Do you ever feel like your whole life is about HOMESCHOOL.. LOL. It seems like all I ever do is plan for what we are going to do or try to find a way to tweak this or that to make it work. I'm tired. I don't feel like we are making much progress. It doesn't help that the boys don't want to do their work and I have to fight with them. When they do it they do so just to say it's done. I checked their papers from yesterday and both of them got ALL their language arts wrong. It was continuation of a review we had a few days ago. On those papers they missed only a few. If I didn't know better I'd think they didn't know the stuff. It frustrates me. After fighting with the boys I have little to give the girls. They don't have a problem doing their work. They WANT to do their work. I have all this fun stuff planned but it goes out the window because by the time I'm done with "the boys" I don't want to do anything else. They suck the life right out of me. I guess I need to find another way to school them. The girls are bored and quite frankly so am I. I'm half tempted to let the boys sleep in like they want to and work with the girls. We would be done before the boys got up.. Hummmm. That's an idea. Maybe that's what I should do.. I really don't know what to do with the boys. Sometimes I just want to send them back to school but I know that won't help anything. Sorry for the gripe session, I just needed to vent AGAIN. Seems I do a lot of that these days.. Thanks for listening.
Sounds to me like you need a "MOVIE DAY"!!!! When things got to that point for us, I declared a Personal Holiday, we bought frozen pizza (actually, I usually had some in the freezer), and we rented half a dozen movies and we camped out in the living room for the day! We ate junk food, watched dumb movies from the 60's and just did NOTHING all day! Dad got pizza, too! We tried not to do it too often, but sometimes, you just NEED a break! One of my friends called it Mental Health Day. Actually, later in my years of schooling, I tried scheduling this in once a month. It never worked as well as the spontaneous ones!
Countrygal, I like your idea! When we get to that point we also just take a day off! That usually means we go out of town for the day. (since we live in a small town with NOTHING TO DO) Some days I have been letting my girls sleep until they wake up and then start school, I try not to do it all the time, but when hubby is home the mornings are his so the girls will sleep in.
I have been where you are. In fact, about a month ago I thought my life (at least anything enjoyable) was over for the next 8 to 9 months.:cry: Wow, I was feeling sorry for myself. I work and homeschool, so that is not helpful. But, our problem was the method we were using--ALL textbook and NO fun. My son is kinethetic and I am re-thinking everything right now. In fact we are in a relaxed mode right now. We are focusing on a little math and just reading what he wants for probably the next 2 months. He officially is in high school, but I told him this may make it last an additional semester and he is fine with it. His spirit was being crushed and so was mine. I may add a little English here and there to keep him from forgetting. Before this year I would have never thought of taking such a long semi-break, but now I know it is necessary. There are other issues as well, but that would be too long to go into now. But, even if you don't do what I am doing, take a break (day/week) and re-think. If what you are doing works keep with it. But, if the style of schooling you use is not working, maybe you could switch it up. That is the joy of homeschooling-being able to change (even mid-stream).
I totally agree with the break idea!! Go on a field trip, break up the monotony of the day to day! February is a really hard month for my (I am so over winter by then so I plan extra fun things and take a few days off if I need it! If you need to school your girls first to feel successful, do it! Try it for a week and see if it helps. Don't ever be afraid to change anything that isn't working. That is the beauty of homeschool, we do it how we want it to be successful!
Take a break! (Yeah, I'm one to talk, I burn out and just keep trying to trudge ahead and look for something new at the same time) I also like the idea of letting the boys sleep in and working with the girls in the morning, we have done similar things in the past, ODS and I would wake early and do school so that I could have time to "do school" with the littles if they happened to ask, and it also meant that the house was quiet for the oldest to work... I think we should try that again, but right now I'm trying to relax a lot more.
yes last year, then I realised that I would only have one this year and thought of all the ME time I could have... but thennnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn I said I would teach a Drama class, and signed ds up for an Astronomy class co op, which meant we had to take required Attitude of Grattitude course as well... Then someone asked me or my dd to tutor and keeps trying t figure how I can do ti when I said I cant. Then I drive my ds18 to Colllge certain days and dd goes to private school this year so I am driving her to and from and .... yeah somehwere in there I do homeschool... Just remember these wise words.... This too shall pass! relish in what you have now, I will really only have one next year as the other two will be out of school and doing college either on line or at a IT , which is what ds is thinking of transfering to next year, he is back and forth OM I am so rambling sorry!
I agree, take a break and refocus. With that said, for us, homeschooling is a part of life. Learning is life. We do not enslave ourselves to the textbook or curriculum. This will burn you out! If you want to allow the boys to sleep in while you work with the girls, WHY NOT?!!!! It is easy to get in the habit of living life around school instead of making school revolve around life. Homeschooling became much more enjoyable, USUALLY LOL, when I stopped trying to conform life to it. Now we live life and make school work around our everyday. ...and sometimes I still need to take time off. So I take it. Would your boys like to learn in a different area of the house; outside, on the floor, on a swing, at a library? Can they do math on a window with dry erase marker? I am just throwing in ideas. You know your boys and can change accordingly. But definitely take a break, rest, then try something different if necessary.
Take a break - we all need one from time to time. Let the boys sleep in....work with the girls - let them have fun You know - if the boys see the girls having fun while they still need to get work done, it might be motivational And you go take a book (FICTIONAL PLEASE), and go in the bath tub with lots of bubbles and don't hear anything.......
I agree Dana!! Dutch likes nothing better than to whip through school so he can "play" while brother is working. Make sure that the girls get a reward for working hard and not making you crazy. (that the boys don't get.)
Thanks for all the responses. We did take a break this past week. The kids played and did a few chores while I worked on centerpieces for a baby shower that we had yesterday. If only I didn't have a toothache now, I would feel great!
