Image: Santeri Viinamäki, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

Thoughts from a homeschool alumna

As somebody who enjoys making lists and timetables to see how much I can physically squeeze into the day, I appreciated that homeschooling allowed me to organize my day in the way I liked. However, it often wasn’t quite the way I liked, because of loud siblings, maths lessons that took longer than I’d anticipated, and the simple fact that, for some reason which I can never quite understand, not everybody else in the family was as enthusiastic as I was about rigid routines that specified what to do with every single minute of the day. 

There is a lot of time-management advice out there, such as

• getting up early
• doing the hardest thing first
• taking breaks during study so as not to burn out
• focusing on your goal
• eliminating distractions (cell phone out of the room) 
• maintaining a good sleep schedule
• planning your day
• knowing when you are most productive and studying then

All of this is very good and very helpful. Sometimes it is very practical, but you can’t do your hardest subject first when you can’t do your algebra test until your sister finishes with the computer, and you can’t eliminate the distraction of a three-year-old singing Thomas the Tank Engine theme song at the top of his voice and out of tune. 

I found it helpful to set practical, precise goals and stick to them. For example, perhaps you cannot eliminate all distractions, but you can still switch your devices off while you do your algebra sums, so you are not tempted to watch You Tube. Perhaps you cannot maintain a good sleep schedule because you have insomnia, but you can still take study breaks. Perhaps you cannot do the hardest thing first, but you can still make a rule to do at least one subject before 9am.

Yet no matter how disorganized your day may be, start and end every day with a prayer. That way, even if you accidentally study the wrong topic for the test, if you do not study because you have a tummy bug, or if you get every single one of those algebra sums wrong, your day is entrusted to God. 

Ultimately, the goal of life is sanctity, not productivity, and so if, for example, a mother does nothing on her to-do list at all because she is caring for sick children, she is doing something very good and admirable. There is more to life than getting impressive things done.

St John Bosco said, “Daily work, regularly and conscientiously performed, was a sure stepping stone to sanctity.” Thus, even the most unimportant, menial task can actually become a step on the road to Heaven. 

AMDG – Ad Maiorem Dei Gloriam – All to the greater glory of God