The leaves were turning and falling, and it was overcast but still a lovely day.
Above: my sons helping each other collect pond water samples.
Above: my younger son, then aged four, getting a sample of pond water.
Above: my older son then aged seven with the seven year old daughter of Polly Castor.
The class with older siblings and parents tagging along, heading through the meadow, toward the river.
Today, here in our new Texas home announcements of nature classes and zoo trips for the wee ones abound on Yahoo Groups and other internet discussion boards. After a quick skim I hit the delete button. Been there, done that, my kids have outgrown it.
Homeschooling high school and middle school and dealing with parenting a teen is a whole other ball of wax. We are not participating in homeschool co-ops or classes; we are going it alone this semester. Thus, it is much harder to get established in a new community with other homeschoolers when we are doing such different things with our "homeschooling time". Yes, I get it. My husband told me I planned it this way, and it's my fault. (Well that's not really true as my kids didn't want the co-ops but a few weeks in they asked for them.) Yes, I have sequestered us to do lessons at home so we are not out and about with other homeschoolers. I had goals for this fall to fill some gaps and work on certain skills that are most efficiently learned at home. Maybe I am making a mistake to not have sacrificed academic progress and making an attempt to plant new social roots with other homeschoolers?
My kids are connecting with local kids based on their interests, things done outside the home, which right now is a sport team for one and Boy Scouts for both. This Troop's teen Boy Scouts are busy people with other areas of their lives (school, homework, and sports) so attendance is (unfortunatly) very low for the grade nine and up Scouts, so making friends through Scouting so far has been a dead end for my older son.
I am so busy doing homeschool lessons at home that it is leaving me exhausted mentally and physically. I am busy cooking, house cleaning, parenting, and being a wife. There is barely any time left over for "me time" to just breathe and be alone with my thoughts let alone time for me to cultivate new friendships for my own personal social needs. When I'm busy doing this or that with my family I am not taking time to somehow making friends for my own self. I also feel like everyone here is established in their own lives and they have their own routines they are not necessarily looking to make room for new friendships with the woman who just moved here.
My younger son and I are very social people. We are not introverts. My older son is socially extroverted when with others but he does need a certain amount of time alone for creative pursuits and to recharge. He burns out when with other people for too long. On the other hand my younger son and I never tire of being around others, it actually invigorates us, it gives us energy. The exception is being around jerks too long, which we find annoying and energy sapping. When I have too many idiots around me (this includes driving around on roads with bad drivers or road ragers and such), I am all too happy to be alone and do my own thing hiding away from the world for a while, then I need people again. (Web surfing, blog reading, Facebook and Twitter do not suffice.)
I think I can accurately say that my sons and I feel we are in survival mode not thriving mode. That is not good and I don't know what I can do about it.
My husband on the other hand, is thriving. He has friends of 15+ years who live here in Houston that he is thrilled to be around (so he is not alone or lonely). He loves his new job and is so happy to be working there. He is busy doing what he loves and what he feels his purpose in life is: working at his career and providing financially for his family. On his time off from work he wants to be with me and the kids.
My sons and I are putting in our time and doing what we should be doing, taking it one day at a time. I can only hope that sometime soon the three of us will also feel that we are thriving here and are out of survival mode. I also pray that I don't wreck our relationship with too much intensity here at home cramming homeschool lessons in the meantime.
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