, where we drew with sidewalk chalk on brown butcher paper taped to the wall animals--some riddled with primitive arrows, some not.

 

Cave Art -Bowery Bird & Canary

 

We did Egyptian art, simply copying the front-eye, side shoulders stance.

 

Egyptian -8y/o Mockingbird

 

Then we did Assyrian art, drawing in clay an animal with a repeated decorative pattern. I gave them each a slab of clay and some little tools. For Kingfisher (5y/o) I drew the outline of a bird and let him fill it in, but this is again, is Mockingbird's work (remember, Best Beloved, not because I favor her more), it's only about 3x5".

 

Assyrian; Peacock -8y/o Mockingbird

 

 My goals with art aside from learning about an artist a term are:

• Exposure to different styles and understand how they fit into history
• Experimentation with those different styles and materials
• That's it. (I have to remind us all, myself included) It's not to create a perfect copy, memorize the dates of the period, or what part they played in their larger culture--just enjoy and someday further down the road, have a place to put more detailed information as it comes.

The Red Room

Mocking Bird's Matisse copy of the Red Room (8y/o)

 
 
 

 
 

Rocks & Fossils

Today we did Building Foundations of Science D-8 Vol 1.

After watching the Dinosaur Magic School Bus episode we learned about sediment and how dinosaur bone fossils are mold and cast formed. We made our own mudslide, let it settle, and as an after thought, Kingfisher stuck a desperate dinosaur in the middle... Later when I called him to do his journal he called out from within a pile of cushions on the couch, "sorry mom, I'm a fossil!" In other words, I was too late.

 

We looked at sandstone. We looked at how tiny clay particles that form shale can be by shaking up a bit of artist's clay in a jar of water.

We looked at limestone from our rock collection (fortunately labeled for us), and tested it and shells with vinegar for calcium properties. Shells fizzed a little, limestone OK, limestone tufa rock gave a more impressive response! (tufa; center above magnifying glass)

Then we watched these clips;

Fossil Rock Anthem  a music video parody, soo funny...

Dinosaur Days clip explaining fossil formation

Which prompted these science journal entries:

This is Kingfisher's (5 y/o) diagram of sediment with a dinosaur I drew for him. The caption he dictated reads; "Help! I'm sinking! What should I do? I'll just wait till I dry up then a paleontologist will dig me up-but that's terrible all my bones are going to get washed away!"

 

This is Mockingbird's diagram of how fossils are formed... see the Dinosaur Days clip for this girl's doppelgänger...