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Scheduling – half an hour for lunch – is this possible?
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So, I’m on Step 5, Your Day, of Planning Your Charlotte Mason Education…
… I’ve looked at lots of schedules and it seems that most people manage just half an hour for lunch. I don’t! What am I doing wrong? It takes the first 15 mins for me to prepare the lunch whilst my children put away their books, wash their hands and help set the table. Then it seems to take half an hour to eat (I don’t want to nag them constantly to eat faster), then another half an hour to clean up, wash hands and faces, change the baby and settle him for a nap….
So that makes 1 hour and 15 mins for lunch. Any thoughts?
I don’t have any magical solutions other than to let you know that you are not alone. I always allow at least an hour for lunch. It’s 30 minutes to eat and 30 minutes to clean the kitchen (we don’t have a dishwasher, so we wash after every meal). That’s not counting time for me to prep. I usually try to make lunch while my girls finish up something at the kitchen table (drawing or copywork or reading). If you know your family, I would suggest making your schedule accordingly. Allow an hour and 15 minutes or 1 hour and 30 to be safe. It is what it is. Don’t try to mold yourself into something you can’t do b/c then you’re just setting yourself up to feel like a failure day after day.
🙂
Melissa
You are so not alone. I find that 45 min. – 1 hr. 15 min. is needed for lunch prep., eating, visiting and clean up…depending on the days drama. I plan for 1 hr and figure if we don’t take that much time then we are ahead of the game and if we take a little more time then that’s okay too. A hour is a good starting point for our family.
If you are worried that you are “wasting” time while you are doing all those things, one of the ways I have found helps me to finish school and keep the kids interested in the last couple of things is to listen to an audiobook for our literature read aloud. It is really a fun part of our day now. You can get free audio books from librivox.org. =)
Because my children are 7 and 5, our morning school time requires a lot of me. I NEED more than 30 minutes for lunch!! We take a 2 hours break between morning school time and whatever we are working on for the afternoon. Lunch fits in easily into a 2 hour slot!!!
Sheraz has a great idea with listening to an audio book or composer during lunch hour. I only have two, and I work mornings, so by the time we get home from the office it is often 12:20. They do their chores while I make lunch usually (occassionally older ds will make lunch). We try to start a read aloud over lunch and then move onto other things. Last fall we even went for a walk before starting our afternoons, either way it was often 1:30 before we got to work in the afternoons, and I really try to finish by 3, 3:30 at the latest. I would like to reinstate our walk, but in order for it to work, I think we are going to have to rearrange some things. I’m considering having older ds wash the dishes, then have his computer time while I work with my younger ds, then younger ds can dry then have his computer time while I work with the older ds. (My boys do their independent work in the mornings while we are at the office, so it’s only family work and individual teaching time in the PM.)
I usually prepare something quick and easy for lunch. Mostly it is warming up leftovers or fixing sandwiches and fruit or yogurt. Sometimes I’ll put something in the oven to cook while we work on school. They might be finishing up a school project while I fix their plates. Often times I finish eating before the kids do. I’ll clear the table and clean up some and then a read aloud while they are still eating. This is when you could play an audio book while they clean up some and you tend to the baby. Also, we listen to composer music during lunch.
Considering the time the baby needs, that might be about right for your family.
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