My dh is an engineer turned IT guy. At least once a day we talk about the old IT adage, if something isn’t working, “Did you try turning it off and on again?” Then we smile and chuckle about it as our children roll their eyes at us.
90% of the time it fixes the problem, even if it’s not computer related.
I think my family is in need of a homeschool reboot.
It’s January. It’s blah. WE’RE blah.
This is when I start thinking colleges have the right idea with classes that only last one semester. We are just tired of the same old same old.
Things are not working as they are. I’m not looking for perfection, but that small spark of homeschooling joy that I want to see on at least a weekly basis is gone.
Maybe it’s just me, “distracted with much serving” and “worried and troubled about many things,” only some of which are homeschool related.
Now, a restless Monday morning is NOT the time to start making sweeping changes for my homeschool. I think it’s as good a time as any to start planning something to shake it up, however.
As far as the old adage goes, I think we’ve already been “turned off” and are now waiting to be turned back on again. The kids have been sneaking away when they don’t want to do anything educational, and I’ve been letting them, feeling that I didn’t have the existential questions answered (why are we doing this again?) so having no drive to go get them and force them to do things I didn’t really want to do either.
There are many times I’ve wished I was a good unschooler. I think it’s a great way to learn, unfortunately I also believe it takes connections and an energy I just. don’t. have.
We’ve also spent a lot of money this year to enroll in a program that is only a “sort of” good fit for us, and that only because I tweak it within an inch of it’s sad, schooly life, LOL.
I think I’ll take step one to morph what we must do with what is good for our family culture, and choose one of my kid’s book report books as our read aloud.
Five minutes from now, I’m supposed to be telling the kids to turn off Minecraft and YouTube and “get on with their day.”
Here’s hoping that we find the joy in it, and each other. Check back later this week for more thoughts on rebooting and my progress!
Have a wonderful week, everyone!*
*Dh and I joke that that is a lot of pressure to put on a person, telling them they must have a wonderful day/week/whatever. So sometimes we say, “Have the day you’re going to have.” If you, too, feel pressured by my statement, then I hope you “have the day you’re going to have.” 😉
My hubby is not thrilled with his job but he goes and he gives it all he’s got. I’ve taken to telling him to “have a reasonable day” and he laughs and tells me that he appreciates reachable goals. HAHA!
Love it! Hope your husband’s job gets better.
Just today I was struggling with the same thoughts. Something has to change. I need to change… Maybe I just need a reboot.
I still don’t know how you do it! You’re incredible!
And I will continue to deny how incredible I am, LOL. 🙂 Homeschooling isn’t necessarily harder than parenting (although people can certainly make it so) — just different. I found the stress of dropoff and pickup lines, getting ready early in the morning, homework, dealing with school issues, etc, just as stressful if not more so. So I don’t know how *you* do it. 🙂