yesterday was our first day back since Nov.. Well we did some school between thanksgiving and christmas but not even a full week at a time.. Sorta hit and miss.. I am SOOOOO burned out!! I'm irritated that the kids don't do what I expect of them. I don't want to check their work and I HATE doing the lesson plans. But if I don't do lesson plans they don't do the work and come up with the excuse that I never told them to do it.. If I don't check the work then they move on before they should. GRRRR..... I just want to curl up with a quilt and a book that's not school related and escape this every day life of homeschooling. We start a new homeschool group on Friday so I'm hoping that will help relieve some of the "don't want to do school" blues I'm having.... Anyone else having issues getting back into the swing of things after the holidays????
I just started having my kids check their own work, yesterday. I get really behind in grading sometimes and it seems impossible to catch up once you get behind. Then I feel bad because they should be learning from their mistakes. So now, after I have verified they did the work, they compare it to my TM and mark the incorrect answers wrong. I have talked to them about cheating and I am in the same room when they do it. After that, I tell them to correct the ones they missed. With dd (since she is younger), I read the correct answers to her (or she reads her answers to me and I tell her if it's wrong). Then, she corrects the mistakes. It is soooooo much better this way! The work gets graded and they learn from the mistakes. I have started this with math and English. As of now, I am still grading the rest myself.
Oh I so could have written that!!! I wanted to cry and scream "I hate school" today! Praying for a better second day back.
I have to agree you are not alone, with those feelings, it's really about learning what works to get you through each day. Just recently I started a new routine, of making up a daily checklist of what assignments need to be done, so they can check it off as they finish it. It has helped a lot with helping them to manage their day, and making it less stressful for me. In the morning we start off with a morning meeting to go over what needs to be done for the day. I still have those days, but you just have to figure out how to get through them for the sake of your kids. Besides, before you know it the homeschool days will be over all too quickly. I also like the checking your own work idea. This may work for my older kids.
I feel your pain! I was researching boarding schools right before Christmas. My husband said I was crazy...how could I even consider switching to something so opposite? I'm not crazy, just a weary mom who needs a break. I think admitting it and knowing others feel the same way is a good start to "digging out of the hole." (hugs)
I got lazy and didn't check their work. So last night I decided to sit down and look it over "real quick".. BAHAHAHAHA~~ There is NO "quick" to going over work.. Wow.. I was up til 3am going over everything and writing plans. And the worse part is that THEY know I'm not going to check it so they write something in the blanks just to say it's done when they flash it at me from across the room... NOT a happy mama this morning.. Irritated at myself..
Ladies, I don't know about you but I think homeschooling would be a whole lot easier if the kids would work through their work without the foot dragging? Today for example my ds took two hours for 22 math problems? Oh they weren't hard but he wasn't focusing on the work. He didn't finish work until 5pm with me bored all day with him. Why because he is too young to do it on his own without supervision. Ugh. I am thinking I need to pack some handy work into a bag to take to work on during the quiet times.
Burn out can be tough. January can be a difficult time too. Kids (and parents) tend to get bogged down around this time of year. I posted an article on my site (below) under Teaching Tips that addresses this issue with lots of ideas. You might want to check it out.
I can't get motivated either. I was going to start school on Tuesday but I'm putting if off until MOnday..lol
I would suggest that you may have done what I used to do. Every year I would try to do some lessons in December and we just had so much going on that at most we would get maybe five days all together, but I would constantly be telling myself that I should be doing more and fretting about it in my mind. The result was I would be burnt out in January thinking I needed to "catch up." This year I just toss that expectation aside and did not even touch anything to do with homeschooling. I just baked, prepared for Christmas, and dealt with a sick child, but still really relaxed. We usually do not start back until the second week of January, but this year I was ready to hit it the first week. Not that we are at full steam because I was not as organized as I needed to be, but I can tell you there is such a difference in my attitude this year around that I will be doing the same next year!
Like someone mentioned, its common to feel this way after the busy holidays and time off. Remember this is one of the awesome benefits of homeschooling. You can ease back into it. Don't demand so much during the first week back. It's counterproductive to yourself and your children. I've been homeschooling a long time. In the early years, I pushed through times like these and it was no fun for anybody and not much actually got done, what with the dragging of feet and complaining. Once I realized that, I made "Back to School" time more flexible and we don't have the complaining and burnout we once did.
