Homeschool Burnout!! & Reading for pleasure

I just want to start by saying thanks everyone for the Happy Birthday wishes. I had a brilliant day and feel so lucky to have a loving husband and two great children. Unfortunately we didn't get to go for our family meal out on Friday night as J became unwell with a horrible bug that is doing its rounds. E had it on Sunday night and I think I am coming down with it tonight as am starting to feel a little lousy now. Oh well!! Share and share alike!!

I've just been doing a spot of blog reading and came across the latest article on Homeschooling Ideas on Homeschool Burnout. Its a very interesting read and I highly recommend it as we all suffer burnout at one time or another.

I am feeling ok at the moment after struggling for the last month or so with burnout whilst we were in Cyprus. I was placing to much pressure on me and the kids to get stuff done and over-scheduling us. I was letting our schedule planner rule us instead of us ruling the schedule. What with the move and packing too it was just too much to try and keep going so we have had a well earned rest and given child-led learning a go.

I would say that the kids have done a lot of nature study in the last 6 weeks or so. They are enjoying going for walks in the park and identifying different types of birds. We saw a robin for the first time in a good while yesterday when we went and it was lovely.

They have both been choosing to read more off their own back too which is great. This is especially good for J who continues to surprise me with the progress he has made lately in reading. Tomorrow he wants me to get him the new JK Rowling (Harry Potter author) book 'The Tales of Beadle the Bard' for him to read. I hadn't heard him read for nearly two months but he really seems to have improved a lot in that time. He even reads bits out of the newspaper over your shoulder. Most importantly he really seems to be enjoying reading and is finally getting the hang of reading for pleasure.

E continues to enjoy reading too despite me never actually having taught her to read. I don't think she learnt at school either. She was only in school for 4 months and they had the Oxford Reading Tree books but I think she was being held back as she wasn't able to read to the teacher because of her selective mutism (fear of speaking in public). We would record her reading her book flawlessly on a dictaphone and send it into school for her teacher to listen to but still she held her back. Now E is doing brilliantly with her reading. She enjoys reading the Rainbow Magic fairy books and will happily sit and read a book to her dolls and teddies. She just seems to have picked it up brilliantly. The first book she read to me after coming out of school was The Cat in the Hat by Dr Seuss and I think it really helped her as a lot of words are repeated and could be easily sounded out. You only usually have to tell her a word once and she remembers it the next time she comes across it whilst this seems to be much harder for J. I think its a boy thing that means they struggle with reading.

E has told me she wants to do some of her maths workbooks in the morning. Yes she loves maths workbooks and we haven't done any written maths for a while and she is itching to do one so I have said that I will sit with her and she can do her maths. They both love maths but E is the only one who will actually ask to do it. She also wants to read Christmas stories which I had planned to do anyway.

She is loving going to Rainbows (youngest section of Girl Guides) and counts down the days til she can go again. It is doing her really good too as it is something that she can do on her own without J there and it is encouraging her to speak to others which she does. She isn't chattering away there yet but if the leader or anyone asks her a question she will reply and not just in one word answers either. She was given her promise to learn 2 weeks ago and by the end of the day she got it she had learnt it. She is really loving it there and can't wait to go each week.

J has started cubs (middle section of boy scouts) and is enjoying that too. He knows some of the boys there as when we lived here before he went to the school next door to where the cubs meet so he is happy to meet up with his old friends.

I am also looking for other local clubs they can both join too. Hopefully in the new year we will get a car and then it will make it much easier to get out and about instead of having to rely on my parents or sister to help take us places not on the bus routes.

We are going to give our first lapbook a go this week too hopefully which I think the kids will enjoy.

We moved back into our house here last week and are loving it. Its strange as we aren't missing Cyprus at all (well apart from the weather!! Its been freezing cold and icy here!!) We lived in Cyprus for 3 years but it never felt completely like home as we were in a rented villa which had been furnished for us (not to my taste!) The last year we were there I began to get more and more homesick too. I think now we are back in our own home surrounded by our own furniture it just feels right.

I am also loving having access to the library. I really missed that in Cyprus as they just don't exist there. We have about 40 books out right now between us and I have just renewed them so we can keep them for another 3 weeks. It is saving me a fortune too in that I am not having to buy every book I want us to read. Unfortunately they don't have everything I want but its better than nothing.

I finally have bookcases now too. I am so excited about this as it means I can have all our books out on display which means they should actually get read. In Cyprus I didn't have bookcases and used a cupboard in the downstairs bedroom for all our homeschool resources as a result of which we often forgot about a book that would have been great to read when studying a particular subject. Now its great as I can see exactly what we have and know when to pull it out.

Right this was originally only meant to be a short post but has turned into a huge one and I am tired, ready for bed and feeling a little poorly so am off to get my beauty sleep, nite nite all!!