Too busy to think? You’re not the only homeschooling mom who feels that way!
Where have the last three weeks gone?! I’ll tell you…they’ve been gobbled up by work, commitments, construction, worry, a nasty summer cold, anxiety, and far, far too little time to relax and just be still. As I stand on the edge of the fourth week of school, I can honestly say that I have been too busy to think.
Since homeschooling families are so very different, I know that what’s my reality with homeschool is probably vastly different from anyone else’s. In addition to homeschooling, I also work full-time from home. And then I have a part-time job on top of that. While I truly enjoy my work (and tend to take on even more work when I feel overwhelmed – crazy, huh?), the commitments are very real and the time leftover for simply relaxing or doing something offline is almost non-existent.
Thankfully, when it comes to homeschooling, we have our routine down-pat. We work in the morning starting around 8am and the kids usually take a mid-morning break around 10 or 10:30 to have a snack while I respond to emails, etc. Then we pick up again until lunch. On days when I have morning conference calls, classes, or there’s a pressing issue I have to attend to, the kids do their independent work during that time. Things like cursive writing practice, math drills, and quiet reading time are perfect for those times. We’ve always been very flexible with the order of work, so it’s not a big deal to switch up assignments. As long as everything on their school lesson plan for the day gets done, I really don’t care in what order they do it or how long it takes…as long as it’s done by 4pm. I realize that our flexibility would absolutely not work for some homeschoolers and that’s okay. It’s what works best for us.
We have had, overall, a fantastic first month of school and the kids have learned a lot. A lot more than I anticipated actually. We’ve had fun too. There have been days when rousing games of Mancala and learning the state capitals have led to belly laughs. The sounds of learning have most definitely returned to our home in full force this August. I’ll be sharing our state capital memorization technique with you after we’re done, by the way…it’s a hoot.
But at the end of each day (which usually comes at 10pm for me when I’ve finished my work), I have to admit that I’m exhausted. The days, the month has been great, but…I’m not sure I like being too busy to think. Because I think that constant going and going and going is stealing my peace.
How do you find peace and a chance to be still in your own daily routine? Whether you homeschool or not, you most likely have equally as busy and demanding days. What do you do?
Because I’m too busy (and too tired) right now to try to think of a way to slow down. What’s your secret?