By Tracy Criswell

It’s a question that has plagued me since starting back with homeschooling our four children: “Am I doing enough?” This summer our family has dealt with three surgeries (benign tumor removal for my husband, having all four wisdom teeth removed for my oldest son and a spinal fusion for my oldest daughter), jury duty, lack of income (I couldn’t do my summer job because I needed to be home to take care of my family), and trying to get ready for a new homeschool year. This has been the toughest start to our homeschool year in eight years.

 

 

A Rough Start
We decided to start homeschooling the Tuesday after Labor Day this year. I thought this would be better for our family so we could see how my oldest daughter was going to handle her recovery from surgery as well as help her siblings get started with their dual enrolled classes at our local schools. This was a good idea, but as soon as we started homeschooling I felt overwhelmed. I felt like I was being pulled in many different directions, and then the question started to pop up, “Am I doing enough?”

 

You see once we started homeschooling, we had to make time for three different band practices (youngest daughter goes weekly, youngest son goes every other morning, and oldest daughter goes every day), three different band lessons every other week, appointments for my middle two to see a therapist weekly for their anxiety, orthodontist appointments, appointment with the psychiatrist that did a new evaluation for my oldest daughter, vision therapy appointments, doctor appointment to recheck on medication for anxiety, in addition to homeschooling. 


One Day at a Time

I don’t write my lesson plans in advance (except for my oldest son because he is very independent) because I never know what’s going to happen from day-to-day. All four of my children have different abilities and needs. Trying to meet all of these needs can be a struggle. But his past weekend, I discovered a pattern in our lesson plans. Every other week is chaotic because it seems that band lessons, homeschool visits (we have a supervising teacher come to our house every other week), and certain doctors appointments happen during this time. So I have come to the conclusion that on crazy weeks, I will do the best that I can for my children and teach them as much as I can at home and in the van. On the weeks that are not so chaotic, I will use that time to help them get caught up on school work that we are behind on. It has also helped that my husband has provided support with helping make supper, being a good listener to me (sometimes it’s important to just tell someone how you feel and what is happening during homeschooling), and taking the kids to an activity so I can have some quiet time for myself and time to get caught up on my paperwork. This has helped a lot.

 

Other Strategies
In addition to having my husband’s support and assistance, I have found other things that have helped me in keeping the, “Am I doing enough?” thought at bay. These are additional strategies and tools that I have used to help me:

  • Decide which 3 subjects to do every day no matter what.
  • Write down what has been accomplished each day. This provides a visual of what we’ve completed as well as what we need to work on more.
  • Use videos as supplements for different subject areas (science, social studies, literature, etc.)
  • Use read alouds or audio books as a family to learn a subject topic further
  • Supplement field trips, library activities, volunteer opportunities, etc. as part of learning
  • Give and receive grace
  • Ask for help from friends, family, etc.

 


More Than Enough

It is important to remember that at one time or another, I am sure we have asked ourselves, “Am I doing enough?” The answer is, “Yes, I am doing enough.” I am providing a homeschool education that meets my children’s unique needs and abilities. I am teaching them life skills and how I want them to treat others. We all go through different seasons in our lives. I have definitely encountered a new season in our family’s life as well. It’s just filled with doctor’s appointments, therapy appointments, dual enrollment classes, tumbling, scouting, 4-H, and many more.

 

 

 


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