by Cherie Logan
This presentation is a lesson I give on time perception.
Begin by asking the question, “Is there an at-home mother here who has a toddler or preschool children? Could you describe their typical morning, please?”
“Is there anybody here who can describe a typical morning schedule for a public schooled teen, including their various class hours?”
Thank you. I asked these questions because their answers so clearly illustrates the difference between an Intersecting Time and a Moving Through Time schedule.
Intersecting Time is when a time line is interrupted at specific points: 7 o’clock we get up, 8 o’clock we eat breakfast, 9 o’clock we start school with opening exercises, 9:15 we start history and at 11 we have reading.
Moving Through Time is when events unfold within the time line regardless of the hour: We get up and then eat and then clean and then start school. The children read for an hour and do some writing. They practice on the piano and then they play.
Video
Clips
To further illustrate, I have two video clips showing both techniques.
The first is from Around the World in 80 Days where the famous challenge is about to be made. Notice the character’s absorption with time. In other places in the movie he fires his gentleman because he is not punctual, he hires a new one because he uses the word Exactly when telling time and in an opening scene we see that his closet is organized by season of the year and days of the week. This is a caricature of an Intersecting Time person.
The second is from Roman Holiday where Audrey Hepburn portrays a princess ready to escape from her overwhelming schedule to experience life with little time pressure. This shows a person living an Intersect life and longing for a Moving Through Time vacation.
Go Over the Handout (shown here)
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Events are controlled by Time Relates to time at specific points, on schedule, prompt, punctual, stressed when late. Being on time shows how important the event really is. Expected outcome based upon time spent. Not enough time can be a problem. Life is organized by hour, day, week, month. When occasional spontaneity is added there is usually a plan for a specific return to normal time structure. Experiences few surprises because of scheduling but when schedule is interrupted feels that time was lost and should be made up. Irritated by people who move through time and consider them rude and even lazy. Compassionate with those who have a full day. Needs to be careful of over scheduling and of having a false sense of accomplishment because of being time busy rather than really getting tasks finished. Frustrated with vague schedules. Feels unsuccessful when there is too much free time. May to experience burnout and feeling of inadequacies when they can’t meet the deadlines or follow the schedule as planned. Can forget how to play. Able to develop and maneuver through a well organized time structure. Because of this they can accomplish several things in the best time possible. Inherent satisfaction from managing their life’s moments to the utmost. Able to evaluate their actions and time and determine what to do to improve outcome. Because of the basic time schedule, their mind is free to think about other things. In School, goals of a deadline nature works well. Teach them how to break up the assignment into smaller time fragments. A curriculum that assigns specific material on specific days and hours is helpful. Students
who feel
bored or that they are not learning very much may need more time
structure.
Try using time expectations to enhance learning. Motivated by
having
Free Time when work is done.
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Time is controlled by events. Relates to time by going from one thing to another. I’ll get there when I get there. Being there is more important than being on time. Broad or multiple expected daily outcome based on activity or interest level rather than time structure. Too many things to do can be a problem. Life is organized by energy, interest, responsibility with a framework of occasional important timings. When a schedule or time expectations are interrupted has the attitude of “Life happens, we’ll deal with it!” Patient with others who are late. Tends to think Intersecting Time people are overly sensitive to time issues and inflexible to all the things that interfere with smooth timing. Needs to be careful to avoid structuring most of the day around time slots or they will find themselves not following through after a brief attempt to do so. Must guard against wasting the day, boredom, forgetting appointments and habitual tardiness. Stressed when there is a time deadline. It is often hard to get them out of door as there is always one more thing to do first. Does very well with an approximation of time for goals or a frame work of activity scheduling such as: Get up, Have breakfast, Clean house, Have School, etc. Able to adjust to time changes and changes in the daily plan. Can relax with the erratic schedules of infants and children. In school, a guideline curriculum which allows flexibility of schedule or a simple overview school plan works best. Some form of time structure helps when there is a tendency to get into projects without prioritizing them. For example: First we have our group lessons, then private studies where I help the children individually, then private reading and project time. We start after the house is clean and end at 2 pm. Another guideline style would be Tuesday is History and language. Wednesday is Reading and projects. Thursday is math and science studies. Students who feel overwhelmed may need less time demands. Teach them how to set outline goals rather than detailed ones, broaden their school expectations by having the experience count rather than the minutes. Motivated by having something to Do when finished. |
Remember that in Intersecting Time your events are controlled by time and that in Moving Through Time your time is controlled by events.
How
does this information help us in our families and our home schooling?
I believe that the structure of the home and school should suit the mother’s Time Relationship. She then adapts within that structure to suit her child. Mother is often the determining factor in the life of the home school. If she burns out or feels that she has failed then she will stop. If the mother is Through Time then she can create a basic outline and structure for her children. If she has one of more Intercept Time children then she can give them more time-focused goals. If she is an Intercept mother she can relax the time requirements for her through-time children while emphasizing the value of projects rather than speed.
Intersect mother and children: use a curriculum with specific tasks per day and per hour. The more time detailed the better. The more experienced the mother becomes she might like to switch to an outline or guidebook curriculum and add her own extra material and goals. Sonlight offers a curriculum that is an Intersect style but easily adaptable as the mother gains confidence in her own scheduling. Intersect Time children can be motivated by beating the clock or by having FREE TIME hen finished. An Intersect Time mother feel success when enough time is given to an event. This could be time her children spend in a work book style curriculum or her own time spent with them. Either way, time is an important factor in her feelings about home schooling.
Intersect mother with Through Time children can still follow the above suggestions but adapting it by scheduling the time to meet her style while focusing on the content to meet her children’s needs. To do this, she can require less than the plan but better quality. She can lengthen the expectation time. She can plan short unstructured academic time in between scheduled lessons so the Through Time children can have extra time to work or an incentive for working faster and having more free time to DO things. She might discover that her Through Time - Event oriented child would do better by doing all the math on one day rather than breaking it up over three to five days. With a little work she can adapt an existing schedule to meet his needs while keeping the time structure that helps her recognize success. Another suggestion would be to follow the curriculum but increase the expected content or decrease the assignments according to the interest and ability of her Through Time children. Event incentive is important to Through Time children and they are only sporadically interested in beating the clock games. They will work better and faster if they have the goal of doing something else afterwards.
Through Time mother and children. These mothers do well using a curriculum that is a guidebook style such as Dr. Kimber’s CER or a framework style such as Oliver DeMille’s Thomas Jefferson Education. As she becomes more experience the Through Time mother might enjoy trying an unschooling approach. Even then, she will find times when she feels little is being accomplished because she is not as involved in the process without structure. When that happens she can improve her perspective by returning to an outline plan for a month or so while she recaptures her sense of success. Because her feelings of success is based upon events not time, she needs to be actively involved in a portion of her children’s learning but it doesn’t have to be daily. Turning them over to work book learning or unschooling without some interaction with her will leave mother feeling something is missing.
Through Time mother with Intersect children. Follow the above suggestions for Through Time mothers but help the Intersect children to set their own time goals for things they want to learn. Do this on a weekly or monthly basis. If a Through Time mother has to make detailed time plans on a daily basis she will drop the program after a short while usually by simply forgetting to plan it. Include some time drills and deadline type of assignments.
Remember: Structure to the Mother’s style and adapt the instruction to the child’s style.
What Do I Do in Our Home?
Being a Through Time mother of nine children, I have consistently been happiest with a simple outline that seems to cover everybody’s needs. I use Dr. Glenn Kimber’s CER, Dr. Oliver DeMille’s Thomas Jefferson Education, some Sonlight and Literature based assignments and when my children become teens, I include my own Noble Child Education ideas.
We have group lesson in which I teach everybody at once. This usually consists of scripture study, history, memorizing and family reading along with anything else I think the group should be doing. Then we have private studies which focuses on each individual child’s abilities and needs. I am available independently to assist, motivate and insist. Then we have personal projects in which each child directs his own learning and includes reading.
This program starts after the house is clean and ends at two or three. I have a broad view of what learning is and a specific list of what it is not and what is on that not list isn’t done during school hours unless I decide to allow it. We do academics three days each week. We have another day that is divided by age groups. I teach teens at my home and a friend teaches the younger ones at her home. This day is mostly interactive rather than book-learning. A fifth day is entirely project and reading with no involvement on my part as I am working on my own projects..
We often find Intersecting environments in the work place and in traditional schools. We find Moving Through structure in the home and many entrepreneur jobs.
Moving Through is a natural environment for young children. The television is an Intercept Time vehicle and can increase frustration in a Moving Through home. Using a VCR and only watching recorded shows where the viewing event is controlling the time rather than the traditional reverse is an excellent help in these homes.
Time
Relationship and Family Interatcion Examples
If something isn't clear, please ask me questions. This is quite a project for me. I've been teaching communication for over fifteen years but only on a couple by couple basis. It is different in a class setting and the challenge has been interesting to say the least!
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