Friday, September 5, 2014

What to do with my time? (And what about when my kids have graduated??)

It's 11:30 a.m. as I start typing this. My son has been up about 2 hours; my daughter a little less. My son has read Day 2 of Writing Strands (he asked to be allowed to just follow their schedule instead of doubling up; fine--it's a kind of structure that fits well with him), he has done a few pages of percentages and we've discussed safety issues with science labs and started looking at biodiversity. Not to mention looked at possibilities of books for him to read on his own. He would like something non-fiction; that doesn't surprise me. Now it's just finding the right type of non-fiction for him.

That's all I had figured out for today and now it's all done. My daughter has grabbed her bio text and is working at finishing up as much as she can from the chapter today and also has art assignments she's alternating with. Doesn't require much from me with these outside courses.

So, now I'm a bit: What do I do with myself? lol. And given my son is grade 9, only 4 (maybe 5) years left. What am I going to do with myself as time goes on and my daughter has moved onto other things and my son will just be working on his own a lot? And the bigger question: What will I do with myself once he's done school?

I am in my 12th official year homeschooling my kids, my 13th or 14th year if you count the homeschooling I did of someone else's daughter when my daughter was kindergarten age or the year before that when I homeschooled yet someone else's kindergarten child. That's a long time at "this job." Over many years, there were other kids here from other families, either in a homeschooling fashion or just childcare. It's now just the 3 of us most of the time. And I'm finding already this year that my son is much more able to do different things on his own (so far). I'm also not planning on doing all the reading aloud to him that I did last year.

In any case, I suppose I'm facing what any long-term homeschooling mammas face: what do you do when the work you've been doing is going to suddenly not be there anymore? It's kind of like knowing you're going to be laid off. And your work load as you approach the layoff is lessening, but you still have to be there for the hours.

This really is my chance to pursue long-term dreams/desires like writing, isn't it? I just need to make sure to take advantage of it.

No comments:

Post a Comment