Staying Motivated: Funny from me, innit?

I haven't properly updated in months, it's funny that I'd be posting about staying motivated, don't you think?

Odd thing is, I've been staying motivated.  It's just not motivated here.  I have a decent load over on a book club blog that seemed to hit critical mass between mid-December and mid-January.  Wonder why I haven't been here as much... Probably because I'm crunching deadlines trying to get book reviews, quotes, reading lists, guest posts, and series analyses done over there!

Anyway, I'm back, and hoping to stick with it a little better.

Man, this time of year stinks for homeschooling.  For anyone, really, but with homeschooling you're really only day-to-day accountable to yourself. You don't have to call in an excuse if you're not having school, you just don't do it.  You don't have to have a note in the next day, or even a doctor's note.  The things that make it more trouble to skip public school than it's worth just don't seem to exist, especially not in the middle of winter when it seems like spring is never coming, there's only ten minutes of sunshine a day, and the kids are going insane because they're cooped up inside during the Polar Vortex... and then again for Polar Vortex II: Electric (Blanket) Boogaloo.

So... how do you keep motivated to keep on plodding along, even when it seems like you're stuck in the winter that never ends (not to be confused with a certain song)?  For me, it's almost easy.  Here in Mooselandia, we've had the Polar Vortex and all, sure, and we didn't go to hockey those weeks.  But, we've also been on break since Hallowe'en.  Every year, it's what we do.  We school-lite in the summer, usually three days a week, and we take a break from Hallowe'en until after the New Year.  This year it was delayed a little, as our treasured friends Stellar Mama and Girl Friday moved from down the street to across the continent just as we were due to start up, so we postponed to squeeze in some extra visiting time.  Things we couldn't do if The Mad Natter were in public school.  But, either way, because of the break, we hit the middle of winter and are only just coming back to school.  So it's not a matter of "staying" motivated - we've been on a break so long we're twitching to get back to schoolwork!  Okay, so "we" aren't.  But I am, and since I make the schedule, there you have it.  This turns out to be a great thing.  We don't have the wintertime blues, we've managed to keep spirits high, we're not having (many) fights about who woke whom early on a Saturday and for what...  It works out for us.

It might not work as well for you, but if you're feeling run down, lethargic, blah... And if you have a few free days in your school year, maybe taking a midwinter break might not be such a bad idea.  Give you a chance to unwind a little, the kids a chance to relax and hopefully get outside (if there's Polar Vortex III: Son of Polar Vortex, I'm moving to Arizona!), and you might just be able to get back to finish your school year's winter with a little more energy, flare, and excitement than before.

Take a look and see how others deal with the slow period: http://giftedhomeschoolers.org/?p=3285