Saturday, March 17, 2012

Avilian Homeschool Routine

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.
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)