Permission is hereby granted to the reader of these words to examine life and then, without guilt or turmoil, declare the need for change.
Permission is hereby granted to those who feel responsibility becoming a burden to rest that burden on the ground for a time; for if we are to be human, we must recognize that change is important, refreshment is vital, and passion is primary.
Permission is hereby granted to those who need it to spend time doing new things, old things, exciting things, restorative things.
Permission is hereby granted to consider the following as essential to being human and thereby essential to your days:
-vast stretches of time spent on art, Lego, craft, or reading
-baking up whatever strikes your fancy
-a week spent in concentrated focus on an unusual topic: a unit study on beaches as an excuse to turn up the heat and wear bathing suits while watching shows on the oceans and listening to the Beach Boys, for instance.
-walking with or without children
-field trips every day of the week
-multiple bubble baths
-boardgames and puzzles
___
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Be kind to yourselves. Burnout isn’t pretty. And there’s no point in powering through it if you don’t have to. And you don’t have to if you’re homeschooling.
Laugh. Love. Loaf around. Listen. The learning will happen.
Permission is hereby granted to remember that we’re humans and not robots. Move with the flow. If the flow is blocked, unblock it.
Handmade Homeschool 
Was that comment about Beach Boys and bathing suits from personal experience?
I love this, Sarah.
It’s permission to “be” in the moment, whatever that looks like. And to let go of those heavy shoulds we drag around our lives.
It’s playful and light. Definitely where I’m headed.
Wonderful. Thank you. 🙂
hmm.. now where is that bathing suit…
Again, thanks. Really.
HI Sarah! I love it, too! Thanks for the permission, I needed that! I’m powering through a book right now (Snow Flower and the Secret Fan) for the ladies book club at church, and I had to give myself permission to do that instead of the myriad other things I have on my plate! I should do it more often, I guess! 🙂 Except I was up in the middle of the night reading!
I so agree! We have been doing the train set, board games, painting, story books and doll houses all week.
Thanks for this. We just read a book or two today and then baked! I’m verging on burn out right now and I need to slow down and just be. My body is telling me too!
Sounds like march if you ask me!
Thank you for a wonderful post. I am feeling completely burnt out these days. This is our first year homeschooling and now we are moving to a new state this summer (from Michigan to Idaho). It’s all been very stressful so we have taken this week off and it’s been nice. Time to recharge so we can start having fun again. Thanks Sarah.
I got a flash of inspiration (many, actually) and cleared space in my storage room today, to offload stuff from my craft room, to make room to hang a whiteboard in the craft room, to give me a place to diagram ideas, to give me a way to plan for more playful and inspiring activities in my daily schedule.
I got everything done except actually screwing the board to the wall; that’ll get done soon. I’ve been bursting with ideas lately, so having a place to brainstorm (and photograph) and brainstorm (and photograph) seems like an awesome support.
I find I do the best “housework” when the point is play and it’s spontaneous inspiration I’m chasing.
I took a break from studying business books, to take my cats my cats for a romp in the yard in the sunshine. Meow!
They’ve gotten good with harness+leash, and one enjoyed the sunshine on the porch while the other one walked laps around the house with me, exploring all the while. Did my heart good, and theirs – I’ll have two satisfied calm kitties for the rest of the day indoors. We are all loving this fresh sunshine… and I do believe my mind is clearer for books now too!
Thanks. I needed that. 🙂
Ditto…
It’s so odd when you turn around and look behind you, to see what on earth has been pushing you forward all this time. Whose is the voice that tells you you’re not doing enough? Does it come from our ‘measurable outcomes’ society? Our gain-based moral code? Decades of misguided post-feminism?
Anyway, excellent post. It’s a manifesto of sorts for my entire philosophy, of child-raising and child-enlightening.
This is a wonderful post! I was truly moved.
I read your posts in google reader so don’t make it out to comment a lot. I enjoy your posts a lot. In fact, I have a tag in my reader named “Read this when Sad” and this post plus another are in there. Thank you for this.
Phew!
Thank you.
Thanks for this. I have been homeschooling for 4 years now and am beginning to find patterns within our learning. It is good to be able to observe life while living it. So many people do one or the other these days.
Thank you for this!
well it’s a good thing i have permission now!:)