Ponderings
Paralyzed. I am not talking about the physical kind, I am thinking of the mental kind. I have felt this lately, paralyzed with a list that just keeps getting bigger. Life that happens even when you don't have time for the unexpected. The last three months have been like this for me. I am slowly coming out of it, but that doesn't stop the list from growing.
I have chalked up the last three months as a character building time in my life. House remodel that has taken much longer than expected, loved ones seriously ill in the hospital, baseball games that never end, end of the year school stuff that has to happen for the year to...well end! Top that off with daily life still happening and I am tired!
I have learned a few things in my 9+ years of homeschooling. There is a lot of good stuff out there, but every ones "good stuff" is the only stuff. Let me give you an example, groups we join with meetings once or twice a week, practices once or twice a week, concerts. Everyone designs their organizations around the idea that this is all people are going to be involved in. Well, with five kids and varied interests this definitely is not the case in our house. So the one or two meetings for each thing, for each kid ends up being...well insane! Add to that a husband who is very busy providing for our family and a small hobby farm that I would love to grow. When do we take back control and draw the line? I once heard a pastor say that he didn't believe in "burn-out". Call it what you will, it exists, and overwhelms us if we let it.
My sons come home tonight from working camp, after being gone for two weeks before that and I am looking forward to having all my "chicks" in my nest for a while.
It is about this time every year I start to re-evaluate school and where I would like to go with it next year. I thinking a dose of "unschooling" is needed once or twice a week, just to let life happen. If we are training our kids with that in mind and they can see us handle the unexpected into the daily flow in our lives then haven't we taught them a lesson they will take into the world with them? These are the lessons that they can't learn from books.
I have chalked up the last three months as a character building time in my life. House remodel that has taken much longer than expected, loved ones seriously ill in the hospital, baseball games that never end, end of the year school stuff that has to happen for the year to...well end! Top that off with daily life still happening and I am tired!
I have learned a few things in my 9+ years of homeschooling. There is a lot of good stuff out there, but every ones "good stuff" is the only stuff. Let me give you an example, groups we join with meetings once or twice a week, practices once or twice a week, concerts. Everyone designs their organizations around the idea that this is all people are going to be involved in. Well, with five kids and varied interests this definitely is not the case in our house. So the one or two meetings for each thing, for each kid ends up being...well insane! Add to that a husband who is very busy providing for our family and a small hobby farm that I would love to grow. When do we take back control and draw the line? I once heard a pastor say that he didn't believe in "burn-out". Call it what you will, it exists, and overwhelms us if we let it.
My sons come home tonight from working camp, after being gone for two weeks before that and I am looking forward to having all my "chicks" in my nest for a while.
It is about this time every year I start to re-evaluate school and where I would like to go with it next year. I thinking a dose of "unschooling" is needed once or twice a week, just to let life happen. If we are training our kids with that in mind and they can see us handle the unexpected into the daily flow in our lives then haven't we taught them a lesson they will take into the world with them? These are the lessons that they can't learn from books.
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