Not Enough Time!

by Beverley Paine

Time is the only thing I'm short in life. I can lay the blame for that at my hand. I create my shortage of time by being unnecessarily busy.

Most of the time I need to drop whatever important thing I'm doing and simply give myself time to relax, to take it easy, to simply breathe. 

Time spent sitting with others chatting is often seen as time wasted, but if you are having an interesting conversation you are learning.

Time spent playing a game is often underrated as far as learning goes.

If there isn't a concrete product at the end we can hold up and say, see what I did today, we feel we haven't achieved much at all! Our sense of worth is too tied up in what we do, not who we are...

Time doing the chores together is often begrudged because it's work that's keeping us from our pleasures. Doing the chores together needs to be seen as one of our greatest pleasures because it's real work in the real world for real needs. We shouldn't need monetary recognition for doing this important work: it is the daily chores that keep us alive and healthy. That's reward enough.

We all do too much, as parents and home educators. And we ask our children to do too much.

We work and play too fast. Television, video and computer games engage the brain at an incredible pace. Maybe our children's brains haven't evolved to cope with that yet: I know mine hasn't!

Time. We all need more time to move more slowly through our lives.

When we take our time we have time to see what we really need to do right now in the here and now to be well, content, satisfied and happy.

And to give our time to others.