jackson'smama Posted May 22, 2012 Share Posted May 22, 2012 i just feel done with almost everything right now. children are 7, almost 5 and 20 mos. the only thing that doesn't feel like a weight right now is when i leave to go to my prn job as a nurse. i want to homeschool and be at home as much as possible but lately i'm just sitting at zero with patience and i just feel constantly snippy and annoyed. i HATE feeling like this but not sure what i need to do to snap out of it or recharge. tips? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fraidycat Posted May 22, 2012 Share Posted May 22, 2012 Vacation. Ship the kids off to the grandparents for a week and sleep in, eat/do/watch what you want, when you want without constantly being bombarded with the wants and needs of others. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kolamum Posted May 22, 2012 Share Posted May 22, 2012 Your children are REALLY young, & I think it's harder when they are younger. :grouphug: Having said that, when I felt utterly burnt out I did a few things. First, I evaluated my curriculum to check that it still fit my needs, if it didn't I fixed that problem. Then, I made a list of the things I really wanted to spend more time focusing on in our homeschool. Lastly, I obtained a variety of MP3's of chats that focused on exactly those things. From there I turned it into a 3 day conference session which really refreshed & excited me. Even though I was all alone with no one to hang out with and bounce what I learned off of, it was fantastic!! I want to do it again this year, maybe over the summer & have my kids stay with a grandparent or other relative. :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jackson'smama Posted May 22, 2012 Author Share Posted May 22, 2012 ok, so at the risk of sounding really stupid, how do you decide if your curriculum fits your needs? right now, we are in a stage of: oldest: it's not fair that N (younger brother,the middle) doesn't have to do school middle: hey mommy, look at this helicopter in this book. RIGHT. NOW!!!!! baby: "neeeeeneeeees", "mommy, mommy, mommy!" i'm constantly being pulled and there is always some level of noise coming out of at least two childrens' mouths. i don't know how my oldest has retained anything and at times this feels unfair to him. no one in PS first grade has to listen to his baby brother and sister play, whine, and cry. i know that homeschool is different and that that part of it can be so good, but i feel like i'm failing at it. i can't for the life of me figure out how to stay in a frame of mind for a few hours every day to even do school. it feels so patchy b/c it has to revolve around the nuttiness that seems to be our life right now. and i know it's a season, but this season and my personality aren't getting along and i want to fix that. yesterday, my mom said, "they'll be older soon". i know she meant that as a reassurance that "this will pass". but it makes me sad b/c 1) i don't want to appear to not be enjoying life with my children and 2) i WANT TO ENJOY LIFE WITH MY CHILDREN. NOW. not when they're older or easier or whatever. i just can't seem to make it work. this whole balancing 50 spinning plates thing. when you toss in laundry and cleaning and grocery shopping and cooking and picking up constant messes and going to baseball and trying to interview contractors to build a new house and...forget even trying to nurture a relationship with dh. i'm just bummed. thanks for listening.:) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MissKNG Posted May 22, 2012 Share Posted May 22, 2012 I'm burned out right now. I'm ending our school year this week rather than the 31st for our official school "year". Then we are taking a few weeks off before summer fun stuff. My burn out is mainly related to the fact that I've been babysitting two additional kiddos FT since January. This job ends the third week week in June. I agree that taking a break helps a lot! When I do want my big girl to work on something and I'm just too "ugh" to want to do anything, I create "assignment" packets for her. I staple a few math or English pages together and let her work on them alone for the week. I print stuff off online and she works on them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Runningmom80 Posted May 22, 2012 Share Posted May 22, 2012 I'm in the midst of a "refresh." I'm taking this week and next off of school, and reorganizing my house. I'm getting rid of a ton of stuff because I've had the epiphany that less stuff=less work. I am also planning the summer schedule for school, so I can just grab it in the AM. Does your 20 month old nap? We do school while my twins are napping. They nap 2 hours, first hour is school, and the second hour I decided is all mine to sit and read. I used to clean or something equally exhausting, but I realized that I need that break in the day. Older ds gets 1/2 hr on the computer and then plays quietly until the twins wake up. my kids are your kids age, so I totally get it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nova147 Posted May 22, 2012 Share Posted May 22, 2012 :grouphug: I feel your pain! It's hard with littles. They need so much of your time and energy. We're right in the middle of it, too. How much time do you need to spend schooling? My 7 year old spends 2 to 2 1/2 hours on school work daily. (Well, right now it's less than that because we are done with some of our curricula.) Some of that work he can do by himself. We do school in several blocks throughout the day. I find that when I try to do all of our work in the morning (like when we go somewhere in the afternoon), everyone winds up crabby. The little ones don't get enough of my attention, DS7 gets stressed from trying to focus so long, and I get frazzled. DS7 has gotten used to being interrupted. I try not to take care of anything that isn't immediate. I also have made "busy bags" for my girls. I set up a few for them to work with while DS7 and I do school. (Google it for lots of ideas.) I think it would be helpful for you to sit down with your DH and determine your family priorities. What school subjects HAVE to get done? What cleaning is most important? Then you can determine who can do all of that work! Perhaps your DH can teach history or science on weekends. Or he can be in charge of picking up (with the kids!) when he gets home from work. My DH is in charge of dishes. I'm always so tired by the time dinner is over that I can't face clean up! You can't do everything. Not only are you mom to 3 young children, you work part time and keep a household running. Add to that homeschooling, and you have a recipe for burnout! Getting some of that under control can make your time with your children more enjoyable. Off to take my own advice. :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JudoMom Posted May 22, 2012 Share Posted May 22, 2012 i just feel done with almost everything right now. children are 7' date=' almost 5 and 20 mos. the only thing that doesn't feel like a weight right now is when i leave to go to my prn job as a nurse. i want to homeschool and be at home as much as possible but lately i'm just sitting at zero with patience and i just feel constantly snippy and annoyed. i HATE feeling like this but not sure what i need to do to snap out of it or recharge. tips?[/quote'] Once, when my boys were 6, 5, 3, 2, & infant, I was so snippy and burned out. I put the books away (so unlike me) and spent the summer just being Mom. We baked cookies, I cleaned, etc. We started back up after several weeks and it was much better. :grouphug::grouphug::grouphug: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miss Marple Posted May 22, 2012 Share Posted May 22, 2012 I'm not sure how to combat burn out. I've found that one just has to slog through it with the hope that when things are the lowest that means there is a high spot ahead :001_smile: But in terms of everyday maintenance to make things as pleasant as possible I found that a 6 week off and 1 week on schedule was the most sanity saving device I could have. And I tried to pick curriculum that interested or appealed to me as well as my boys. Looking back I think I have experienced more burnout as the boys have been older. Maybe it's just the natural consequence of having done it for 16 or more. When the kids were young we weren't so worried about making sure everything was college prep etc. Once junior high and high school arrived it was more strenuous. With the ages you have I would recommend finding a schedule that gives you some regularly scheduled time off school. I used that time to catch up on my own reading and housework and special projects. We took 4 weeks at Christmas and 4 weeks in the spring so I could get a garden going. Then we went through the summer. It saved my sanity. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jackson'smama Posted May 22, 2012 Author Share Posted May 22, 2012 thanks everyone... we school year round but with my work schedule that means we're generally schooling 3 or 4 days a week, sometimes less. like today: we went on a field trip to the airport this morning and didn't get home until lunch time. so the house is a wreck from leaving in a whirlwind. we have baseball this evening. i'm already cooking dinner. the boys just want to play because they were so focused on the trip this morning (and in the van to travel to and from). but i'm freaking inside because i work the next two days so i think that if we don't do school today that that'll be three days in a row and then friday will be a bear to get oldest going and the house will be a wreck and laundry piled up from two days of me being at work and i'll want to take them to the trail for biking (and me to get some exercise) and blahblahblah (this run-on sentence could go on forever). i just feel like i'm drowning in life. maybe a vacation from school completely and a nice spring cleaning of the house and time to sit down and plan some school stuff and menu stuff...maybe that'll help. i'd love a weekend with dh away from the kids but i'm not sure how my youngest would do. she's never spent the night with grandma before and she still nurses. gotta think about that one... thanks again. nice to hear i'm not alone! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1pageatatime Posted May 23, 2012 Share Posted May 23, 2012 thanks everyone...we school year round but with my work schedule that means we're generally schooling 3 or 4 days a week' date=' sometimes less. like today: we went on a field trip to the airport this morning and didn't get home until lunch time. so the house is a wreck from leaving in a whirlwind. we have baseball this evening. i'm already cooking dinner. the boys just want to play because they were so focused on the trip this morning (and in the van to travel to and from). but i'm freaking inside because i work the next two days so i think that if we don't do school today that that'll be three days in a row and then friday will be a bear to get oldest going and the house will be a wreck and laundry piled up from two days of me being at work and i'll want to take them to the trail for biking (and me to get some exercise) and blahblahblah (this run-on sentence could go on forever). i just feel like i'm drowning in life. maybe a vacation from school completely and a nice spring cleaning of the house and time to sit down and plan some school stuff and menu stuff...maybe that'll help. i'd love a weekend with dh away from the kids but i'm not sure how my youngest would do. she's never spent the night with grandma before and she still nurses. gotta think about that one... thanks again. nice to hear i'm not alone![/quote'] :grouphug: You are NOT alone, though I bet it seems that way. :grouphug: If possible, I say it's time for a summer break-even though you school yr round. I think your idea to stop, regroup, get some things in order sound good. But, I think there is a level of chaos you may need to be comfortable with for a good while. Remember-your home isn't just a home; it's a school, preschool, daycare, and office-all happening within your home! That is a LOT.:grouphug: Something I think is key for you and your dc, is ROUTINE. If you already have that, look at ways where it needs tweaking. If you don't, implement one. I think it's also important to let your dc know that school time is school time. State your expectations(zero interrupting, unless an emergency, etc.), what the consequence will be if that is not met, then follow through. ( I know! Easier said than done, but, ya gotta do it!) Seek out some moms with little your dc ages, and ask them how/what they do with the toddler doing school time, etc.. With that said, your dc are so young, that I would bet it is perfectly ok to just focus on the 3r's. Read aloud, do a little math, work on phonics, etc..forget history(social studies) and science, unless you include it in your reading time. It will really be ok!! Lower your expectations of ALL of you, yet also gently move all of you toward a routine and newer expectations. DO NOT NEGLECT YOUR MARRIAGE. Hire a babysitter, borrow a friend, be creative-but bump that marriage to the forefront! Even grocery shopping together while the dc are with a friend or babysitter is fine-just something w/o the dc!!;) Also, if you post your curriculum, so many moms can help you get the most for little time. At that age, my dc were doing school at MOST 90 mins!! Hang in there, you can do this!!!:grouphug: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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