What do you do all day?

[Amy loves Bud]

No, this wasn't a comment from some insensitive lout with no idea of what hsing entails. It's a genuine question for you.

 

I'm finding that my attention span is slowly slipping away. The back and forth of helping this one with grammar and this one with fractions and unloading the dishes and correcting Latin worksheets and moving the wash to the dryer and changing a dirty diaper has me unable to focus or concentrate on anything.

 

I'm not reading like I used to, because I can't get more than a page or two in without putting it down. The internet is an easy temptation because I can spend 5 minutes reading a blog entry or fiddling with Facebook, but I think it's making the matter worse because it fosters that kind of non-attention.

 

So how do you keep your mind sharp when you can't spend more than 5 minutes focusing on anything?

 

Signed,

 

Fuzzy and distracted

[JudoMom]

Well, I don't know that my mind is sharp :lol:, but I do my serious "Oh, I Need Brain Cells for This" reading in the morning before they wake up. Otherwise I read at night before I go to sleep.

 

 

I cannot read during the day. Even when there is time, I'm keenly aware of every sound they make. So I spend time here, a bit of time on Facebook, and check out some blogs. Some of the posts here cause me to think and challenge my worldview so I think that is a huge positive.

[Deece in MN]

When you find out, please let me know! :tongue_smilie:

 

Ok, I know that is of no help, but I know exactly what you are talking about.

I have been trying to make sure I exercise daily. I am not always successful, but am doing fairly well and I feel better for doing it.

I am also trying to sew a little bit everyday. Again, somedays are better than others and I accomplish something and others feel like they slip by and I haven't done a thing.

I know what you mean about reading. I did read Beowulf, but it took me about 2 weeks! I just could not keep a good focus on the book (it wasn't because I didn't like it) and some days I just had so much happening that I couldn't fit any reading in. I am trying to tackle Canterbury Tales so I can stay ahead of my ds and it is not going any better.

Before Beowulf I was reading random bits and pieces of books. Some I would start and even if it was somewhat interesting it was like I just couldn't finish it.

I do think the amount of time I have spent on the computer over the years has made a difference.

I am trying to cut back, but (bad?) habits are hard to break. :)

 

Sorry to ramble. All that to say I am right there with you.

[cathmom]

No, this wasn't a comment from some insensitive lout with no idea of what hsing entails. It's a genuine question for you.

 

I'm finding that my attention span is slowly slipping away. The back and forth of helping this one with grammar and this one with fractions and unloading the dishes and correcting Latin worksheets and moving the wash to the dryer and changing a dirty diaper has me unable to focus or concentrate on anything.

 

I'm not reading like I used to, because I can't get more than a page or two in without putting it down. The internet is an easy temptation because I can spend 5 minutes reading a blog entry or fiddling with Facebook, but I think it's making the matter worse because it fosters that kind of non-attention.

 

So how do you keep your mind sharp when you can't spend more than 5 minutes focusing on anything?

 

Signed,

 

Fuzzy and distracted

 

Funny, I don't remember writing this! But I could have, that's for sure.

[Sharon H in IL]

Last year was worse than this year. This year the boys are perfectly able to find something non-noisy and perhaps even constructive to do if I'm working with the other.

 

I'm less able to handle deep reading too, probably because of too much short-attention-span reading of blogs & forums, but also due to the sense that I'm supposed to be 'working' whenever I sit down to actually read, and hop up again to fold towels or start dinner.

[FO4UR]

My secret is taking a book with me when the kids play outside. They never want my attention out there....well, rarely anyway. I love reading outside. When it's wet and cold (like today) it drives me nuts to be inside with littles who need to run and make messes.

[Guest Katia]

I'm finding that my attention span is slowly slipping away. The back and forth of helping this one with grammar and this one with fractions and unloading the dishes and correcting Latin worksheets and moving the wash to the dryer and changing a dirty diaper has me unable to focus or concentrate on anything.

 

I'm not reading like I used to, because I can't get more than a page or two in without putting it down. The internet is an easy temptation because I can spend 5 minutes reading a blog entry or fiddling with Facebook, but I think it's making the matter worse because it fosters that kind of non-attention.

 

So how do you keep your mind sharp when you can't spend more than 5 minutes focusing on anything?

 

 

I have no idea, but if you find out, please let me know! I find myself in this exact same predicament. I got a book out of the library and it took me two weeks to read it.....it should have been a two-three hour read. Sigh.

 

And, I spend all of my in-between moments on the computer. Mostly here.:D

[Jen in PA]

:lurk5:

[KidsHappen]

I thought this was age related. The older I get, the harder it is to concentrate. My 11th grader is putting me through my paces and I can't keep up with her. I have a B.A. and I can't keep up with a high schooler. She has passed me up in every subject but history and that's just 'cause it is my favorite and I already know a lot of it. I went to college while breastfeeding a newborn and handling a one year old but now I just can't concentrate and focus like I used to. I have no answers but if you figure it out, let me know.

[Laura Corin]

I read in the bath most nights. There are no electronics to distract me; everyone else is in bed already. It's the only way to get myself to concentrate on one thing for an hour.

 

Laura

[MamaT]

I try to read at night or before the kiddos get up in the morning. When we are schooling, I have to be present for that. I can't really do anything else. I am terrible at doing more than one thing at a time - can't do it.

[prairiegirl]

I don't do housework when it is school time. I have times during my day for school and housework seprately and that is when I focus on those things.

 

I don't even attempt to read during the day. I leave that for when the kids have gone to bed. On a good night, I can get in two hours of reading before I fall asleep.

[Laura R (FL)]

Having a little one must make it quite difficult. I was finishing college back in those days.

 

My girls are more independent and a bit older now, so I can do housework and be available to help them if needed. Then around lunch I need to spend an hour or two with all my critters with the feeding, cleaning, and handling. My youngest has ballet or something just about every evening. In the studio I hang out and work on my graduate work...reading or typing. If I want to read for pleasure, that is usually at night since my husband falls asleep first.

[elegantlion]

We start school later in the morning and I've been working on using some of that time for self-ed. That doesn't always work.

 

We also start our school day with read-aloud time then ds reads quietly. I had started making myself sit and read also during the quiet time. That helped a lot, but I've found myself being distracted into other things lately.

[momof2boys]

Homeschooling 2 teenage highschool boys keeps me on my toes as far as trying to stay one step ahead of them with their studies, plus I am going to college myself.:lol:

[Amy loves Bud]

I don't know if i should feel better or worse after your replies! It's nice that I'm not alone, but I was hoping for a 5 Step Program to Better Brainpower for the Harried Homeschooler.

 

I'm turning off the computer until school is done and I'm going to set aside part of Romy's nap for reading.

 

Enjoy your day!

[Mama Lynx]

I don't know if i should feel better or worse after your replies! It's nice that I'm not alone, but I was hoping for a 5 Step Program to Better Brainpower for the Harried Homeschooler.

 

I'm turning off the computer until school is done and I'm going to set aside part of Romy's nap for reading.

 

Enjoy your day!

 

LOL

 

I am right there with you. I can't focus on anything. It's frustrating.

 

Yes, the computer makes it worse. And Yes, you still have a very young child - I don't think I came out of the brain fog to any extent until my youngest was 5.

 

Try to make time every day to read. Start with easier things if your brain is rusty, and work up. That's the only step I can give you, so far :lol:

[Dayle in Guatemala]

I started to feel the same way when we had foster babies. My dc are older, so it's a little easier now for me to find time to do a little reading or something like that each day.

 

Here's a general schedule of my day:

 

up at 6 for a little quiet time

 

laundry, breakfast, getting kids ready for their day from 7-9

 

school starts at 9

 

lunch somewhere between noon and 1

 

mandatory reading or working alone time from about 1 to 2 or so

 

more laundry, dinner, prep, cleaning, groceries, errands, music lessons, horseback riding, gardening, or whatever is on the schedule until about 6

 

dinner at 6

 

family time from about 7 to 9 or so

 

I get ready for bed around 10 and read for about an hour or so before I finally go to sleep.

 

This is generally it. I find that when they are having down time, I have down time, too. It helps me to do what I enjoy--reading, scrapbooking, gardening, baking, whatever. I was feeling really scattered until I made sure that I had that time for me every day. When the dc were younger, I would set a timer in their rooms for one hour in the afternoon. They were allowed to look at books or play quietly in their beds until the timer went off. This was my quiet time during the day, I didn't allow myself to do other things--hard but effective.

[Soph]

I, too, cannot focus to read (or do much of anything) for very long. Fifteen minutes reading in bed before I doze off is about all I can manage. Pathetic...and I once thought of myself as an intellectual! (HA! I am long over that assumption these days:D)

 

However, I have come up with an alternative....my iPod. I use it only for audio books or podcasts. It's been wonderful! I listen to stuff while cleaning, cooking dinner, and at parks (if there are no grown-ups to talk to).

 

I have managed to "read" more books in the last few months, than I have in the in the last 9 years! I am totally addicted.

[LaxMom]

It has been my experience over 20 years of parenting - late teens to late 30s - that the lack of attention span seems to happen when you have children with no attention span. I recall being tickled to discover that I once again had the attention span to finish a magazine article in one sitting, when my eldest was around 5. (She was my only at the time... I would have been around 23?)

 

It happened again when my 8 year old was little, and is happening again, now that the boys are 4 1/2.

 

I don't think it's so much age related as child's age related. I did have the ability to take in large amounts of detailed technical information and actually do something with them in the interim, and I can once again take in much larger amounts of information at a time as the boys get older, despite my advanced years. :D

[Tap]

My day is full of errands and running the kids around. I spend at least 2 hours actually driving the car, and often more. Between the kids classes, sports,appointments, church and obligations I am gone an average of 4-5ours a day. Everyday is different and I am gone in short chunks of time all through the day. On Wednesdays I have places to be at 10:30, 11, 12, 12:30, 3, (sometimes 4,5) 6, 7, 8, 9. :0/ If I need to schedule an appointment if is usually on this day in the 3-6pm slot.

I work outside of the house (I'm a pharmacy technician) so that is what keeps me sharp. I work 3 days a week usually, and will work another here or there on my off days or in the summer.

[Colleen]

What I do all day is teach and cook and clean and read bits of this and that. As far as focusing, my ability to do so for any length of time has definitely taken a hit over the past five years in particular. I recall when I had just one or two little guys, I'd talk to this friend of mine who was (is) a mother of many. It seemed she couldn't get through a discussion without getting up and doing something else, or interrupting the flow of conversation to offer an aside to a child, do such-and-such, etc. It drove me bonkers. I wondered if she had ADD or what.

 

Fast forward ten years and I better understand my friend's behavior. I've not exactly become like her, but I can slip into "constant multi-tasking to the extent that I'm never deeply focused on any one thing" syndrome. And ya know, there are times for that; times when we have to be in that mode. Trouble is, it can seriously affect our ability to just concentrate on one thing.

Our sound-byte world only adds to the problem, and imo the Internet trains us to accept ADD reading habits as the norm.

 

I do my focused reading in the evenings after everyone is in bed, and that time is very important to me. Running and gardening are two other means of maintaining focus. It feels good to allow myself to become immersed in an activity and work at it from beginning to end.

[Frontier Mom]

No, this wasn't a comment from some insensitive lout with no idea of what hsing entails. It's a genuine question for you.

 

I'm finding that my attention span is slowly slipping away. The back and forth of helping this one with grammar and this one with fractions and unloading the dishes and correcting Latin worksheets and moving the wash to the dryer and changing a dirty diaper has me unable to focus or concentrate on anything.

 

I'm not reading like I used to, because I can't get more than a page or two in without putting it down. The internet is an easy temptation because I can spend 5 minutes reading a blog entry or fiddling with Facebook, but I think it's making the matter worse because it fosters that kind of non-attention.

 

So how do you keep your mind sharp when you can't spend more than 5 minutes focusing on anything?

 

Signed,

 

Fuzzy and distracted

 

Oh, I am so there with you. If I have anything else going on, I find it so hard to just sit down and focus. And then, at night, I am so ready to just read in the peaceful quiet and - wham - my dh wants to talk, get me to look over something from the church, etc. I just can't stand it. I feel like my whole day is spent in spurts of time, usually with lots of noise associated. I just want to be alone and quiet at night but my dh wants to talk.

 

Now, don't get me wrong, I love him dearly but am struggling with exactly the thing you are talking about. The hardest thing to me about homeschooling is that I am the type of person that needs quiet and alone time but it is sooo hard to find. He is a social person and thinks when the kiddos go to bed it is time for conversation. I am just thinking about blissful silence for more than 2 minutes.

 

I am a project person and have grand plans for next fall's history. I am also trying to go over grammar because R&S just bogs us down. However, everytime I try to get started I am distracted, have to go somewhere, etc. I am really struggling with the matter of respect. Since I feel like Home Educating is my job, I need to have some uninterrupted time to "work." Getting my family to understand this is a whole other thing though.:tongue_smilie:

 

Unfortunately, I don't have any solutions yet. I can feel your pain.:grouphug: