As my children have grown up and moved away and the number of children still at home has dwindled from five to one, the time I spend thinking about and planning for our homeschooling has decreased. Since I've been doing this for 20 years and am pretty much a "relaxed homeschooler" , you'd think I'd have this school thing totally covered, right?
Actually, I have struggled a great deal these past 2 years, mainly with balancing time spent preparing and monitoring school lessons and activities for my ONE child with the many other projects and responsibilities on my plate. Since I have all this TIME, I have taken on more and more. I serve in leadership of our homeschool group, serve as a mentor to new homeschoolers, chair the homeschool prom committee, help with graduation, moderate the email loop and facebook group, and assist my husband with the sports program. I bake cupcakes for friends. I have started going to the Y and to Zumba class several times a week. I think about cleaning and organizing and decorating our home. Don't really ever get to it, but I do spend a lot of time thinking about it....
It was while attending the annual NCHE Homeschool Conference in May and soaking in some great wisdom from the speakers there that I realized.... I have become distracted and am not giving adequate attention to one of the BIG PRIORITIES in my life, and that is the nurture and education of my children. J may be nearly 16, but we're not done with him yet! He isn't a carbon copy of any of my other children, so I can't just duplicate something that was done before, plop it in front of him, and expect him to succeed. He has unique needs, challenges, strengths, weaknesses, gifts, and talents. So I am trying to pull my focus back in to my family. I am looking at my other projects and responsibilities and trying to see where I can pull back ( a hard thing for a Do-er like me ) and spending more time this summer praying, planning and preparing for his classes and activities. And thinking and praying about what I need to do during the school year to follow through, maintain my focus, and not get distracted.. again.
