Our family enjoys to go on yearly camping trips. The prep and return is always exhausting but the reward is a few days of technological silence. To explain, we camp way up in the Smokies where there is no cell signal. You may think a Technical Support Engineer like myself would have a love for technology, but on the contrary the longer I am in this field, the more I find myself liking it less and less and being drawn to a much more digitally quiet life.
When camping, for three days we hear no phones, no texts, no calls, no social media notifications, nothing but the sound of the water on the rocks in the river behind our tents, and sometimes a very loud owl waking us up in the middle of the night. The girls get to explore nature, catch butterflies, play in streams, and burn off pent up energy while we get relax by a fire, and spend time together, while chasing off the occasional bear.
I know this isn’t a long post, and I don’t even know what the purpose of it is, except maybe to encourage someone else to take some time to unplug as well. Or maybe I am just missing those quiet mornings being woken up by the sound of birds, instead of alarms.
When I was younger I never understood it when my mom would ask for “just a few minutes of quiet” it never made sense to me. I hated it when it was too quiet. I mean I grew up with 4 siblings, one who liked to sing opera, and due to our age differences I had nieces and nephews by the time I was 8 years old. All this to say, I wasn’t used to quiet. I was used to music, talking, and background noise which is how I learned to work. Even with school I needed music or some kind of noise in the background whenever I did homework or tests.
But now that I am older, and a Mom myself, I think I understand what my mom meant when she asked for quiet. I am still the same in a sense. When I am working I still need something in the background. Sometimes its music, sometimes its a tv show that I have seen already, just something. But now my usual background sound is also accompanied by something else. It’s followed by a barrage of “Mommy’s” every few minutes, accompanied by yet another question I may or may not know how to answer. Seriously, the questions they come up with. If it’s not the constant calling of “Mommy” then its the bickering. The ‘she took this’ or ‘she did that’ if you’ve seen Lilo and Stitch and can picture that “She’s touching me!” scene, that is what life is like with a 6 and 7 year old. To top it all off they also like to have background noise just like me. So they put on their tv shows or their music, both of which are definitely NOT conducive to concentration. I mean I’m a fan of Jack Black but if I have to listen to one more Peaches or Lava Chicken… So anyways, all of this coupled together every day from morning to night, is overwhelming, overstimulating, and makes me long for silence.
I saw a video not long ago, I wish I remember who made it to give them credit, but essentially it was a mom who told her kids to call her by her actual name for 1 hour. To give her a ‘mom break’ I thought that was silly but also pretty smart. But then when I thought about doing that with my girls I just knew that they would get such a kick out of it that they would be calling my Deby about a thousand times within that hour, so I decided not to test that method out. What I did start doing after much thought and prayer, was Instacart deliveries. I know that is probably not what you thought I would say. But my reasoning was this. I work full time from home while teaching the girls. We get out of the house for swimming lessons, parks, and the occasional field trip. But even then, I am always on high alert to always keep an eye on them, so I can’t say it’s entirely peaceful. I decided to do something that would get me out of the house occasionally on my own. I enjoy shopping for groceries but there’s only so many we need for ourselves so I thought why not go grocery shopping, without having to spend my own money? Even better, why not make some extra cash while doing it? So yeah, that’s how I decided to do Instacart deliveries. In the end, you know what ended up being my favorite part? The drive. There’s something almost meditative about being in the car by yourself in silence. No music, no one needing you or asking a question, just the sound of the air conditioning blasting and the dull hum of the engine. I could use that time to think about whatever I wanted, or nothing at all. Or even just use the time to pray. It was during that moment, that I finally understood what my mom meant all those times when she just asked for some quiet.
As we have started yet another homeschooling year, second grade, I wish I could give you a list of sure-fire tricks that can help you on your journey. But homeschooling in and of itself is a learning experience for both the teacher and the students. When preparing to start your homeschool journey, it often begins with a lot of research. Online blogs. Tik Toks, Instagram’s, Pinterest boards, you name it. You need to go from choosing curriculum, whether you’re going to stick with one or shake things up, and what kind of teaching method you want to follow.
The struggle that I had, was to find recommendations for working parents who both worked full time while also trying to homeschool, and how they did it, which is why I want to share my experiences so far even if all I have to offer is a list of the top 3 things that I have found does NOT work for our busy, working, homeschooling, lifestyle.
1. Get it out of the way at the start of the day.
Over the years I have met and seen plenty of people who homeschool and would share about how quickly they were able to just get their ‘lessons’ and curriculum done in the morning and the rest of the day was open for other learning/teaching activities or to teach life skills. I think this is great and fantastic for them. But for us, it just doesn’t work. For starters, I work in the mornings, and my girls are younger which means they need a lot more hands on attention. Secondly, they’re younger. Their attention span runs out at lightning speed and they will get easily distracted. In our house, breaks are our friends. I have noticed in previous years that mornings do seem to be when they are most alert and absorb the most. So this year our mornings are going to focus on the core classes, Reading, Math, etc. Then after some free time to play and decompress we will do other subjects in the afternoon, subjects that are more engaging for them like science, music, etc.
2. Dedicated School Room
When getting started on my homeschool journey, I fell in love with all of the cute homeschool Pinterest boards and the decorated dedicated rooms just for school. I had started homeschooling my girls in my home office. They had their tiny desks, which they quickly grew out of. It resulted in my office always being messy with scrap papers or art supplies, etc. on the ground. or they would stuff things into my bookshelves that I would find much later. What I ended up finding is that for us school happens everywhere.
Early preschool years when we were learning about different plants, fruits, and vegetables, we took school to the market. I still remember walking around the produce section and holding up different fruits and vegetables asking them to name them and whether they grew on a tree, plant, or underground. I remember a few other shoppers chuckling when they saw us. We have taken school outside. We have done it in bed. But the place that seems to have worked out the best so far, is at our kitchen table. With their books and supplies on the shelf close by and plenty of space to not constantly bump elbows, it has worked best for us all.
3. Co-Ops
The number one concern that I had with homeschooling, was the socialization aspect. I think that is always the argument that comes up when you talk about homeschooling and it is a good argument. My first experience with homeschoolers when I was younger was with kids who had clearly not known how to really interact in public social settings. It honestly had me completely against homeschooling for most of my young adult life. It wasn’t until later on after other family members had started homeschooling and meeting even more who had successful homeschool experiences, that I learned that there were different ways to homeschool.
When looking into the socialization aspect of homeschooling, the number one recommendation I received was to sign them up for co-ops. The problem with that is I have yet to find any local co-ops that would work with my working schedule. It just has not been feasible. That being said, what I did find that worked for us were local community center groups. Our small city community center has tons of activities, camps, groups, sports, and more that ranges from all ages. The girls have done soccer, basketball, arts and crafts, and nature exploring through our local community center and they have loved each and every one of them. I definitely recommend looking into what your local community center has to offer.
I am only starting out on my 4th year of homeschooling, and I am sure that there will be even more things I try this year that will not work. But there will be more that will work. The important thing to me is that I cultivate my girls’ love to learn instead of making them dread each moment and feel like they’re just given work. I hope sharing my experiences and lessons can help someone else who is getting started, or has been struggling on their journey.
Little Piece of Quiet 