The Bin: A Workbox System for Mom

I find that the short lessons and the many subjects of a Charlotte Mason education are wonderful for my kids, but they are pretty tough on me. I ping-pong back between two different conditions: 1. I've got my intricate plan of what subjects we are doing today; I'm keeping an eye on the clock; I'm preparing the materials (and thoughts) to get into the next subject; and I'm completely stressed the entire time. 2. I really settle into each lesson, enjoying what I envisioned our gentle Charlotte Mason school to be. But at the end of the short lesson, I have trouble shifting to the next thing mentally. The books aren't prepared. I have to stop and refer to the plan. The flow of the day is ruined, and often, we end up quitting our work early for the day, losing much instructional time and getting behind on the plan for the year. I have tried using these very intricate plans showing which days I will do each subject, and if miss part or all of a day, it throws the whole week into chaos (and every week thereafter!). During those times of chaos, I really long for the simplicity of traditional homeschool curricula in which you just "do the next thing." You did lesson 53 yesterday? Guess what you do today? 54! Open your book and fill in those blanks!!! My answer: The BIN. Instead of saying, "I'll teach history on M/Th, science on T/F, picture study on W, composer study on F, etc..." I have a bin. Think of it like a file box, but it has to be big enough to hold all the books and materials you need for the week. It has dividers like a file box would, but they're made out of poster board or foam core to fit the bin. There is a divider for each subject I hope to teach during the week and as many times as I plan to teach it during the week. So if picture study is just one day a week, it gets one divider. If history is two, it gets two dividers. Arrange the dividers in the order you would arrange them for a weekly schedule. Spread out the arty subjects. Don't put the two history dividers right next to each other. Separate read-and-narrate subjects with copywork or composer study. Now fill in your books and materials behind the dividers. Your bin is done. ***2/1/17 Edit: I've taken out my dividers, except for the ones that mark the second (or third, etc.) occurrence subjects that we do more than once a week. They were mostly in the way. Now the book itself marks the spot.***Now here's how to use it: When we wake, we do our (brief) morning chores, Bible, math, and poetry. Those are our every-day-without-fail subjects. If we get nothing else at all done, at least I know we've hit some pretty important things! On our in-town errand and activity day, that's all we accomplish, and that's okay! While they're working on math, I drag out the bin. When we get to the end of math, we pull out "the next thing" in the bin and do whatever we find there. When we're done, we file that subject at the back of the bin. If it's a subject that happens more than once a week, you'll have to put the books in the next spot where you have a divider for that subject. Then, if we have time, we pull out "the next thing" in the bin and do whatever we find there. We continue in this pattern until either we have something on our schedule that forces us to stop for the day or until I think we've done a reasonable amount of school for the day. We don't always get an entire week's worth of work done in a week. But sometimes we get more done! And we don't stress about keeping to a specific schedule. And more importantly, we don't get fatally sidetracked when our plan falls apart. We just start again tomorrow and "do the next thing." The benefit is that my brain doesn't have to be in teacher-planning mode the whole time. Some folks can handle that sort of executive processing at all times, but it's wearying to me. I can just enjoy reading and learning along with my kids. When we finish a subject, the next thing is there waiting for us. I sort of think of it as a workbox system for mom.