Age quod Agis -- Logistics in the Homeschool

Father John Hardon SJ has written about the importance of an "agenda" in the Christian life. The etymology of "agenda" is similar to the Latin in an old motto shared by a friend of mine: "Age quod agis" -- "Do what you are doing." In order to accomplish this, Father Hardon recommends planning out one's day in order to make sure that necessary things get done. Part of this task is to make some time to reflect upon the day in an evening examen. Though he was talking about the spiritual life in particular, the ordinary life overlaps and is affected by the spiritual life, so I think his advice applies to our lives as homeschooling moms as well. It is somewhat like St Maximilian Kolbe's motto: "Preparation; Action; Conclusion."

A few years ago I found myself homeschooling two high schoolers, a middle schooler, two elementary graders plus caring for two medically complex little ones. I am not a naturally organized person, but that situation motivated me to develop some logistical strategies quickly. I wanted to share some of them -- few are original; most were adapted from the advice of friends and mentors.

During a high risk pregnancy and with a newborn who needed lots of medical intervention, my first homeschooling priority was to have a way to keep the kids on track even if I had to be away or couldn't do much active teaching or planning.

So I developed a simple checklist for each student. It listed various subjects with simple instructions like: Do the next lesson; read the next chapter and take notes; do the next section of the syllabus; or sometimes, work with Mom. These were streamlined forms of the assignment sheets I'd given them in other years. They were more general and all-purpose so I could print out basically the same checklist every week and minimize preparation time . The kids understood that on "Plan B" days, when I was gone or caring for a sick little one, they could skip the "work with Mom" assignments and just do the ones they could do independently.

We also had a chore checklist on the refrigerator. Every child had their housework and their mealtime chores, and there was a meal rotation so if necessary, someone besides me could take over the cooking. A "Chores" section was included on their school checklist as a reminder for this, and also a "personal hygiene" reminder for the younger ones to remind them to make their bed, brush their teeth, tidy their room and so on.

The children acquired the habit of putting their completed schoolwork in a pile on my worktable along with their filled-in checklistswhen they were finished for the day. That way, I could conveniently check through their work and verify their checklists whenever I had some spare time. Sometimes if necessary I would call them back to go over a serious problem, but most of the time feedback could wait till the next day.

I scheduled times to work with each of the kids individually. It did not happen every day, but most days we could fit in at least a few moments. The elementary school students needed the most teaching time, so they usually worked with me for two or three hours in the morning. Usually I could alternate between them -- working with one to introduce a new concept or task, while the other one read or worked independently or kept the little ones busy.

By late morning the two younger ones would usually be done with the subjects that needed my help. Then I would work with the three older ones, who were in middle and high school. Two of them preferred to work mostly independently. So I would meet with them only once or twice a week, usually to discuss a reading or go over a paper. But one of my older ones really benefited from a daily meeting to talk, look over work and give him a head start on the next day's subjects. So I scheduled a time just before lunch for this. My goal was to do most of the intensive coaching in the morning and leave the afternoons for more open-ended discussion, for grading, for planning and for housework. I also scheduled two times when we all met and I taught several at once -- we did Latin this way and we also gathered for a free writing period together just before lunch. Everyone wrote for 20 minutes, even me; even the toddler scribbled in his high chair with crayons or pencils. This turned out to be a nice time in the day to slow down a bit, and it made a huge difference in their attitude towards writing.

I bought a large binder and an accordion file for each child. These were color-coded -- each child had a chosen color for his binder, folders and notebooks so I could pick them out at a glance. The syllabus, checklists and various handouts and study guides went in the binder. The accordion file made it simple to organize loose, completed work by subject. When I had time I would file the loose work more permanently in the binder. My oldest filed and kept track of his own work but I did the record-keeping for the younger ones. I updated these regularly on weekends.

Because we had a lot of medical things going on at the time with the preschool child and baby, our schedule included two lighter academic days per week. On these days, there were no "work with Mom" subjects -- the children only did the things they could do independently. The first grader often had these days off, though I tried to keep a "learning box" with some simple activities he could choose to do on his own. I tried to schedule medical appointments for these two lighter days; also any extra-curricular activities and visits to the library. We also did our major housekeeping on these days, as a team. If they were caught up on their work, they could have some time watching a movie or playing computer games. This gave me a bit of extra time to catch up on enjoying the little ones or catching up on the things that needed catching up on. There was always something!

We tried to keep evenings a bit looser so we could spend time as a family and so the little ones had some open time to be around their parents and siblings. As mentioned by Father Hardon, I would try to spend a few minutes before bedtime noting down the "agenda" for the next day. Every Sunday evening, I would fill out a weekly "at a glance" schedule which went on the refrigerator so the kids and my husband could see what days were taken up by appointments and other commitments.

This system did not always flow perfectly, of course. It was strenuous, and sometimes I couldn't keep up. But it kept us from falling way behind. And as a result my oldest was able to graduate with an excellent GPA, a good SAT score and entrance to a good Catholic college.

Now my two oldest children have graduated. My four school-age kids are not so time-intensive, and the medical situation is much more stable. So my methods of operating don't have to be so rigorous. I still use basically the same system, but I have more time to work with the kids more informally and individually. I can be more of a coach and mentor and less of an administrator. We probably waste a little more time, but the leisure gives us a bit more time to build up family traditions and habits of conversation, and include more games and fun. There are benefits and drawbacks to both types of systems.

From this I have learned that organization looks different in different seasons. Organization is a servant, not a master. Orderliness is a good thing, but it works best when suited to the need of the situation and also to the comfort level of the people using it. That is where Father Hardon's other advice -- discern, and seek the will of God continually -- comes in. Pray and build up the methods that best suit the season your family is in. Age quod agis.