Being with my kids 24/7 has really taught me a lot. Our first semester was so crazy for me that I hardly remember it. I was homeschooling a high schooler and was new to homeschooling in general so it was just busy and hard. But then the second semester my oldest (Donte) went to public high school and I just had Lyra (6- 1st grade) and Caelum(4). I was suddenly not busy. I mean they were pretty constant and draining and I’m probably still considered busy to a lot of people but to me I had so much more time!
Getting out side always helps. Meeting with friends, going to the park, the library, local events and volunteering are all great ideas. But you can’t be gone all the time. And being home for extended periods of time consistently with little ones can be trying.
I don’t try to entertain them constantly because I want them to be bored so they can explore their creativity and learn independence… etc…
But I’ve recently made a point to involve them in all of the household chores. They’ve always had ‘chores’ to do and a chore chart they use to keep track of it. But lately we’ve been doing laundry together and cooking/eating/cleaning together for all our meals. So instead of them going to play while I cook dinner we plan our meal and cook our meal together. I love it! It’s fun to let them have a say in what we eat (I’m blessed with not picky eaters- although they’ve never had the opportunity to be picky eaters but thats another blog).
Although I do miss cooking alone with my music blaring or ‘the donna reed show’ playing on Hulu it has made evenings as a family much more enjoyable.