If you ask me, family learning time is just about the best thing since sliced bread. It’s an entire hour where I get to speak to my children and tell them whatever I want. They get no say in the matter. Of course, it does go better if I listen to what they want. I’ll give you a quick snapshot of how it works in our home right now.
Family learning time is always after family work and breakfast. I consider it the most important gift I give my family that day, so it gets highest priority. Our children have consistently been the most receptive at this time of day.
The first thing we do is we pull out two jars of fake pearls. One is the in-jar, and the other is the out-jar. The goal is to fill the in-jar. We work for a collective event or reward. Right now we’re working towards a family camping trip. All of the family except me, so that’s added extra appeal for me to fill the jar up quickly!
I ask the children random question that give them a pearl from the out-jar to the in-jar. Sometimes it’s if they made the beds that morning, if they went the last 24 hours without leaving something on the floor, or I ask questions about what they learned about the day before. I usually check on their jobs and usually something about their schoolwork.
I love it when they start telling about the wonderful things their siblings did. They’re not allowed to brag about themselves and get pearls. I also never take anything out of the in-jar—no matter how naughty they are.
This gets them in the right mood. We continue with a song then a prayer. Sometimes it’s in one of the foreign languages we’ve studied. The kids get extra pearls for that.
After prayer, we do our family scripture study. I always make sure to share what I’ve been learning about and to testify of whatever truth God is currently teaching me or inspiring me to teach my children about.
Then we flow into art study. Last weekend, I went to the National Gallery of Art. There were about 12 pieces of art we had been studying as a family over the last month. Identifying these, and taking note of other beautiful pieces that I want to study with the children was a true joy.
Fridays are review days. We don’t pick a new piece of art to study. We review pieces that we have studied in the past. Or sometimes we just listen to a piece of music. That’s good for anytime I don’t have an inspiring piece up my sleeve.
I’ve been trying to get our foreign language study back in in this time, but I’ve only made it just over a half of the times. That’s all right it’s better than nothing, I say. This is a theme I’ve noticed with family learning. Sometimes it’s amazing, sometimes you wonder why you bother. Little efforts add up over time, so you just keep going and offer up what you have that day.
On Fridays, we review our old foreign language words that we’ve learned. We also like to choose one of our past songs we’ve learned in a foreign language during the opening part of our family learning time.
This is my time to share whatever I love with my children, whatever I’ve been learning about lately. Sometimes we will either study some historical place in our area that we want to go look at in the near future, or read a book or passages from something I’ve been reading.
Today we read our family read-aloud while we were folding laundry. That was super useful after my weekend art trip. It helped us all catch up. Most often, our read-aloud happens in the evening, after lunch, or in the car, but we sometimes throw it in during family learning time.
If I’m extra tired, or running late, but it’s OK by me to skip this last part and just continue on with individual studies or whatever we have planned for the day. The whole routine is aimed at me sharing what I have to inspire the children’s interests. I try to have grace with myself on days when I don’t feel I have much to give. Sometimes that’s the best lesson I can give them. But many days, this family learning time fills my bucket even more than my children’s. It feels like a gift that becomes more when given away.