Rhythms, Loop Schedules and Being Flexible!
I have always been the type of person who lives by a schedule. Since I was little, I have been a planner and a list maker. It is in my nature and it was not learned because I can’t find anyone else in my family who does it. My lists are quite detailed and I have even been known to put times next to everything. My lists vary from today’s to do list, to my lifetime goals, to every birthday party I might plan for my child’s whole life! I know it is crazy, I often laugh at myself but it is a compulsion that is also quite useful.
My husband is the total opposite. He would never make a list, sees no use for one and thinks I’m a complete nut. Like in all things, I believe somewhere in the middle is probably the best.
As a parent when my daughter was born I was obviously very conscious of putting her on a schedule. I had friends with infants at the same time who refused to schedule because they didn’t want to put such restriction on their own lifestyle. However, in all of these cases I witnessed at some point even if it took a couple of years their children put themselves on a schedule.
I bring this up because now as I enter homeschooling my five-year-old I know that I will of course be a planner. It is who I am. Therefore, I will have a schedule for our days, a plan for our months and years together and some big goals for this entire process. I say that with a smile because I know from being me for the last 42 years, that I will need to write all of this in pencil because things never go according to plan. That doesn’t mean I stop planning because it is who I am and I do find value in having a plan while remaining flexible.
You can plan to be spontaneous if that makes any sense!
I love how Waldorf education is founded on the idea of rhythms. I like the idea of having a rhythm to my day. Something we can all count on as a routine but with more freedom than the rigid schedules I made in the past. This for example, would look something like after waking up we go outdoors for a half hour then come in to make breakfast. This would be our rhythm regardless of the time we wake up each day.
I find that without some kind of expected flow to our day we can easily fall into an unproductive trap. Let’s be real, modern life comes with many comforts and conveniences. Very few of us live on a farm and have to complete work at home every day. We all have couches, tvs, a plethora of technological devices, Door Dash…this means we can easily end up in our pajamas all day scrolling. Don’t get me wrong I think every family should have a cozy day but these should be special not common.
My husband, the one who doesn’t believe in lists, tells me when he’s fallen into a rut. I’m sure we’ve all experienced times of laziness and can attest to the fact that simple chores don’t even get done when we start to move from the bed to the couch each day. That’s definitely not the homeschool experience we set out to provide but I think it’s easy to succumb to without a routine.
So, I love the idea of Waldorf’s rhythms and then I learned about loop scheduling and got even more excited. A loop schedule allows you to not feel defeated when you don’t accomplish every thing on your list each day. It also allows you to build things into your rhythm that are not necessarily repeated every day. Here is how I began my homeschool journey. I sat down and created a list of what I would like Chloe’s days to look like and then I started to think of the things we might do weekly, monthly or yearly. This was just a natural extension of what we had been doing her whole life. We already had a familiar routine that we lived by now I just thought of how it might grow with her to include more academic content over time.
I like to start the day outdoors because I have learned how vital it is to our circadian rhythm. My daughter would love to wake up and start playing in her playroom but I find when we do that we get sucked in for hours. It then leads to doing chores, getting dressed, and by the time we get outside it’s almost lunch. I do feel our motivation and well-being are just better when we have gotten some fresh air and sunlight first thing. Many homeschoolers start with morning lessons but again, I believe getting outside and active is more beneficial.
Our daily rhythm on a perfect day begins with outdoor time which is typically around 7:00 but can vary between 6:00-8:00 depending on the day or season we are in. Sometimes, this outdoor time is jumping on our trampoline, going for a walk around the block, taking the binoculars outside to look for birds, or if we get up early enough driving to the bay to watch sunrise. Again, there is lots of flexibility in what we do and when exactly we do it but our rhythm is to wake up and head outside. My daily rhythm is detailed in the infographic.
The activities in my morning loop time are foreign language, music, and handcraft. The activities in my afternoon loop time are gymnastics, swim, acting class, and meet up with friends. For outings I plan places for each month that will sometimes support learning in social studies and science. These might be places we can use maps, go on hikes, visit the aquarium, a science lab, farm, or library. If we stay home this time is for unstructured play outside or projects like gardening or a lemonade stand.
Some people use a loop schedule so that if they only got to free play the next day they would start with read aloud and continue to writing before doing their math and art. I have not used it like this yet as my daughter is only five so I’m not worried about hitting certain subjects. For me, the loop helps me plan for the activities that work best on a rotation.
If we have a day when our outing takes up the whole day no big deal we just ditch our rhythm for the day. I find that having this rhythm doesn’t dictate our lives it helps us plan for the days when we are home with nothing to do so we don’t get sucked into a screen.