Leaving behind traditional schedules

When I first started, I created these amazing, beautiful schedules and lesson plans. I spent a significant amount of time on it too! 

By the end of the first week...I was overwhelmed! I had this horrible feeling of inadequacy and inability. None of the stuff I planned seemed to be happening the way I planned it! But why??

Well... Life! Breakfast took longer than expected. The dog ran out the front door and tried to attack someone. One of the kids had a total melt down. My brother stopped by and stayed for two hours. My mother called with something that couldn't wait.

I went to bed too late or I didn't sleep well. I forgot to gather all the materials needed. I couldn't get the printer to work. It took more cups of coffee than usual to wake up. The list goes on!

Still, I tried to keep on pushing through. Every day I would write the schedule on the board...

--8 am Breakfast/free time

--9 am Clean up/Get dressed

--10am Circle Time

Well... You get the idea. And then... Everyday I would find myself having to change the times and/or change the activities during those times.

 I was moving part of Monday's lesson plans over to Tuesday and it just kept going. I was stressed! And I was tired! And I was beginning to wonder if I could even do this. 

A couple weeks into that mess, I met a homeschool mom (now my favorite homeschool mom and very good friend). Upon mentioning how I was feeling about all of this, she said, "Don't write the times."

What?!?! 

Why didn't that occur to me? Yes, kids need routines and they are important, but life will happen. It doesn't matter whether we did it at 7 or we did it at 11! Point is we did it! I have found that small piece of advice to be the best one so far!

There are days I can wake up at 6 am with no problems and get right to it. There are days I can't get my eyes to open at 8. Some days we start school at 9 and some days we start at noon, and some days we opt to go to Discovery Center or so some other type of learning activity. 

After all, we are homeschooling! We can do this thing however we want! Let's not be so stressed, let's not beat ourselves up for not getting to everything on the list for the day, let's make moments and memories and give our children the best possible education... And let's do it in a way that is best for our emotional, mental and physical health.