Maintaining a well-rounded life establishes a healthy framework for balanced development. Training children to balance the many elements of life is just as much a part of quality education as math…actually, it is math.
Homeschooling is a lifestyle brimming with possibilities, best taken advantage of in dynamic balance. Dynamic balance means balance in movement by maintaining a line of gravity. It is remaining grounded by sensing the gravity of your overarching purpose while maneuvering obstacles and complexities. A strategy open to experimentation and adjustments allows for dynamic balance in any pursuit. Homeschooling can be as limber and agile as you set your mind to make it. But how?
Start by laying out your vision and primary purposes in homeschooling and life in general. What themes and practices do you want to be standard constants in your child’s life, as well as your own? Referencing my pages and posts on vision and purpose can help set up a framework. Once you have established your “gravity” (that vision and purpose grounding you and driving you onward), maintaining that line of gravity with any ease, let alone style, requires an awareness and positioning of the elements of life. I prefer a 5 category approach:
Finance and Domestic Management
Day-to-day logistics can carry your dreams to fruition or stifle them depending on how those logistics are managed. Set priorities. Set parameters. Set protocols for the unexpected.
Bills, ”Paperwork” (mostly online), and Communications
Household Upkeep
Meals
Transportation
Shopping
Relationships
Quality relationships rarely happen haphazardly. They take time, thought and effort. Be intentional. Be Invested.
Family
Friends
Romance
Personal Care
Like any machine, we can either run ourselves into the ground or maintain our long-term functionality with quality maintenance. Training our little ones to properly maintain their well-being starts with our example. It becomes meaningful as we include them and spur them on.
Hygiene and Grooming
Spirituality
Fitness
Intellectual, Creative and Skill Development
Emotional Processing
Work
Whether occupation or full-time education (homeschool included), work has its own ecosystem of logistics, relationships, skill development, etc. It can easily consume our thoughts and spill into everything if we do not tame the beast.
Recreation and Community Involvement
Get out and about. Be a part of it all. We are better together.
Hobbies and Competitions
Adventures and Events
Civic Duties and Volunteering
Entertainment, Mini-Relaxations and Vacations
There is, of course, a great deal of overlap between these categories. Fitness is often recreational. Most activities can incorporate others and thereby build relationships too. Those overlaps can enhance experiences, but note the separate components. The better you know what you are juggling, the better you can place it.
Take a moment to consider the categories in light of your vision and purpose. Consider the personalities, needs, and resources of your family. Each day responsibilities and opportunities vary, so setting up patterns and backup plans that keep your values and priorities at the core of each day is elemental in maintaining your line of gravity. In a master plan, position different elements of your life according to their long term impact, but recognize as each day unfolds, those elements may need to be rearranged to stay on course. Taking a moment to consider the day ahead can make a world of difference in effectiveness. Zones help me manage. Elements may vacillate between zones, but usually not much.
Critical - This zone is always in flux. Important things hinge on the immediacy of execution, so very few elements are so imperative as to stay in the critical zone. Today, it has to be done today!
Significant - Any element crucial to my vision and purpose remain in the significant zone Unlike the critical zone, however as long as these items are tended to regularly or done within a day or two, all is well.
Preferred - The elements that are meaningful and not to be neglected long-term fall into the preferred zone. Often their execution depends upon the progression of the day and the mental state of participants.
Icing - I love to get to these elements if possible. They are the icing on the cake. They inspire and make things feel fulfilling. Occasionally, these accents in life jump into the critical zone when morale is low, and things need to get stirred up a bit. Generally, though, they are not high priorities.
Continuously developing an alert sensitivity to signs of imbalance can head off weariness and over-reactive or misdirected emotions. When rectifying an imbalance, it may seem irrelevant but start with diet. Fresh fruits and vegetables, and proper hydration have a huge effect on mood and energy. Getting outdoors does too, even briefly. A walk around the block can reset people. Once the mind is clear, looking objectively at oneself, the situation and current strategies is much easier. Minor repositioning or different counterbalances may be all that is needed; other times, restarting from a new angle is more efficient. Experiment. Be calculated. Be creative.
On occasion, temporary imbalance may be essential to achieve a goal or to restore long-term balance. In those instances, embrace the gambit. Prioritize a little “icing” to lighten the mood. Keep a team mentality, and assure anyone feeling a little strained of the return-to-balance point.
Factors are always shifting; it is part of the game in life. The more well-rounded, well-grounded and agile individuals are, the less they are pulled off balance by the unexpected. Day by day, week by week, training to adjust and counterbalance without losing focus on the overarching vision and core values, without losing that line of gravity, is training for a life in dynamic balance.
-S. E. Bocker
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