Wednesday, February 15, 2006

Blogging and time constraint woes

Last night I sat down and wrote a really long entry. Then I clicked "Publish Post" and I got a message stating I could not connect to Blogger. Then my computer froze up.

Gone, all gone.

That's okay, I guess, as it was a late-night, fatigue-induced rambling entry.

We're taking the day off school today. I am just spent. My house looks like a tornado went through it. My mind feels as if a tornado went through it. I am NOT a multitasker. Never have been and probably never will be.

Oh, the joys of homeschooling...being able to do this. Next week public school (and our homeschool calendar) has Monday and Tuesday off. I'll probably have school on Tuesday to make up for today.

One of the most frustrating components of homeschooling is my internal clock. I am a night owl. I am not a morning person. My son is a night owl, too. The problem with this is if you get up at 9, it's at least 10 before you're showered, fed, small chores (feeding and taking animals out) are done and you're ready to start the day. So that makes our school day longer.

We have never been the type of homeschoolers that can have school done in three hours. I just can't believe when I read people's posts stating they're done with school by noon. It boggles my mind. My son is a slow worker, but there's just so much to do that I cannot fathom how "they" get it done in such a small amount of time.

Then we have the component of "the husband." Ah, yes, "the husband" has a fit that I am a night owl. He has a fit that DS is a night owl. The husband is a morning person. He wakes up early and happy. He falls asleep on the couch almost nightly by 8 -- unless, of course, he and DS are playing Runescape online.

The husband is upset that we don't start school at 8 every morning. So is my father. They say I'm enforcing bad habits. They say DS will never be able to get a job and be at work on time. I counter with the fact that I worked for 11 years and was never late. It's called setting an alarm clock. You do what you have to do.

We were making DS go to bed at 9 and that was working much better -- but we got off track somewhere and DS is going to bed at 10 again. He gets up between 8 and 9.

I really need to think this through and come up with some sort of solution. DS never balks when we finish school at 4, but it would be really nice for me to have afternoon time to keep the house up, do laundry, etc. This goes back to multitasking -- I can't multitask, and if I could, I would be able to fold clothes while DS was doing some lessons. But DS needs me in the room so he can stay on task. If I'm not, he's daydreaming. Trying to teach him to focus and concentrate is very difficult -- something that I hope continued practice plus maturity will help.

My dad and my husband keep telling me a strict schedule will help. It's just against my grain to be strict. I can make schedules like crazy -- in fact, it's almost like a hobby. But implementing those schedules, ah, that's the tricky part.

In the end, school gets done, my son learns, his confidence is up, and he's happy. Maybe I should quit worrying so much. Maybe I should ignore two men in my life when they start bellyaching about time. Maybe I should just focus on the positives -- my son is learning well and is happy.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

LOL - the old 'Why can't they do school when they're supposed to?' Why?

Our schedule is all over the place based on whatever is going on in our life. That means some days we do seatwork for maybe an hour if we're lucky, and other days they'll go for hours. My only goal is at the end of the year, we've covered the material that we wanted to. Now I do break it down into short term goals, but as long as we're on track, let's enjoy life.

Honestly, IMO, as long as when he does school is not interfering, frustrating your 'family' time with your husband, enjoy the freedom that homeschooling gives you (and him) to be yourself. There will be plenty of time to work at someone else's clock and there are plenty of jobs that don't require being there at 8 AM.

Frankie said...

Meg, well said -- now how do I get that through to my husband!!! lol

I hate being this way, but sometimes the less he knows, the better. He's not overly open minded to begin with, it took a lot of convincing and a couple thousand dollars in travel and testing costs for DS to finally get through to DH to homeschool in the first place...

I guess I'll just have to "baby" DH and give him bits of info as he is ready. He's coming around, slowly but surely. He's to the point now where he has forgotten the "you may homeschool for two years only" rule that he imposed when we started this journey.

I better be careful what I write because he occassionally reads this blog. lol

That and I hate husband bashing. And here I am bashing. ;-)

Becky said...

Sorry about Blogger eating the posts. I've had that freeze-up thing often enough that I usually write my post in my email program and keep it in the drafts folder, and when it's done I cut and paste it into Blogger. At least I have one less thing to blame for my intermittent blogging lol.

Anonymous said...

eh.. amazing style!