Here are my thoughts on sleeping in, if you can go for it as long as you can. I have so many people telling me that my kids should start getting up earlier than 8. That some day they will have to hold down a job and be up earlier. That is true..... But, someday I may be in a nursing home but it doesn't mean I have to start acting that way now. Am I wrong..........
I'm with you. I see nothing wrong with allowing a homeschooled child to sleep in as long as when they awake, they do what they need to do. My kids are naturally early risers (well, so far, I have no teens yet!). BUT, I have a friend who's one son would sleep until noon, get up, get all his work done, etc. Once a week he had to get up early for something, he had no trouble doing it b/c she let him sleep when he needed to sleep. Did he like it? Probably not, but...he's now a Sr. taking early morning classes at a local college to finish out his high school career (he's taking a couple classes, but he's also doing some stuff w/ his mom, too)....he gets up just fine, and has no issues. Actually, her kid is awesome. I think if they are happy, healthy, and they get their work done, WHO CARES what time that happens??? There are people who work 2nd and 3rd shift in jobs and they are needed in our world. Our world works on a 24 hour schedule these days... My sister is a night owl, always has been, there's been NOTHING she's been able to do in her life to change that. It is who she is, she's worked jobs where that is to her advantage.
I just have to add. I think right now I am feeling guilty. We generally go to early service at church which starts at 8:30. Here I sit at 8:35 and not going to church because my son is sleeping. My daughter got up but since has gone back to sleep. I didn't push the issue because he had a bone graft earlier in the week. I feel that it is more important for him to sleep. We can always go to the 11:00 service this week. Maybe, even skip Sunday school, which starts at 9:45. I don't generally miss, unless we are really sick. But, he is healing. He was struggling last night and couldn't get to sleep. The pain isn't bad now. But he does have a bulky cast on that was made big for swelling. Now that the swelling has gone down it is banging around on his arm and hurting the stitches. He was complaining that it feels like every time he moves its breaking open and bleeding. I did call the Dr. and the one on call isn't the one who did the surgery. Of course there answer is always, Take it easy and call the office on Monday. That is why I had the surgery on a Tuesday so we won't run into this problem. urgh.... Oh, well God is good he isn't in pain so I shouldn't complain.
Don't feel guilty. You can always worship at home while your son rests. A bone graft is serious business and will take a fair amount of time to heal. And sleeping in is fine so long as everything can still get accomplished. After all kids are growing and later in life when they are holding that nine to five they won't have the opportunity.
Certainly a bone graft calls for an exception. Do not feel guilty. But as far as sleeping-in, on a normal day with my children, I do not condone sleeping-in. It's probably my personal preference because the morning is when I have the most energy, so I want to get up and get the homeschooling over and done with. And I want all of the kids up at the same time, so that it doesn't drag the homeschooling out to an all-day event. My husband finds sleeping-in to be abhorent, even on weekends. (I'd probably be okay with sleeping-in until 9 on weekends.) I think he just sees it as a sign of laziness. I know that someone will chime in about teenagers and their circadian rhythms being different than children or adult rhythms and to that I say, I don't care. The rhythm of the household is the only rhythm I care about. I know families that let their teenagers sleep until 1:00 in the afternoon. Ugh. I know another family that their teenager stayed up all night, went to bed when the rest of the family was getting up, and the parents rarely saw her. So much for family closeness and homeschooling!
Don't feel guilty, sleeping in to heal is a completely different thing than just sleeping in to sleep in. For us, we sleep in until about 8 on the weekends as opposed to 6:45 on normal days. We try not to sleep in too much to avoid getting off schedule. I feel each family is free to do what works for them, including parenting and lifestyle choices. Each family is different and I find that wonderful.
I don't get home from work until 9am or 9:10, as long as they are ready to go by 9:30 I don't really care when they get up. I will say when I to go to bed around 8:30 or 9 they are generally still awake, so I allow them to do their reading at that time in their rooms. Just as long as they let me sleep
First, agreeing with everyone else in encouraging you to allow your son to rest for as long as necessary--guilt-free. My kids sleep the same amount of time each night. When we all go to bed at 10pm, you can bet that my Ds15 will be up before 8am and Dd12 will sleep till closer to 8:30. Lately the kids and I have been staying up very, very late watch old episodes of The Office. We are hooked and don't get to bed until after midnight. I'm still getting up to do the chicken chores, but I let the kids sleep until they need to which is pushing Ds15 back to 9:30 and Dd12 about an hour later. I can understand about getting up late and being less productive in school. Just this week I told the kids we may not be able to stay up so late watching TV since our day is cut short. Dh wakes at 3:30am for work is is home by 1:30 in the afternoon. All that to say, if you know that your family is not becoming lazy, then I am all for people getting what they need in life. If it is a longer amount of sleep, then by all means get it. After you understand that, it will help realign priorities to suit the sleeping times. Right now finding out how Jim and Pam finally got together is taking priority over the kids getting up with me and the chickens. :lol:....but as soon as I find out if the library has it on DVD, it's back hitting the hay at 10pm.
First of all, I've not read all the responses. Up until this year, we were getting up early for shool (as in 6 AM!). This year, we've decided not to do that. Partly because the main reason for doing it (eating breakfast as a family before Dad left, having morning devotions with Dad) wasn't happening. And, especially toward the end of last year, I was having difficulty with Faythe first thing that I felt sleeping a bit later might help. So now we get up at 8-8:30, earlier on Weds because we need to pack lunches and be out the door by 9:30. One advantage of hs'ing is that YOU can set the schedule that works best for YOUR family. I really don't care what anyone else is doing...I do what works for me. I can tell people what works for me, but that doesn't mean it will work for them. And who the heck says that, when your kids get a job, it won't be second (or even third) shift? I have one friend whose husband works third shift. They sleep until noon or so, spend time with Dad, and start school sometime in the evening. They do school until they're done, which might be 2 AM. NOT a schedule that would work with me, but I'm sure as heck not going to tell her it's "wrong" when it works for her family!
We're all night owls around here. We sleep till about 9 or so(sometimes later)and are doing school by 10 or 10:30. The only time this causes a problem is on Sunday mornings, but we muddle through. My mom has been a night shift nurse for years, and she seems to be able to adjust to the rest of the world just fine when she needs to. Do what works for you. Praying for your son, BTW.
Well, Marc slept till 11, so we missed church. I am not letting it make me feel guilty any more. Thank you...... I am looking forward to seeing the Dr. tomorrow, pray when I call he gives us an appt first thing.
We do not stay up late and are early risers. I can't function if I do not get my morning started early. I feel like I wasted the whole morning. Handsome and I are up at 3:30 AM so he can hit the freeway before the morning traffic rush. The time fluctuates but we try to go to bed by 8:00 at the latest. We use to go to bed by 7:30 PM but slowly moved the time back. It works for us. We like having the day to do what we want because chores and school are completed early. Depending on his work location, Handsome can get home as late as 6:00 PM so Ems and I like to go to the $1 show or to visit friends. Having things done around the house makes this a lot easier and less stressful on me. I can't stand being out knowing I have to still take care of things around the house. I agree with all the posts, if it works for your family ...
I have had that same nagging guilt before. Should I let him sleep in or should I "prepare" him for what might happen? I have one son who is 17. I can easily argue both sides of this, and that is why it is hard for me to make up my mind. So I will just share some of my random thoughts: 1. I think discipline is important. 2. Discipline is not just about time and the hours a person does things. 3. There are many things to plan for in life. 4. There are too many things to plan for everything. 5. I am not a morning person and the only time I was was when I was VERY young (baby/toddler). I would wake up singing. How crazy is that? Then when I was a young girl (middle school?), I didn't want anyone talking to me until after I had my cereal (kind of like coffee for other people). Now I am in my 40's and I am a dedicated night owl. I love staying up late. I am more alert then than at any other time of day. I am simply not ready to go first thing in the morning. My ideal time to sleep would be from 3:00 a.m. to 10:00-11:00 a.m. 6. The world doesn't always accommodate my desires. 7. I never had a significant problem working in the mornings. I didn't like getting up and I wasn't singing or dancing at work, but I got to work and did the work and eventually fully woke up and felt human. Anyway, I think that if a person is responsible it won't matter if they wake up at 6:00 or 12:00. If they are irresponsible it won't make a difference either. Plus, our children can often adjust to situations in their adult life that we cannot see them handling at younger ages.
well I agree do what is best for you and your family. What works for one family might not work for another family. All I can tell you is we do what is best. Some days we sleep in others we are up and going it depends on whats going on. I will say with teen age girls, even boys they need more sleep it seems. I let them have it. As long as the work is done I don't care. If someone tells me that I tell them like I told both of my girls don't worry about it until you have too. Enjoy it now. Yes there might come a time they will have to get up and work but we will cross that bridge when it happens. If I end up in nursing home I will cross that bridge too. What you are doing for your children is wonderful. Enjoy them while you can they will grown and out the door before you know it.
Honestly, we do not get started by 8 am either. We like to freedom to adjust according to each day. My daughter is waiting on her second heart surgery, so I let her sleep in until she gets up. We can still accomplish what is needed within the day.
Well I'm doing school with my kids from about 12:30pm - 2pm. But unfortunately it isn't because they are sleeping in as the boys are all up by 6:30 most mornings. If my children ever learn the value of sleeping in I'm going to go for it. I'm NOT a morning person. Takes me a bit to wake up. Prior to having children I held a job that often required me to open the business and that was at 6:30am. So I CAN get up early if I HAVE to. I don't prefer to. I agree with the poster who said really what it's going to come down to is how responsible the person is, not what time they are accustomed to waking up.
Some truly valid points. Getting up and out aren't an issue. They do it at least 2 days a week. As far as school work I have never come home and not had their school work done. They always complete it. There may be one or two math problems left for after dinner they didn't understand. So I guess we are on the right track.
We are all night owls here. With that said waking up late makes me feel like the whole day is wasted. I want to make a change and start getting up earlier. I just don't feel like we get enough done I guess.
I fought my boys for years on the "get started early" thing and we all suffered for it. They're all awake by 7, but if I try to start school before 11, they are less than productive. So I can make them (and me) miserable by starting school at 8, or I can just wait until everyone is happier. Hmmm... easy choice.
