Get a Rhythm
In the wise words of the late, great Johnny Cash, “Get a rhythm when you get the blues”.
It’s that time of year. That time where the chaos of unstructured time is started to grate on my in a big way. Overstimulation is one loud noise away and the meltdowns feel eternal. Time to get back on track. And my favorite way to do that is by creating a rhythm for our homeschool days.
The concept of a rhythm came to me through a study of Waldorf education. There are many things that drew me to this philosophy, the stories and natural elements, the gentle learning, the wheel of the year type structure, but the idea of creating a rhythm is the things that stuck with me the most, and honestly one of the things that has changed my homeschool for the better the most.
I have ADHD, which can make following a schedule really difficult. We MUST follow with military precision or I’m throwing the whole thing out the window! (I’ll let you guess which we did more often!) So most days ended up feeling chaotic and unproductive. Enter the rhythm, a flexible plan for each day that allows space for rabbit holes (my favorite thing), finishing games, and calmly moving through your day.
We create a rhythm for our year, our week, and each day. Often times these comes naturally to us, but for me, having them on paper where I could have some structure has made a huge difference.
I am a teacher, raised by teachers, so following a “school year” schedule feels right for me. By December and June, I am worn out and ready for a break, but come February and August, I am teeming with ideas and raring to go! Now that I have acknowledged this about myself, its easy to make plans. I know I’m not going to want to take a vacation in March when I am just ramping up for projects and I know I don;t want to plan a big activity in Decemeber when I’ll be too tired to folow through.
The same is true of my days. I like to divide my days into three sections. For me this is usually along the lines of work, play, and rest. These are the basic things I need each day to feel good about myself and my life. Since I work in the morning and my kids are late sleepers, work is usually in the morning. We play in the afternoon (remember that learning is play!). In the evening, we relax together, have dinner, watch movies, read bedtime stories. This is the rhythm of our day.
I also like to have a fun transition activity as we move from one section to the next. Check out the Wonder Vault for more ideas on what you can do to make this seamless and fun as well as habit trackers, journals, and goal setting sheets.
