lifelong learning and staying inspired as a mother

Once I started back to work last year I realised something had been missing from my life.  As I tackled the steep learning curve of parenthood and became an at-home mum, I had put many of my interests on the backburner.  Unfortunately, many of these stayed on the backburner for so long that I forgot about them (and this blog that occupied a lot of my time, but focussed on my kids, didn’t help matters).  Returning to work awakened some of these interests.

Parenting is important and I don’t begrudge a moment spent connecting with my children.  But it is important for me that I continue learning and pursue the interests that I enjoy most.  So, in 2012, I intend to not only try and inspire my children through informal education but also pursue my own passions and interests with greater fervour.  This will give my children a model for lifelong learning and life balance.
Here are some of the ways I hope to be learning and pursuing my interests in 2012 …
  • reading books.  Since I have bought a Kindle, I’m already doing a lot more reading, and reading a wider variety of books, because I do not have to find time to go to the bookshop (which is not close to home) or wait for books to come in the mail.
  • making a ‘wish’’ list of things I’d love to do (I’ll share it in an upcoming post - here it is).
  • make time to keep up with the news
  • teach something to others.
  • start a big project.   I have not decided what this will be yet.  Large projects like Project Life, 365 photos, creating a piece of furniture from scratch would fit the bill for this one.  I’ve always wanted to create a piece of furniture from scratch
  • be whimsical with my free time.  I am going to try and just do some projects I find interesting, without worrying too much about what I will do with them later or how the project is important.
  • try something new every day.  Actually, this one is not too hard for me because my boys and my husband have very different interests to me and are always challenging me to do or find out about new things.
I intend to blog as I attempt to introduce some of these things into my life.  So, if you would like to follow along and see how it goes you can subscribe by RSS or email.  

Perhaps you would like to create your own lifelong learning project.  If you do leave a comment and let me know.

What are you learning?  What do you love to do with your free time?

Comments

valérie said…
Hi there! Your new plans sound interesting. How is it going so far? I haven't read any new post from you for a while, so I hope everything is ok. Just wanted to say I understand your need to focus again on your own interests too. Like you I've been on parental leave for quite a while and I'm soon returning to work, and I notice too, how focusing on our kiddos can lead us to put aside our own hobbies. No regrets ever, but it's good to be passionate about raising our kids AND about other things at the same time! Hope to read from you soon!
Moving Firm said…
You have taken a very good decision, be a parent is good and important, but you should not forget your own personality and interests, I wish you luck!
Jule said…
I've been doing something similar lately and I feel so much better. Good luck xx
AVecchioni said…
To carve out time for our own pursuits, one thing we used to do was have approximately an hour per day of "personal" time. This was a time when everyone did their own thing. We could be in the same room, but each person was working on their own project. Of course, there was no t.v. or loud music--just creative time.

Great post & ideas.