This was originally published on geocities in the late 1990s, before blogs and facebook became popular. I frequently get requests about the method and offer it here for those who are interested.
I've left it in it's original format.
I've left it in it's original format.
Avilian Catholic Homeschool Routine
based on the temporal ordering of events in religious orders
About 5 years ago our family started to spend time at a friary. The friars are traditional, holy & filled with joy. One day the Father Guardian (as the superior is called) was telling me what their daily schedule was like and I was shocked to learn that, other then the hair shirts (really), their day was lighter and less rigorous then mine. They laughed and played together at least twice a day! They took naps!! They even read to each other.
The founders of Religious orders set up horariums (schedules) with much prayer and consideration. Their schedules take into account human nature, the needs of the community and the natural needs of the individual. Often homeschool mothers are overwhelmed with their workload because they either don’t have a schedule or their schedule is so rigorous that there is no time for rejuvenation.
By looking at the ordering of daily activities by various religious communities one gets a sense of the rhythm of activities that leads to a reflective spiritual life and a productive family life. The horariums of 4 religious orders are considered and in the last column an ordering of activities for the homeschool mother based on those horariums is suggested. It is interesting to note that many mothers will already be following a similar ordering of activities, however often they leave out crucial elements as discussed after the table. All of these orders are traditional. The Precious Blood sisters are monastic, but not cloistered. The Poor Clares and Carmelites are cloistered while the Holy Name sisters were a typical teaching order from the 1950s (information found in an old book.) As much as possible I’ve attempted to highlight activities that are similar by font color or type. The “Office” is the praying of the Liturgy of the Hours and is in many ways the “work” of the cloistered nun.
It’s important to mention that this table is presented not to suggest that families should live like religious, but that they should be careful not to live lives that are more rigorous and penitential then religious because it is often counter productive. Much can be learned about incorporating rest and recreation into the daily routine as well as scheduling in specific times for ones “work.”
Precious Blood | Poor Clares | Carmelite | Holy Names teaching order-1950 schedule | Homeschool Mother | ||
5.00 | Office Coffee | Private Prayer Office Mass | ||||
5:30 | Prayer Mass Office | Prayer Mass Office | Prayer Office Mass | Rise Prayer (Mass) Breakfast | ||
8:00 | Coffee | Breakfast | ||||
Work | Work | Chores/Rosary | Work related to vocation as wife, mom and teacher | |||
9 | breakfast | School Work | ||||
Work | ||||||
10 | ||||||
11 | Office | Office Examen | ||||
Examen Lunch Recreation with children | ||||||
noon | Examen Dinner | Examen Dinner | Dinner Recreation | Lunch Recreation with children | ||
Work | ||||||
1 | Office | Work Rest | School Work | Work related to vocation as wife, mom and teacher | ||
2 | Work | Office Spiritual Read aloud | ||||
Rest | ||||||
3 | Prayer Work | Examen Rest/Silence Spiritual Read aloud | Examen Rest/Quiet Time | |||
4 | Office rosary, meditation Collation | Office Work | Read aloud Chores | |||
5 | Prayer/Office meditation | Rosary | Supper | Rosary | ||
Meditation | Supper | |||||
6 | Collation | Supper | Recreation | Recreation | ||
Recreation | ||||||
7 | Recreation | Recreation | Personal work & study | personal work & study | ||
Office Grand Silence | ||||||
8 | Office Grand Silence | Office Grand Silence | Office Grand Silence | Light chores Silence | ||
9 | Personal time before bed | Personal time before bed | Personal time before bed | Personal time before bed | Personal time before bed | |
Rise during night for Matins | ||||||
The table above may be confusing, so below is a summary of the general flow of activities of the religious orders.
orders.
-wake, prayer (Mass), breakfast
-3 hours work related to one’s vocation in life
-1 hour Examination of conscience, lunch, recreation
-2 hours work related to one’s vocation in life (lighter than in the morning)
-Rest Time
-30min-60 min Read aloud
-30 min work related to one’s vocation in life (household chores/cooking)
-rosary
-supper
-1 hour recreation
-30-60 minutes light work & study related to one’s vocation in life
-silence (quite time or bedtime for children)
-personal time (at least an hour of unstructured time)
