Burned Out

Some of the Hiking Loot

We're nearing the end of our Christmas break. My plan going into the holiday was that I would take a break until after Christmas, then I would organize portfolio materials from the first half of the year, and do a large amount of planning for the rest of the year. I did manage to get portfolios organized, but then things changed.

JT and I have been planning our 100 mile Appalachian Trip for a couple years now, never doing more than occasionally taking a day hike and talking about our plan. That changed in the last few weeks when I discovered three things, an AT section hikers Facebook group, the REI website, and the Homemade Wanderlust blog and videos. I started reading about other people's adventures, spending money on equipment, even taking a trip to the closest REI, 2 1/2 hours from our home to try on a pack. As I was doing research on things related to hiking, I realized that my old obsession with homeschool curriculum research has been replaced with my new love of all things hiking related. The more I thought about it, the more I realized how burned out I have become when it comes to anything homeschool related and how much that was contributing to my procrastination.

Now that I have recognized what was going on, I feel I can use the hiking planning to give me a break and allow me to get the energy I need for the rest of this year. I don't have much to do for EM's school plan to get him to the end of the year. A lot of what he's doing now is structured enough to allow me to just look ahead a bit for each subject and make a game plan for the week. The one place I need to invest a little more time will be his half credit of music instruction we will be starting on Monday. He will be using a Great Courses series Understanding the Fundamentals of Music as a framework for his study with additional instruction and activities for each video lecture. I will need to plan the supplemental material for him, but that shouldn't be too time consuming. Other than music, he will be continuing his Earth science, algebra 2, health, world geography, literature, and writing instruction for the remainder of the school year.

Once JT graduates this May, I feel like I will need to buckle down and really focus on EM for his last three years of his schooling. For now, we are going to get the work done, but spend more time doing the things that will recharge our batteries for that final push.