Monday, April 09, 2007

It's my choice

This is the time of the year I start to feel the burnout with school for the kids.

We are finishing up our study of the human body and are getting ready to begin a study of the Earth. Since science is my least favorite subject I can't seem to get interested. We seem to be stuck in a rut. Since our library now no longer charges to request a book I've tried it to help alleviate the boredom, so far I haven't had any luck getting any of the books I've requested in.

We've been trying to catch up on days from the various moves over the last year so we don't have the luxury to take time off if we want to finish everything up before the end of our school year. Maybe it's time to give up on that idea and just take a few days off.

Someone told me recently that it's my choice to live this life. I know it is but sometimes I get tired and feel like I need some time off. Isn't it okay to feel the need for some time off? I know that many people think that those of us who homeschool or who are homemakers have it easy but it doesn't always feel that way from this end. I'd love to leave my work at the office or be able to take a vacation from it, but the reality is that I can't. I'm not complaining really, I love my work but sometimes I'd like a weekend off too! It's been too windy to work outside much the last few days so I think maybe I'm just suffering from "cabin fever".

4 comments:

Marie N. said...

I know what you mean about needing a break. I look forward to the kids' bedtime every night so I can wipe down the kitchen then put my feet up on the couch and pick up my knitting needles. It is a mini-vacation because I'm not answering to "Mom!" for the next eight hours.

Susan said...

Although I really like "living a life of learning" instead of having our homeschool be a copy of school (confined to school hours, and with an achievable list of worksheets and textbook-pages), it DOES then become a never-ending thing. That used to be okay with me. But now it's tiring. I don't know what's different. But I agree with you -- I want to just stop and veg sometimes. I want a break. I want to be free of "school." I want to go back to the days when we could just LEARN instead of feeling some outside pressure to do certain things certain ways on a certain timetable.

Kim said...

We've never really had set bedtimes for the kids. We sometimes send them to bed early when we want to watch something they cannot but usually they go when they are tired. Up until now it has worked well but I think maybe having a set time would help me have more time to myself.

We've relaxed a lot on setting those kinds of timetables but sometimes I can't help but feel we need to get things finished. We don't have a certain number of required days to finish here so that has taken some of the stress off. I know with upcoming doctor visits and a few minor surgical procedures in the works that we will be missing a whole bunch of school in the near future so I do feel some pressure. I keep reminding myself that they are still young but when I think of how quickly the time has gone by I can't help but feel behind.

Kristi said...

I am feeling the same way and yet, I want to just keep plowing through and say we got "done" -whatever that means?!?!

Being able to get away from it all once in a while is a real blessing when it can be done. Othewise, we have to carve out those niches of time for ourselves, because no one else is going to do it for us.