Home School Made Easy*
*Or "How I Simplified My Life by Taking on 20 New Students"
Charlotte Ostermann
I go for new things in a big way, if at all. Friends once worried that my conversion to Catholicism was going way overboard on our Medieval History unit study! So it isn't surprising that a request for my opinions on starting a homeschooling cooperative snowballed into an eight-family learning center in my home. Maybe it took going it alone for years and years, teaching at several levels simultaneously, to make having kids stuffed into every room seem easy by comparison. Of course it doesn't hurt that my daily toilet scrubbing is being done for me without any nagging or supervision.
Some people tat intricate lace patterns, others write symphonies. I weave about forty people per semester into a schedule designed to take variables into account like who's nursing, who's about to have a baby any minute, which dads can get time off work, how many college students want to help, which kids have a piano at home, and whether moms have enough energy to be outdoor play supervisors (I don't!). I'm glad my organizational skills have finally come in handy for something more exciting than juggling Saturday activities, errands and chores (though with seven kids, three cars, one vacuum cleaner, and 3500 square feet, that is a feat to be proud of).
Our life actually runs more smoothly during school semesters than in vacation periods. We hop right up to get ready for opening prayer and there's no temptation to ignore school for the day and call it Delight Directed Studies. I might as well forget spending the morning in the car shopping and joking about chalking up Consumer Awareness hours for my students. No time is wasted chatting on the phone, either, or baking brownies under the thin guise of teaching Home Economics 101. Other moms and dads are helping during morning-and-other-kinds-of sick days, so the kids don't miss dozens of school days per year, or per pregnancy. Older kids aren't putting as many hours into Child Development 'classes' with their siblings as they used to!
Somehow, having a larger group makes painting frescoes, studying earthworms, dissecting flowers, singing rounds, and mummifying chickens seem worth the effort. Much as I liked the idea, our family never did erupt with spontaneous skits, poetry recitation, famous speeches, or a capella quartet harmony. Now, recital times are part of the plan and, with other families doing their part, there's enough material to make an evening's entertainment for all. It's a great excuse to write a song, or memorize a favorite poem. I'll never top the big pregnant mamas dance and juggling acts, though!
I had one moment of doubt about the new arrangement when the all-outdoor Medieval Feast got rained back into my living room! Costumes, swords, paper horses, stew-in-trenchers, and all, in we came. Jingling jesters, dancing ladies, a mitered bishop, monks, goodwives, merchants and a roving minstrel feasted together and toasted St. George with home brewed ale. And all was well - noisy, cozy, but well. So what if our minstrel sounded more like Elvis than Roland. Our knights didn't even complain about having to slay their dragon pinata in the garage. Looking back on what became one of my happiest first-year memories makes me anxious to start the new school year. Maybe it isn't actually easier this way, but life in community is a lot more fun.