Limitations in Our Homeschool Day
Only so many years to have our children home
Only so many days
Only so many hours
Sometimes we put too many things on the schedule and then struggle to keep to it.
We cannot possibly do it all but we valiantly struggle on determined to succeed or burn out trying. 🙂
But we have limitations. Just like the poet who writes a haiku.
I have been reading the book The Power of Less by Leo Babuata and in it he writes about the haiku form of poetry. The poet must write his poem in 17 syllables which he can quickly write so he can be finished or he can carefully choose the most powerful words that will convey his thoughts.
The moments we have to homeschool our children are but a short space of time, so we want to only choose the things that will be of greatest benefit to them and note(!) that doesn’t necessarily mean those subjects that we think will advance them into the top echelons of homeschoolers or those that we feel we have to do just because everybody else is. 🙂
Lately I’ve been realizing that I really need to focus on writing/punctuation in our schooling. No more ignoring it or pushing it aside for another day. I may have to limit other things in order to do this but in the end my children’s education will be more complete with it than without.
Most times we try to overdo it and pack everything one can imagine into our children’s schooling. Everything is a must and nothing can be let go. But I like this quote by Nancy Kelly that I recently read.
Keep cutting back until there is peace in your home. –Nancy Kelly
This makes it a lot simpler for me to know where to start. Using the haiku comparison, my limitations are: 1)I only have a few more years to homeschool my oldest daughter, 2)I have two younger children that I am homeschooling as well and 3)I only have so many hours in my day and in my week to accomplish my tasks.
If I am not able to get to certain areas of their schooling, that needs to be addressed. Something has to give. It’s time for me to reevaluate my day and see what can be set aside, at least for a while.
I am not Super Woman!
No, I am not Super Woman. I cannot do it all and I do want my days peaceful. So I plan to look over our days schedule and see what could be changed to allow for something I feel is very important at this point in our homeschooling journey.
Do you ever re-evaluate what subjects you are learning?
What solutions have you found?
2 Comments
Beth H
I completely agree with you that our time is short and it’s all too easy to fill too much up with activities. I have had the realization lately that my oldest will be in 9th grade (I can’t even call it high school), my second child is only a year behind her, and it seems like the years have FLOWN by. We did have to cut back on some activities, for budget reasons as well as time. One girls is a dancer and her classes are several days per week. The other does gymnastics and choir. My son takes gymnastics, thankfully at the same time as his sister. We had to cut out piano lessons, which were a long drive and I could teach at home, and horse riding lessons, which were just too expensive. I’ve found for us that we need to stay home in the mornings, period. School should last between 9-1 and appointments need to be kept outside that time. Electronics need to go. We’re still working on that, but we spend far too much time staring at screens and not enough time connecting with each other or doing things that have more value. This is a timely post! We’re reevaluating, too.
Elisabeth
Thank you, Beth. I was going to piano 1 day a week and I found that almost too much. I don’t know what I would do if I had my kids in different lessons at different times. Well, I probably do know what I would do… stress out! lol Sounds like you’re on the right track.