A Distracted Year

I've had a distracted year.  Mmmm, maybe more than one, to be honest.

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.