Transition to Independent Work

Well, mine work mostly independently but somebody always seems to want me to narrate to or bounce ideas off or look at their paper or help them when they’re stuck with a calculus problem or listen to their new song or just talk, or I’m fiddling with the laundry, or frantically trying to read up on one’s physics lesson so I can grade their papers better, or trying to figure out what to use for American history  next year, or . . .  How do I sign up for bubble baths and bonbons??

Ha! I’m with you houseofchaos!  Oh to have some privacy.  Last night I actually did have a bubble bath (no bonbons though) because I wasn’t feeling well.  I put the kids to bed and then tried to relax and steam away this cold.  In the middle, however, I had to get out to let 2yoDD into the bathroom because she needed to go and can’t open the door herself.  Sigh.

Joanne

Claire, I miss the interaction of the earlier years too….not that we don’t still have interaction, it is just different.  I’m still adjusting.    I do review her math and English as she finishes so corrections can be made if needed and I read written narrations on the spot too so I can encourage her in her work.  Sometimes we have discussions after an oral narration….but I do miss the days of doing more together.

Right now while dd is working independently, I’m trying to use the time to write/blog, read ahead or preview books and prepare for next year….plus do chores and such.  Sometimes I crochet (which I just learned to do this school year….)  So it’s a mix of things. 

-Kim

You know, there are things I miss from younger days, too, when we’d all curl up on the couch and do history together.  I miss it.  BUT there are compensations.  And I don’t mean extra time (I haven’t really found any of that yet )  Last week we all ended up sitting in the living room watching a political debate together, having fun alternately cheering and jeering, and then we stayed up way too late discussing the candidates and positions and what we really neeeded to do in the country–it was wonderful.  Parenting teens is hard at times, and you do miss the jammies-and-teddies stage, but it has its own joys.  I really don’t feel less close to my children now–just close in a different way.  It is SO FUN seeing them turning into the people they are becoming.  There are so many things we can share now that we couldn’t before because they were so young.  It is such a delight to see them turning into  . . . grown up people we enjoy spending time with.  I no longer tuck my boys in or hear their prayers at night–I miss that.  But on the other hand, I’ve gained young men who want to check in with me before they go to bed (usually sooo much later than *I* want to go to bed!) and tell me about their days and what they are thinking and who they want to be and what they did with their friends or what they’ve just learned about prayer . . . on their own–and it’s just as dazzling and wonderful in its own way as snuggling sweet-smelling just-bathed little ones when you tuck them in.