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The Gift of Time

Writer's picture: Patty SommerPatty Sommer


I never considered myself a person who liked schedules and time tables. They always seemed to be for the rather fussy, overly-organized people that did not know how to have a good time…people who planned too much. So when I began to learn more about Miss Mason’s method of education, I decided that was a part of her method I could do without. I did not want our learning time to be too hemmed in, too structured, or too boring. I did make a daily lesson plan, with things in a certain order, but I figured that each lesson would be done and then we would move onto the next. I did not give a start time to our day, because I was sure we would get to our learning at a good time, but I did know that lessons were not supposed to take up more than a few hours in the mornings. I did not plan for nature study to happen or any of those details, because I just knew we would get to it in the course of our day. For many years, bedtime for my girls was probably the only thing I planned, because I wanted a break after a long day. Then hubby and I would often stay up late at night “relaxing.”


If you have ever lived this way, or known someone who does, you can guess where this might be going. We did not end up with the blissful, care-free, easy, glorious days I imagined. We always started our days much later than I anticipated, with crying children and a frustrated mother. We ended up trying to do too much in a lesson, and then I would finally move on to the next thing, leaving confused children, because I knew we had to get done by lunch. We rarely got to nature study, and by the time the babes were tucked in bed at night, I was overwhelmed, and had too much left undone. I would stay up late, reveling in the quiet, trying to catch up on the housework and such, but then be too tired to wake before the noise of children jerked me out of bed in the morning to do it all over again.


I can only remember one “scheduled” thing I had during this time: reading aloud at lunch. And, it was the best part of our day. {It seems I would have realized that a schedule might be a good thing at this point….} When we added some more babies to the mix, I became desperate. Some wise older moms guided me back to the idea of the time tables, and so I decided that I would just try it and see what happened.


Guess what? It worked! We were able to do what needed to be done, without the drudgery of me trying to drag us along. In using our time well, we found more time in our days. I began to see how this could help in other areas. I applied these ideas to personal bedtimes and wake-up times, and a schedule for chores, and pretty much every area of our lives, and it worked. In grasping after spontaneity, I found bondage; in choosing constraint, I found freedom.


Nowadays we live a pretty scheduled life, but I am still not an overly-organized person. I have simply learned that to have time to spontaneously enjoy life, I have to plan for it!

 

I am Patty Sommer, American living in Ghana since 2003. I have been blessed with 4 girls, ages 19 down to 9. We came to the Charlotte Mason philosophy of homeschooling after my eldest was diagnosed with dyslexia. What started as a way of learning became an incalculable gift to our entire family.

Currently reading:

The King's Fifth by Scott O'Dell

The Outlook of Nature by Liberty Hyde Bailey

Scale How Meditations by Charlotte Mason



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Angelique Knaup
Angelique Knaup
28 ago 2023

“In grasping after spontaneity, I found bondage; in choosing constraint, I found freedom.” This is golden, thank you Patty!

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