We go out a lot at the moment, and I am struggling, with money to pay for it all, and getting a balance between sit down work and socialising! At present Mon - Nursery (home ed style with 3 other families) then art / youth club after. Tue - swimming for ds and trampolining for dd1. Wed - spanish drama club, or network social on a current topic like mothers day etc. Thurs - Craft group or art group after gym for ds. Fri - sports club and home ed group for badge work. Sat - family social day with other homeschooled kids. Sun - gym for dd1. I feel burnt out from it all! I need to cut back but how much should 'socialising' should they be doing? We are never at home at the moment and being 23 weeks pregnant as well as 3 youngish kids, I want to scream ahhhhhhhhhhhhh I am thinking of dropping all on a monday, swimming is going anyway as i cant do it any longer, network social on wed, thurs do every other week, drop saturday social and gym has gone from sunday! is whats left too much still? I feel dd1 is rushing just to get out to see friends and her work suffers! Any thoughts please all welcome, what do you all do?????????? mt3
You are amazing! My rule is that we only do one thing out per day. Sunday: Family Day Mondays: Shopping/Errands Tuesdays: Homeschooling Co-op at library Wednesdays: Jiu-Jitsu Thursdays: Park Day with other HS families unless we have an appointment (I always schedule dr/dentist/etc. appts. on Thursdays) Friday: Jiu-Jitsu Saturday: Jiu-Jistu Our homeschooling group keeps trying to get us to come out to the park on Fridays, but I have to stay firm, otherwise, we'd get nothing else done!
I think you or your kids are expecting too much. Since most of us like the HOME part of homeschooling, you probably want to cut back some activities. Pick a couple days that you will STAY HOME! and try to arrange errands on the days that you're already out of the house. Here's our schedule Sun- church, but other than that, we are at home napping. Sometimes a church kid will come home with us to play Mon- piano lessons/library/groceries Tues-at home, sometimes we pick up a friend from school and they play for the afternoon till parents come get them after work Wed- like Tues. except we go to Bible study in the evening Thurs- this is our busiest day...Horse Club from 3-5, and in the evening dh and I take an art class just for the 2 of us. Also once a month we get together with other families for homeschool 4-h from 2-4 Fri-home or errands if it is a pay week; drop off dd for gymnastics from 5-6 and pick her up afterward. The gym is 5 minutes from my house so I can even come home if I need to. Saturday-working in the yard, playing, cleaning, enjoying each other, sometimes church activities. Are any of those activities things you could do every other week instead of every week? What about arranging things with another homeschooled parent who would take the kids and supervise yours with theirs one week, and the next week you would do it? Are any of these activities things you can just drop the kids off for and pick them up later? DD's gymnastic class, I don't have to stay for so I can do groceries while she's in class and pick her up afterward. How far are most of these activities from home? I tend to give higher priority to the activities that are closer to home. Also, I try to schedule things for mostly Mondays and Thursdays since I am already out of the house and in town on those days. I would rather have 2 crazy days than HAVE to leave the house on a day when I just want to be home.
It does sound like a lot. I would get burned out with that schedule. Currently I keep us down to two days out during the week and one day out during the weekend. That way we have three days at home to get lots of school work done and one day at home on the weekend to just relax and enjoy each other. During the summer or traditional school holidays I am more likely to include extra field trips and etc. I also let the kids play with the neighborhood children after they are done with their school work in the afternoons. So far they seem to be getting enough social time and we actually are able to get things done for school too.
Sunday - church x2 Monday - nothing Tuesday - Sometimes a ladies' Bible study, but there are no other kids there, so the "socializing" is behaving in a group of ladies. Wednesday - church Thursday - Explorer club (library) Friday - physical or occupational therapy (alternating weeks) Saturday - errands, etc. We run errands as needed, and sometimes we play with neighbor kids. That seems like plenty for us right now.
Sunday - church in morning and often evening Monday - karate in the evening Tuesday - speech therapy; karate in the evening Wednesday - church in the evening Thursday - speech therapy; karate in the evening or nothing Friday - homeschool fellowship with our homeschool group Saturday - play dates with friends or family day Of course, errands and such get run in the mix, too.
Wow.. we are homebodies, completely. We go out once maybe twice a week to run errands. Garrett has scouts every Tuesday and most weekend there is something going on with scouts that hubby takes him to.. but they don't do every thing that is offered to do.
We never did more than two scheduled activities a week - Swimming and Scouting. During the summer we didn't do any scheduled activities at all. Every now and then we'd get together with another family to go to the museum, or I'd take them out to see a documentary, but not every week. When it was just my son at home, we did often walk down to the river at lunchtime to feed the ducks, but that was just for fun - and also to exercise the dog. I encouraged the kids to get outside and play with the other children in the neighbourhood in the evenings after school. That was pretty much the extent of their formal socialization. These days it seems my son is hardly home - he's always over at someone else's house. He's got a busy social life. My daughter, on the other hand, is always home with her nose in a book. I don't think it's anything I did - it's just their personalities.
DON'T FEEL BAD!!!!!!!!!! We are homebodies too! The only time we go out are for chruch services... and to run errands. the girls are in no extra activities. They do stuff but usually we are there.
We are homebodies too! My oldest ds has scouts on Tues, and other than that we run errands when needed.
We are homebodies too! We moved to Texas (from CA) and do not know many people. My mom lives a couple of minutes away, so the kids go to her house regularly. We go to church, play outside, etc. Every now and then, the kids will take a class at the parks & recreation center. Some of you do SOOOO much... I couldn't keep up with all of that!
We don't do much either. We have church on Sunday morning and evening. AWANA on Wednesday nights and other than the 2x a month homeschool meetings we do whatever mostly at home. Sometimes we go to a friends house or fishing at the park pond. We do play sports when we don't miss the sign ups UGH! But only one sport at a time. I don't like being pulled in a million directions and with four kids that wouldn't be hard to have happen.
We must be home bodies too because we do way less than most of you. My kids play with the neighborhood kids after school and on weekends when we are home so I see no need to "plan" extra things like that. With my schedule of classes changing every semester it is too hard to keep all the days free. This way I just know I can not take a class on Tuesday evening.
What is socializing? LOL We don't get out much unless you count the park or the store. We do occasionally meet up with the local homeschool group. We have a field trip next week. My boys will be playing soccer this summer too. I personally don't buy the you gotta get exposure to lots of different people to be able to interact well. I tell you,if my boys can learn how to get along with each other then they can learn how to get along with anyone:wink: My little girl who has never been in a playgroup, never had a babysitter, and rarely been around other kids her age had no problem mixing things up with another little boy at a government centre this week. She talked to him and shared the book she was looking at. My boys are happy to be home most of the time. I know that will change as they get older and want to be more involved in things, but for now we can enjoy our time at home.
Monday is Laundry Day. We're home, even in the evenings! Tuesday is our Travel Day. We have Staff Meeting at church at 9:30, so I give the kids assignments first thing, and they do it in a Sunday School room during the meeting. We pack a lunch, and are at Co-op in time for a 1:00 class, leaving there at 3:00, plus once a month Rachael is doing a science co-op (taught by a FANTASTIC science teacher). Wednesdays is our Pajama Day...again, home all day, but AWANAS at night. Oh, and Faythe has an art class at the Rec Center. Thursdays we have piano in the morning, and Phillip has Street Hockey in the evenings, and Rachael will have soccer practice. Fridays we have science co-op here with Phillip and two of his friends. One of his friends goes to a church that has a Friday Homeschool Social Time, and he will sometimes go there after science. Then Youth Group in the evenings, for Phillip and Faythe. Rachael will either be babysitting, or helping me with the younger kids at Youth (ages 5-9). Saturday Phillip will be having his soccer games, plus church in the evenings. Sunday is when Rachael has her soccer games. I am pleased to have two stay-at-home days!!!
wow I felt pooped after just reading your list I guess I am the recluse kind, just like staying home and having the quiet life lol
That is some list especially for children all under five. When my older children were under five, we invited friends over occassionally, went to story time at the library and went the park on our own. I didn't pay for any activities, and I didn't make any committments to on-going activities. Sometimes I babysat for friends; they always paid me a little something, so it doubled as a way to earn spending money and a chance for my children to play with their friends. Your schedule looks exhausting! Edited: It just occurred to me that the numbers next your children were not their age, but their birth order. I'm a little slow, but I get it in the end. I started thinking about what a household with a 1,2,3 and 4 year old would be like, and my head nearly exploded, so I re-read your list. You're actually busier than I imagined since you are homeschooling children who are old enough to need more challenging instruction but not old enough to be very independent in their learning yet.
My children didn't do a lot when they were younger, too. Rachael did spend one afternoon a week doing preschool stuff at the rec center, and we'd go to story time at the library, but that was it.
ok ds older says we dont really get much socialisation-- mind you he has been tainted by the word--- but I think ds homeschooler gets more this this year, he is always eitehr going to a friends or having one over or seeing them at dds school and mulitple church events.
