I constantly feel that my kids are not doing enough and then I look at what is in front of them and I feel they do too much and there is not enough time for them to discover and contemplate; to be kids.  There is this tension between being productive and being free to mull over things; a tension between going with the flow and being self-disciplined.

In my constant search to be true with the philosophies/directions that are in my heart and the real life that happens in our house I have been looking again at the balance in our days.

I have decided to work with a list of priorities for the day, instead of a time slot by time slot type of schedule.  Believe me, I have that schedule there tucked away in files but for my day to day working I am going to give a “to-do” list a go.   Because I have worked out our “½ hour time slots” schedule I know we can fit it all in, but…. I wonder what will happen if I remove the time constraints?

When I have written my list of each subject that each child will cover for each day, I start to see a balance – or imbalance – in their day. 

For example, does Jess need to do a writing lesson every day when she is going through the writing process, with various genres in her Discipleship studies?  I don’t think so. 

Does Josh need to do grammar every day when he is correcting his grammar errors in his daily writing pieces?  I don’t think so. 

Does Nomi need to do Math every day when she has some hands on math skills happening in the kitchen or at the science table?  I don’t think so.  

I have started to see these overlaps.  Once a skill overlap has been noted I can start to delete some of these “time slots” or expectations and the children end up with more time for their creative outlets – their discretionary studies – their projects – their pure thinking time or time to enjoy life!