Teachers' Lounge

I always thought the name "Teachers' Lounge" was a misnomer. "Teachers' Lounge" implies that teachers sit around, eat, drink & shoot the breeze....when they're probably trying to come up for air and just make it through the rest of their day (teaching) and night (planning / grading assignments). Teachers' Lounge??  Hardly! Maybe "Teachers' Bunker" or "Faculty Decompression Chamber"!

I still have a lot of respect for teachers, especially in today's society. In addition to teaching their students, they have a lot of other concerns to keep in mind. School and classroom safety, managing unruly behaviors, keeping up with standardized testing, budget cuts...you get the idea. Even though I'm a homeschool mom, my appreciation and gratitude still goes out to teachers.

Homeschool moms (and dads) juggle being teachers for a good part of the day on top of  their other household duties. 24/7. Math, reading, spelling AND vacuuming, dinner and laundry. (Dang! I forgot to take our laundry out of the dryer again!). No break. You're the teacher, cafeteria cook, janitor, nurse, librarian and principal....all rolled up into one person.

So, when do you plan it all? When do you take a breather? You do take breathers, don't you? As for me, "planning time" or "me time" doesn't make it high on my priority list.

I did something today that I don't like to do....I woke up early (Hey! I'm a homeschool mom of an adolescent boy, remember?). God Bless my wonderful husband for waking up so early every day to support our family! My commute from the bedroom to the living room is a lot shorter. I woke up early to help my husband out with something before he left for work and I actually stayed awake. I had about 2 hours of time for myself! I ate breakfast sitting down. I had extra time to read my Bible in peace and quiet. I got caught up on some emails. I lesson planned for a couple of extra weeks and did some prep work for new units. In other words, I didn't cram hours of work into a few minutes.

Maybe this "Teachers Lounge" concept is a little unrealistic for homeschoolers. However, I do hope the idea of "Teacher Time" or "Mom Time" will start to be a regular occurrence in my Google Calendar and in my overloaded Homeschool Planner.

Now, if you'll excuse me...its 10:15 pm and I still need to unload my dryer!