We've been homeschooling for 21 years, starting our 22nd year just a few weeks ago. There are books and papers and projects and notebooks everywhere in my dining room and basement that have accumulated in those 21 years, too. I don't know what to do with them all! But even with all those books and paraphernalia, I wonder, "Did we do enough?"
It's the nature of a homeschool mom to look at her children and compare them to someone else's homeschooled children. We're not supposed to but we do anyway. I know we could have done more co-oping, more science-y stuff, more history lessons and exploration. We could have gone on more field trips and more get-togethers with other homeschoolers. The truth is we did do that...with my older children. Our younger three, not so much. The only thing that changed that I can see is a growing case of burn-out.
Burn-out. Every working person experiences it at one time or other. But I've been at home for all these years! I've had the freedom...or relatively so...to come and go as I pleased provided I took the children with me. I could clean when I wanted (which, I'll be the first to admit, I didn't and still don't do very well). I could read a book. I could walk in my yard in the sunshine. The kids and I could take walks. How can anyone get burned out with those options? Believe me, it's easy. There are no coffee breaks, no adults around on a daily basis (except when Dad comes home just as exhausted), only one pair of hands for disciplining, and wiping noses. It's a 365/24/7 job!
But, there are benefits. Watching the kids venture out into the world is fascinating. I try hard to remember what it was I was feeling at their ages. Watching them handle each situation as it arises (provided they tell me about it, of course) is a lesson for me to shut up and let them handle it.
But back to the basement full of books. I don't have a clear idea of what to do with all of them...but I'm formulating one. And it could work! Maybe. If I don't burn-out on it first.
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