CM Scheduling Tips

Mason's schools had 11 week terms, a week of exams, and a few weeks off for evaluating and preparing for the next term. Schools using Mason's practices met six days a week. Since American schools meet only five days a week, we have to squish the work for that extra day into our American school week.

Many co-ops and CM groups will meet for what they call "riches" or "extras" once a week. We do not do that at Honey of the Hive. We consider the full CM feast to be rich, not just certain subjects, so we do not believe anything is "extra" but that everything works hand-in-hand to provide a beautiful education for our children. 

Mason schedules varied subjects throughout the day to alternate lessons that use different parts of the body and brain. A child should master the habit of sitting still and listening quietly for reading and narrating, but he also needs the opportunity to get up and sing or move his body around. If you have too many of the same types of lessons back to back, that part of the brain gets over-worked. The short, focused lessons of a Charlotte Mason education provide ample opportunity for alternating lessons, but if we stack all of a certain type on one "riches" day, we won't have those much needed "brain breaks" to offer variety between those subjects requiring similar function.

A broad and generous feast of short, varied lessons leads to full days covering many subjects, so implementing a Charlotte Mason education requires good habits and time management. A pattern in each day across the week proves helpful. Posting this "daily rhythm" on the wall where the child can see it is very helpful in navigating the homeschool day. First we do this, and then we do this, and then this... is a much better way to schedule your day than to have strictly regimented time markers for every subject because, let's face it, life happens! Toddlers interrupt, babies need nursing, the mailman delivers a package, a neighbor needs help. So many wonderful ways to honor God and be a blessing to others come up as "interruptions" to our schedule. Picking back up "after we do that" is much easier than feeling "behind" because the clock kept moving and the schedule is now off. Honey of the Hive models these scheduling practices in our time together.

"In the first place, there is a time-table, written out fairly, so that the child knows what he has to do and how long each lesson is to last. The idea of definite work to be finished in a given time is valuable to the child, not only as training him in habits of order, but in diligence; he learns that one time is not 'as good as another'; that there is no right time left for what is not done in its own time; and this knowledge alone does a great deal to secure the child's attention to his work."  Charlotte Mason