Changing Format Yet Again
Tuesday 
in mid-morning 
Mystie
So this is the year of habit-formation (for me) and experimenting with format and materials.
We are on our fourth venue for school. All of them have worked, each of them have their benefits and drawbacks. I think I will probably keep all of them up my sleeve and change depending on what benefits we need at the time. With all of these, the content doesn’t change, only the location.
First: Living Room. I sat in a living room chair, the boys stood or sat at their own Oddvar side table. They had stools on which they were supposed to stand while reciting and on which they could sit if they wanted at their short tables. Benefits: * moving up and down and having a definite (and small) spot to stand for reciting helped. They took turns doing their memory work, so they got to hop up and down quite a bit. * they each had their own separate place to work. * I got a comfortable chair. * we can take advantage of natural lighting, since it is a corner with large windows on both sides. * the side tables don’t get dirty or messy, so my lazy self doesn’t even have to wash the table before starting directly after breakfast. Drawbacks: * the tables are small and their pencils rolled off all the time. * the temptation to wander away is great. * if bad attitudes are in the air at all in the air the opportunities for battle are numerous. Verdict: Best for soldier-like (stand-at-attention) recitations.
Second: Dining Room. I sat at the head of the table and a boy sat at each other side of the table. Benefits: * the boys are confined at have a definite place to be and the temptation to wander is reduced. * we all have more table space. * it feels more school-ish Drawbacks: * it feels more school-ish * attention spans are shorter due to the restriction on wiggles. Verdict: Best for accomplishing school work.
Third: Dining Room. I sat at the head of the dining room table and the boys at at their children’s table close by. Benefits: * the boys had chairs and a table at the right height. * the dining room table did not get pencil and crayon marks that have to be scrubbed. Drawbacks: * they were awkwardly placed for me to help them or see their work. One would always be out of my reach. * it involves moving the children’s table or having it in the way. Verdict: Good for a change of scene.
Fourth: Couch. We sit together on the couch, a boy on each side. Benefits: * school time doubles as cuddle time, so there is less pressure and more affection. * read-aloud time actually gets accomplished, and is done first. Drawbacks: * table work (math & copywork) has to be done later, which means less of it gets done. Verdict: Best for the mother/child relationship.
Right now I would rather give up copywork than reading aloud, especially since Hans enjoys writing and does it on his own anyway. I like the books I found for our educational (in the real, liberal-arts sense, not the cardboard modern sense) reading but with life as it is now, I need quiet time after lunch and couldn’t pull together enough emotional stamina to do reading before nap time. I think it would help us all if I could, but it wasn’t happening. So, I’m doing the reading first in the morning before we do reading and math, and it helps us all. We start, then, by establishing our mutual affection and so attitudes for phonics and math, which were growing gradually and gradually worse, are becoming increasingly better. So this is the best choice for us while we’re all a little more stressed and emotionally worn thin without Matt during the week. The relational and poetry/story aspects are priority right now, so the “couch school” as Hans calls it is working best for us now.
