Are You Feeling Stressed?
It's August! What does August bring to your mind?
For me, it's still lots of summer memories. Garden harvest. Sweet Corn. The grass gets a bit brittle underfoot as less rain and hot days combine. And now, school.
Growing up in Michigan, school couldn't start until after Labor Day due to all the farming families. But in Indiana, school starts around mid August. Now on our 11th year of homeschooling, I've come to like starting school at the beginning of August. I use the term "like" loosely. I don't like starting school then, but I find it very beneficial and I like the benefits.
Why?
First, in Indiana homeschool law says you do school for 180 days. I've found that our family takes a lot more days off here and there throughout the year - canning peaches, plums, pears, running errands, appointments, I travel for speaking at conferences, etc. Those days add up, so if we don't start our year early, we don't finish until well into summer weather. Which in the north, is when you can't wait to get outside after the long winter and motivation for school work quickly dwindles for everyone, me included, when the robins start chirping and sunshine beckons.
Second, after several weeks off without a lot of directed activities, which at first is amazing, becomes well, stagnant and idle minds (even if bodies are active) start to wear on each other. So, while I get reluctance and groans about starting school again (afterall, they are boys and not the kind that love academic work), life, routine, and direction helps things run better in the household. Some years I start slow and ease into it, sometimes we jump right in with a full schedule.
This year, I'm prepping for a cross-country RV trip for the next 9-10 months (we leave in less than 2 weeks!) and I'm a little too busy to take on teaching right now, so we are starting with online electives where they'll each complete 1 course this month while I get things around for the trip and we hit the road. That will give me a couple weeks to get up to speed on the learning curve of RVing as well, before we dive into the full school schedule.
Whew, so that was a bit of rambling and sharing what our August looks like. Why do you care? Well, if you hadn't picked up on it, another theme of August is often STRESS! How many of you can relate to that? New things, new teachers, schools, schedules, establishing different routines, early mornings, deadlines, adjustments. For some of our group, it can also be a stress relief - to again have a team of people helping do the heavy lifting of daily care, therapy and interventions. But it often comes with anxiety about how will the new teacher, therapist, etc mesh with my child?This year, with COVID-19, it's magnified - it's not just a new school, a new routine, but school as it's never been done before. And for kids who can't tolerate change, yikes!
So what is a STRESSED OUT mama, or dad, to do? That's what August is all about here in the Hope Anew - STRESS RELIEF or more accurately, STRESS MANAGEMENT!
Because we all know all those responsibilities aren't getting relieved anytime soon, so we we need to pay attention to managing the stress, and yes, stress relief, because as we "manage" it can reduce our stresses in life and we can work the stress out of our bodies.
Who's ready to get some stress relief with me? Woot! Woot!
Written by Sarah McGuire
