Deep Sigh.
Once again, real life here has taken most of my time and energy, and I don't have much to spare for blogging. The delicate balance between work and rest is a difficult one for me to handle without much concentration. I have much work to do here, still schooling 3 kids, and the my two oldest teens are sucking great amounts of energy from me. It takes almost all I have not crumple in a little ball and tell them the house, the yard, the food, it's all theirs. Just slide my meals under the door, and I'll be fine. BUT, since that isn't realistic, I must gather myself together, put order in the chaos, deflect and ignore the slings and arrows of teens, and march onward and upward. Pray for me?
The tooth has settled down, so I convinced the dentist to just let it be for a while. Good news.
The rainy season has made the acres verdant and abundant. I bought a pole saw (electric) and electric hedge trimmers and have been busy cutting down scrub trees, dead branches, and beating the hedges back into submission.
I must begin planning next school year, and find I have lost most of my enthusiasm for homeschooling. And yet I must. Any suggestions for relighting my homeschooling fire would be appreciated. Seven students next year. Eeeps~
So to keep it real, let me assure you all that life is not all peaches and cream. I am really struggling with schooling. The attitudes of my kids are horrible, and I don't know what to do about it. As soon as I sit them down to do school, they melt. They don't try. They don't care if they ever get finished, or maybe they feel they never will get finished. I don't know, but this is a rough patch to be sure, and I don't know how I am going to straighten it out.
So anyway, I have to get back to the schoolwork. Til later.
The tooth has settled down, so I convinced the dentist to just let it be for a while. Good news.
The rainy season has made the acres verdant and abundant. I bought a pole saw (electric) and electric hedge trimmers and have been busy cutting down scrub trees, dead branches, and beating the hedges back into submission.
I must begin planning next school year, and find I have lost most of my enthusiasm for homeschooling. And yet I must. Any suggestions for relighting my homeschooling fire would be appreciated. Seven students next year. Eeeps~
So to keep it real, let me assure you all that life is not all peaches and cream. I am really struggling with schooling. The attitudes of my kids are horrible, and I don't know what to do about it. As soon as I sit them down to do school, they melt. They don't try. They don't care if they ever get finished, or maybe they feel they never will get finished. I don't know, but this is a rough patch to be sure, and I don't know how I am going to straighten it out.
So anyway, I have to get back to the schoolwork. Til later.
posted by Renee at Wednesday, June 25, 2008
12 Comments:
I don't have much advice - I only have one child - not to say we don't have our moments too - but we don't have seven moments all happening at once ---
that being said, here's a link you might find some help at:
http://www.homeschooloasis.com/
Will keep you in our prayers tonight, Renee.
Well, I certainly don't have the first idea how to inspire you for the upcoming school year. The summers I spent catching up on unfinished math and science lessons are still painfully fresh in my mind, and they weren't fun for anyone. So sorry.
Have you thought about or tried an X number of days of school to an X number of days off of school system? I always found that when we would do 1 day on, 1 day off (or something close to that), I was much more productive than when we had to "just do a little every day"--plus, I really savored the "off" days because I didn't have that nagging feeling that I "should" be doing school. But, of course, that doesn't work for everyone.
What a gloomy day. Hope Nick has been feeling better before the chicken pox hit. Blessings!
I will pray for you, Renee. That's about all I can do - I never home schooled my kids. I really respect and admire you for doing it, though. I'm sure the rewards will be great in the end, and I'm sure when you look back on it, you'll be glad you did it, and your kids will be too. God bless you all!
Barb
Praying for you.
Praying for you, Renee! Oh, and I've been meaning to tell you that I was listening to Catholic Radio and they were talking about patron saints and the one for dental problems. you might know already but it is St. Appollonia (sp?). In the 300's she dragged out of her house by persecuters and had all her teeth knocked out. I learned about her right before I went to get my crowns done and I was thinking about you, too.
Not being a home schooler, I have no advice for you--but count on my prayers!
Hope you get more into "Keeping House" soon so we can discuss it together.
Praying and sending hugs! :o)
Prayers, prayers! Keep smiling girl. :)
I've just finished to work with 25 kids from 3 to 11 y.o. in a summer camp...THANKS BE TO GOD IT'S OVER... yet I will begin a new summer camp tomorrow, but with teenager... I don't think it can be more tiring...
God bless you
br.freddie
PS: your blog is full of life, I like it!!
Thank you br. freddie, welcome, and good luck with your camp.
And thanks everyone for your thoughts and prayers. I am soldering on!!
Nothing kills a teacher's enthusiasm more than unmotivated children...and when you're the teacher and the mom, it is so very frustrating.
We had a bad year too. In fact, my husband told me I really needed to take a week off, but since we had only one week left, I felt it better to soldier on.
Now that we have had some time off, and depsite the stresses of moving halfway across the country, I am refreshed and excited about next year. It is necessary to really take time off. And I mean total time off with no tought of school.
Next step, time to organize and prepare. I'm going to try a few new ideas this next year. I'll have 4 students, but my kindergartener doesn't turn 5 until mid-Sept, so I'm going to start my students one at a time: take a full week to get my 5th grader going, then add my 3rd grader the next week, my 2nd grader the next week, and my new ly turned 5 year old the 4th week. That will build me some leeway if the older kids get a bit behind, plus I can speed up kindergarten, so I think we'll all end up finishing at the same time in the end.
I'll pray for you. I know it's tough.
Wow, Michelle, what a great idea, staggering the kids like that. I am really going to give that some thought. Thank you!
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