Slowing down.......................................
I have been riding on a consistently moving hamster wheel for years. I take on numerous tasks at one time as if I am super women or mom in this case and I end up spreading myself so thin that I am not allowing myself to fully enjoy any of it. I burn myself out and wonder "what happened?"
A couple of years ago, God interrupted my hurried and worried thoughts one day with a comment that literally stopped me in what I was doing. I had, again, been wondering if I was doing the right thing with homeschooling the kids, were we doing enough, were we using the right curriculum, etc. Along came God and said "Give up your selfish ways and teach them what YOU feel is important". It is funny how when people say things to you, you may remember the jist of what they said but not the exact words over time. Not with this. I remember His words as if He spoke them to me just a few minutes ago. Now, I have thought about what those words really mean for 2 years now but have still continued on my treadmill of life getting involved in anything and everything, changing curriculums like the changing of the winds and not really settling on any one teaching approach either.
Yesterday, it finally hit me. How can I focus and think clearly about anything when I allow my mind and body to be involved in too many things at one time? No wonder why I burn out every other month (ok, maybe every 3 months or so).
So, last night, I set some time aside and thought about what I could do to change this. It hit me, I need to SLOW down and smell the roses of my life, to enjoy where God needs me the most.
I have really wanted to teach the kids with unit studies for years (for subjects like science, history and character and bible) but have never had the time or energy to put into going that route. I have continued to pretty much do school at home type learning because it was easy, predictable and did not take much energy from me. What has happened is that I have sacrificed time put into planning for boredom, being unsatisfied and unfocused with our school. So, my goal is to clear our schedule of fillers and clutter to create time to really be able to delve into planning fun, hands on, inspiring homeschool experiences for myself and the kids to do together.
God is good, if we only listen to Him!
Peace in your day
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Good thoughts, Angela! Lately, I've been wanting to do more fun, hands on, inspiring things with my boys, too. When we do something out of the ordinary, like when we went outside and drew a 100-foot line with sidewalk chalk on our sidewalk to learn how large a blue whale is, it really is an exciting time for my youngest son and for me, too! I just need to plan more of these experiences.
ReplyDeleteFor me it goes back to PLANNING ahead. I find that when I plan for the week ahead, I read the lessons and pull other resources from around the house to use, and I find activities to do. When I don't plan ahead, we do more rote, workbook-type activities...and boredom ensues. And really all it takes is, at most, one hour a day/night to get this done!
I'm working on this. I know what my vision is for our homeschool and I'm trying hard to get it put back in place!
Good words of encouragement, Angela. Thanks!
Pam