I'm asking the other homeschooling moms. Do you deliberately put any kind of "mom's break" into your day? One where all the children, not counting little nurslings, are all supposed to go do something and not bother you for a little while, while you take a breather, have a cup of tea, read blogs, eat your lunch, take a nap, or any of that stuff?
I'm just asking. I do. It's at lunch time. After morning school and morning chores, I feed the kids and then they are allowed to have a "recess" so to speak — sometimes I make them go outside, sometimes I send them to the playroom — about half an hour or 45 minutes total if you count the time the kids are eating. During that time I eat my lunch and catch up on email and read whatever I feel like. No, we don't eat together, I don't like what they eat and vice versa.
No, I don't miss the family togetherness of lunch time either. I like my quiet time while everybody digests their food. They're pretty used to it and don't bother me much until I call them back up for the rest of school work. We have a "tea snack" together around the tableat 3:30 every day, so I like to think that makes up for the lack of face time at lunch.
I wonder if I will always have time enough to put that little lunch break into my day. I only have the one third-grader right now, and a preschooler who's done with his lessons before lunch. I always gave myself a lunch break, in college and in grad school, and I always felt it helped me attack the afternoon work better than if I skimped on it. Today I still feel it helps me stay cheerful and connect-able with the kids. Would I get more "stuff" done if I skipped it? I don't know. I'm not exactly in a hurry to try.
I should add that often I do spend the time "working," even sometimes on school-y stuff like curriculum planning and record keeping, but (a) it's always stuff I choose in the moment — if "I feel like spending 20 minutes working on the family budget", then that's what I do and I still feel like I've relaxed and (b) it's in relative quiet.
I think the important thing is that I get to concentrate on something. There are not many things I miss dearly about my old life, but one of the biggies has to be the simple pleasure of concentrating on one or two things for hours at a time.
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