Ready for school to be over behind or not!

[mom4him]

We are so behind, mostly because of the months that we had to take off in loo of my oldest ds being in the hospital for 3 1/2 months AND some major curr. changes. UGH

I am so terribly exhausted right now. It seems like I go to bed in tears or near tears every night and wake up feeling not much better. I am tired of pushing to finish something up that is impossible to finish up. I am tired of feeling like a failure. I am tired of every subject being a battle with my ds. I really can't remember feeling this way before as normally I am so excited looking at our starting date for our next school year but this yr I just want to be done, now have to figure out what we HAVE to get done this next week, not worry if something comes up and we can't get it all in, just be done for awhile, enjoy my kids, relax a bit, get caught up on the house some.......

Normally we go through the end of June and start up again the middle of Aug. I look at going until the end of June and want to start crying all over again. I know this is what we should do. I know that we have major catch up to do. I know.......... but I really want to say that our final day is May 27th.

I guess I am not asking for anything in particular here I just needed to get it out and share with other ladies that I know understand.

See, I can't even write about it without becoming a blibbering idiot.

[Just Robyn]

Ack! It's that time of year I guess. It's so nice out, and the school year has been going for so long now, I'm sure many of us are ready to just call it quits, let the kids play, clean the house, maybe go swimming.

 

Will dropping everything make you feel better, or you will still feel like crying, maybe all summer long, due to guilt? And maybe for the first half of next school year, due to having to play catch up? Just a thought. Maybe you could just pare down your work. Just finish up the math, writing, and spelling, and have your children read to themselves (no narration, just, "Go read.") - have really short days until all those are done so you don't replace one bad feeling with another.

 

Other than that, :grouphug:.

Edited May 9, 2011 by crstarlette

[RootAnn]

Guess what? You're the boss. Why don't you declare school over on May 27th (or May 13th) and refresh for a few weeks? You can look at your schedule and decide when you will start up, what you will do when you start up, and for how long.

 

There are some who will do half-days through the summer, some who do three weeks on/one off (with however many subjects), and some who do math daily, reading/writing (informally or formally) daily, and everything else can be put on hold until you & the kids are ready to restart (even if that means the fall).

 

I don't know what you are specifically doing or behind in, but sometimes it is best to just stop & take a big break to get your enthusiasm back than to try to trudge on reluctantly.

 

And :grouphug: Many of us have been there, done that, especially those with many more years experience than I have.

[JudoMom]

Guess what? You're the boss. Why don't you declare school over on May 27th (or May 13th) and refresh for a few weeks? You can look at your schedule and decide when you will start up, what you will do when you start up, and for how long.

 

There are some who will do half-days through the summer, some who do three weeks on/one off (with however many subjects), and some who do math daily, reading/writing (informally or formally) daily, and everything else can be put on hold until you & the kids are ready to restart (even if that means the fall).

 

I don't know what you are specifically doing or behind in, but sometimes it is best to just stop & take a big break to get your enthusiasm back than to try to trudge on reluctantly.

 

And :grouphug: Many of us have been there, done that, especially those with many more years experience than I have.

 

:iagree:

 

:grouphug::grouphug::grouphug:

[lovemy9kids]

I'm right there with you.....moved three times and had a baby this year. I feel like we are NEVER going to get done! :grouphug:

[joysworld]

*hugs* It is okay to put school away. Maybe go through your curriculum and pick out which lessons you want to do. You do not have to do every single thing that your curriculum tells you to. It really is okay to skip over stuff. Take a few weeks off, enjoy the nice weather, enjoy each other! Then come back with a renewed spirit and mind and only do the things that interest you and your kids. Drop everything but the basics, reading and math? Have short lessons with those, maybe a few times a day. Play outside, go on a picnic, etc. It really is okay to just stop school. Really, it is:)

[parias1126]

I am right there with you. I just decided I AM DONE! COMPLETELY! for this year. My kids still had a week left, but I am exhausted and burnt out. Instead of stressing myself out over it, we will just start a week early and have a review week. I am actually debating a year long school year and going 3 weeks on and 1 week off. I am thinking this will alleviate getting stressed out by the end of the year.

[Hebrews3:13]

:iagree: with everyone else. It will be alright. If it is that miserable for you and your children then are they really absorbing that much at this point? This is NOT what homeschooling should be.

 

It sounds like a terrible year. I remember the years having babies and they were like a haze. I had another year where the third week in school my Mom died suddenly having her gall bladder out. I don't think we did much until after Christmas I was so depressed. The year after that one DS was diagnosed with autism, then after Christmas I learned I was pregnant (somehow :confused:) with #4. Argh. That was not a stellar year either.

 

You know what? My oldest DD is fine (she was the only one in school then). Better than fine. She is bright. I did have to play some "catch up" later on, but we were able to skip some stuff and it worked out.

 

Just stop. I would stop today and put the stuff away for a solid week at least. Relax. Let them relax. After you have de-stressed some you can look at where you are and where you need to be and start figuring out what to do in order to get there. Now, that will not happen overnight, but it can happen definitely.

 

FWIW, I agree with year round schooling. It was one of my better choices. So much less stress and if something comes up I just take off. I don't feel the need to make it up, I just move and adjust what I had scheduled. We do more of a 6 weeks on, 1 week off- but sometimes less. Definitely longer times off too in the summer.

 

:grouphug:

 

Laurie

[mom4him]

I want to thank everyone for your replies. If the weather is going to be nice I am planning on taking next week off. I think that will be very refreshing for me as I will be able to get most of our yard in shape, be outside and be a bit more relaxed.

 

I will then start up again and go for at least 4 maybe 5 wks. I will then call it finished for our school year. We will start back up the 15th of Aug. and I am going to schedule 6 wks on and 1 off. I think maybe I would get quite so stressed with it all if I can have a wk off once in a while to get caught up.

[Jyniffrec]

As someone who has children in the hospital a whole lot I can say that I need some time to pull my life back together and get back in the normal life mode even after a very short stay. It is a mental shift that is hard on the parents, the sick kid and the other kids. So I vote for taking some time off until you feel strong and motivated again. It really helps. :grouphug:

[mom4him]

As someone who has children in the hospital a whole lot I can say that I need some time to pull my life back together and get back in the normal life mode even after a very short stay. It is a mental shift that is hard on the parents, the sick kid and the other kids. So I vote for taking some time off until you feel strong and motivated again. It really helps. :grouphug:

Thanks. Why is it we just need permission sometimes. :001_smile:

[5LittleMonkeys]

Well, all I can tell you is that we stopped early and I'm sooo glad that we did. We should have kept going until the end of May but we stopped almost two weeks ago. All of the dc should have kept going with math too but we haven't even been doing that.

 

Between my FIL dying, needing to get a room ready for my MIL to move in, the rest of the house being in dire need of a thorough cleaning and de-cluttering and some minor repairs needing to be made...uugh, I had so many other things on my mind I just couldn't concentrate on school and I really had just lost interest in it. I felt so guilty though everytime I considered putting all the schoolwork away. I felt like the homeschooling thing was controlling my life, like it was some sentient being that I had to answer to. However, compared to the other things in life going on the school stuff just didn't seem priority to me. I dreaded even getting up in the morning and having to slog through each subject knowing and dragging the dc along. We were at the tail end of most of the subjects and they were ready to be done too.

 

When I finally bit the bullet I gave them the end of year test in several subjects and they did just fine. History and science were interest based so dropping those wasn't a big issue. Math is the only thing two of my dc really needed to keep going on but based on everyone's mental state I don't think they were really learning it anyway. We will just pick up where we left off or just see if we can jump into the next year's books and do some extra review. I kept reminding myself that when my dc were in ps they brought their math workbooks home at the end of the year and they had only gotten 3/4 of the way through the book two years in a row.

 

So now, we've had time to grief FIL passing, the house is getting thoroughly cleaned, MIL's room is getting prepared, I'm getting rid of tons of things that we don't need or want anymore (hooray for Goodwill). Yesterday I repainted the hall wall where the 2yo had drawn on it with dry erase marker. I've been looking at those scribbles for months and it would eat at me everytime I'd have to walk past it. Getting that wall back to looking perfect was incredibly therapeutic...I felt like I was back in control.

 

All of that to say, if your heart isn't in it then that is a message that you need a break. Take a week, two or just put it all away until you feel excited and energized to start back up again. Don't worry about being behind or not being able to catch back up. It will all work out by the time your dc hits 12th grade. :grouphug: to you and have a nice break!

[wy_kid_wrangler04]

Sandy- we do a year round schedule. Our state requires 180 days. I get that in by having school for 3 weeks and take 1 week off. This coming school year we will start Sept 5 and will be done July 23 if we just take our 1 week off every 4th week (3 weeks of school, 1 week off) You can break that up even more if you do not want 6 weeks straight off in the summer by adding in 3 or so extra weeks off during the school year (Christmas, Easter, illness) That works WONDERFUL for us! I get the break when needed, the kids get a break when needed, there is no fighting to get stuff done because it seems like we are always getting breaks in. Its nice that way. This schedule does not allow for burn out! Just a thought. My advice is to take a week or two off and re-evaluate what you want to get done this school year (math? English? Handwriting/Writing) Your dc will not hurt if they do not finish history and science this year, they WILL get what they need and just take it easy the rest of the year. Just get the basics in after your break and rest! Regroup and get REASONABLE goals written down for next year, (and I mean reasonable to where your dc are now) As long as they do not plan on becoming Astrophysicists I think they will be fine :001_smile: I think sometimes we as parents expect to much from ourselves at times. (Ahem, speaking from experience) I was in a panic because my oldest is only half way through her mathbook and is starting to struggle. Then I thought about it, who cares if she is still finishing pre-algebra in the beginning of 8th grade. WHO CARES. As long as I KNOW she understands the math we will take as much time as needed. If she needs to slow down even more (we are really hitting walls in Chalkdust- its getting hard for her, VERY hard) then we will slow down even more. I don't care where other peoples kids her age are, (no offense to anybody) but this is MY child and I want her to fully understand the concepts and not rush through just to get done. I feel that understanding is so much more important than getting the book done. We are switching my 3rd grader to AAS next year and I am going to start her at level 1 (the same as my K and 1st grader will be doing) but we will go at HER speed. Does it bother me if other 4th graders are at level 4? No. Will she be in level 1 long? No, but all the recommendations on this site are from people who say to start at the beginning because of how important that is with that program. SO, relax, take some time off to regroup. Let both you and your dc unwind and during that time get your goals in order (REASONABLE) and go from there. Like I said, unless you have 2 budding Astrophysicists then you are doing just fine! :grouphug:

 

I do recommend continuing with math lightly through the summer just to keep those skills up (we do math games over the summer)

 

Check these out

 

Multiplication practice there are games, quizzes and tests (though for summer I just recommend you let them play the games)

 

Cool Math We love this site here! There is also an upper level version of this site here when your kids get to it. My oldest has been doing that to get some of her pre-algebra skills down (though alot of what she is struggling with is in the algebra section-- chalkdust is hard :glare: for her)

 

And here is another favorite site at our house.

 

I don't know how you feel about your dc on the computer but those are wonderful ways to keep up (and build) math skills.

 

You can search and find games for grammar and other subjects as well. Answers in Genesis has a kids section that is fun for science.

 

:grouphug: Sorry, this post ended up being alot longer than planned :001_huh:

[johnandtinagilbert]

I feel you. We are so done with everything save daily practice. I need the respit and I need to get ready for next year. I have been over it for some time. I wish I could be completely finished, but my eldest boys are not helpin' with that!

[Ginny May]

I do not have time to read everyones post but I see you said your child was in the hospital. While guess what they would have missed school then also. So give your self a break and the kids. I hope everyone is ok now! (healthy) Go soak up the son/sun and enjoy this summer :D

[mom4him]

Once again, thanks for all of your encouragement. I was going to plow through this week and take next off but I am thinking I am going to stop today except for a couple of things.

Yesterday was another really difficult day. I know that my youngest has had some food infractions and when that happens life is pretty stressful in our house, school near impossible. Today my middle son is coming to do some work on our house, he will be in and out and I don't see myself trying to keep them focused especially when I know that Mr T will still be working the food out of his system.

Amber, thanks so much for the math games. T really does need drills on mult. and this just might be the ticket. I am taking him out of TT. That has been a bit of a night mare. He says he likes it but he has wiggled his way around ways to cheat it and when he can't he blows up. UGH!

 

I like the idea of 3 wks on and 1 off. I might change it up a bit as I really do like a longer time at Christmas and also the wk of Thanksgiving off but I am going to look at something in that light for next school year for sure.

 

Blessings to you all. If anyone else has words of wisdom, I am listening.

[mom4him]

I do not have time to read everyones post but I see you said your child was in the hospital. While guess what they would have missed school then also. So give your self a break and the kids. I hope everyone is ok now! (healthy) Go soak up the son/sun and enjoy this summer :D

I forgot to mention in the previous post. Yes, everyone is doing ok now. It was my 42 yr old son that was hospitalized for 3 1/2 months. He is C6 quad, I take care of him and he was extremely ill. I literally lived in the different hospitals with him for that time. My intentions was to have my dh bring the kids in the mornings to the hospital and we would do school there but there were so many people in and out of his room all the time that it was impossible to keep Mr. T focused. It seemed like when we came back it took forever for me to get everything back to what would be considered normal for our home.

[Ginny May]

so happy he is better

[lorrainejmc]

Sigh, I'm feeling ready to be done for the summer too. We had a 2 week Easter break and this is only our 2nd week back. I really want to do some light work over summer as the schools here take 9 weeks and we usually stick to the same schedule, resulting in the kids forgetting a lot, but today I am ready to pack it all up, spring clean the house and forget about schooling. OTOH, I generally like the routine of the school weeks. I have had so many stops and starts and changing direction/curriculum this year that my poor brain feels like it has been torn out and thrown on the grill:sad:

[3peasinapod]

I want to thank everyone for your replies. If the weather is going to be nice I am planning on taking next week off. I think that will be very refreshing for me as I will be able to get most of our yard in shape, be outside and be a bit more relaxed.

 

I will then start up again and go for at least 4 maybe 5 wks. I will then call it finished for our school year. We will start back up the 15th of Aug. and I am going to schedule 6 wks on and 1 off. I think maybe I would get quite so stressed with it all if I can have a wk off once in a while to get caught up.

 

I got so burned out not this past year, but the one before. I decided to go to 4-6 weeks on and 1 week off. Truly, at this time of year I was climbing the walls with anxiety and irritability. This year, though, it's totally different. I'm not burned out, and I think "well, I only have to go for 4 more weeks, then we get a break." I have been so refreshed with homeschooling year round. PLus, it gets so hot here in the summer, the girls just sit inside and complain if we don't have a schedule. :auto:

[mom4him]

I got so burned out not this past year, but the one before. I decided to go to 4-6 weeks on and 1 week off. Truly, at this time of year I was climbing the walls with anxiety and irritability. This year, though, it's totally different. I'm not burned out, and I think "well, I only have to go for 4 more weeks, then we get a break." I have been so refreshed with homeschooling year round. PLus, it gets so hot here in the summer, the girls just sit inside and complain if we don't have a schedule. :auto:

Before we start up for next year I am going to figure something out with the schedule. I have done this before and liked it but this year I guess I felt that I needed to just keep it up because we had misses so much. I need to sit down and really put a plan together for next yr though because I want to still take the 3 wks at Christmas and 1 at Thanksgiving. Just need to put my head to it and get it settled.

The first of next week is supposed to be nice here so I am planning on a couple of days off. No sense taking rainy days off to work in the yard.:tongue_smilie:At this point I am just going to do that(a day here or there that is nice) to the end of May and then call it good for the year.