Back to College Full Time After 22 Years

Invest in a large monthly desktop calendar. Once you get your syllabus, write down when all your assignements are due. I would use this to add on family events and appointments, as well as meal planning. This will give you a bird's eye view of your life the next few months on what you can commit to and what you can't.

Meal plan for the entire semester. For dinner, I rotate beef, pork, chicken, 2 fish/seafood, 3S (soup,salad,sandwhiches) and junk food night a week. I suggest these type of cookbooks: 6 Ingredients or Less, Betty Crocker Basics, Crockpot Recipes. Write down the book and page number for each recipe you want to use each day. So each day, instead of asking waht's for dinner, you can just look at your calendar, get the correct book, turn to the page and dinner is half done! This will also help with your shopping list.

Go with paper goods. You can recycle them if you are worried about the environment.

I got used to my laundry room turning into my personal wardrobe. While I hate pulling out clothes directly from the dryer for somethign to wear, I did keep stacks of clothes on the work table in there and kept a good supply of hangers on the rod.

Getting up before everyone else can give you an extra hour or 2 of study time. But it sounds like your girls are in school full time so you shouldn't have to worry about lack of study time.

Take breaks, esp if you ahve to write alot of papers. If I stare at a computer screen too long, my eyes start crossing. Either walk around the block or do a minute of jumping jacks or sit ups to get the brain juice flowing again.

As for housework, I limited myself to 30 mins a day. Anything that took longer than that, it had to wait. While this may not seem like alot of time to manage a house, you would be suprised the kind of housework I got done in 30 mins. I invested in alot of Swiffer dusters. I keep a container of wipes and disposable toilet pads in each bathroom for quick cleaning.

gl and congrats on taking a step in a great direction of your life!

Congrats on going back to school! :)
I started taking classes again last year, to work towards a nursing degree - it is definitely a challenge to balance it all, but it absolutely can be done. You just have to plan very well - know when all of your tests/papers/assignments are due, and try to do as much as you can ahead of time. I also take advantage of small pieces of time to get things done - an hour after the boys get on the bus and before the baby wakes up, two hours during her nap, maybe an hour when my hubby gets home from work, a few hours after the kids go to bed. i found that some things I was able to do with them in the same room - I do school work on the computer (i had 2 online classes last semester), while they play the wii or board games, etc.

Congrats again & good luck - its not easy, but it does feel really great to work toward something that is for YOU, because we all do so much for everyone else :)

sending hugs!
~T.

Congratulations!!
I went back for my master's and while full-time is only 9 hours - working full time all day, caring for kids all evening and morning and weekends led to a lot of studying/research/reading/paperwork occuring between 9 pm and midnight. It was a very challenging juggle, but I just had to commit and find time to make it my priority.
I also called on my sister to take the kids home after church on Sundays so I could get some work done (or sleep - LOL!).
If you are not working full time, I'd treat your classes just like your job. Maybe even find an in-home sitter to keep kids occupied. BUT if your kids are in school - you have a great opportunity of using that time to study yourself.
Be sure to cut yourself some slack too - when it comes to housework, laundry, etc. If it gets done - great. If not, it will tomorrow:)

Depends on how many hours you take. I was taking 18 to 21 hours a semester while working full time, there was no balance, there couldn't be balance. It was a suck it up kind of moment for our whole family.

I was lucky because my older two were16 and 18 so they took over the parent role for the four years. Good news, I apparently raised them right because they are amazing parents. :)

My family was none the worse for wear so I guess I am saying keep and eye on them but if you don't get balance don't let it be a new thing to beat yourself up for.

Crazy? What you are doing is absolutely awesome and I admire you for having the guts to go back. I've considered going back for the past several years, but I get scared just thinking about it. My kids are little and a handful. The thought of studying, doing homework and taking care of them, steers me away from going back to school even though I loved going to school. If your daughters are in high school, they should fully support and understand the commitment it takes to study and do the work; that being said, you are setting a wonderful example for them of lifelong learning.

That is wonderful! I went back after my youngest started kinder. I arranged my schedule to work with their school schedule. This worked for a couple of years. When you get into your high level classes, they aren't offered as often so you have to really plan. My Senior year, I had to take a night class and my hubby was traveling. I have someone on standby to come over and watch them. Also, I had to take them with me sometimes. I was a non-traditional student and my professors were very accomodating. Some let the kids in the class. Once, one asked a question and my daughter raised her hand! She gave the right answer!!!!

I turned my guest room into my study room. The whole family helped. The kids would come in and we would all do our homework. One time, I was watching tv and my son asked if I had finished my homework and I said not yet. He walked over to the tv and turned it off!! He said "you can't watch tv until ALL your homework is done". Wow! Who knew he was actually listening to me!!! He was in 2nd or 3rd grade at the time.

When I graduated, my family was there. Yes, you bet I walked! We worked VERY hard for that degree! The cheers they gave me had the President of the University asking me who that was, I proudly said "my family". My daughter said she was going to college the easy way. Out of high school with no family! She graduates in May!

Make it a family event. They will be so proud of you! Mine saw that we valued education and worked really hard to achieve the degree. Again, Good for you!!!!

I enrolled in college for my 30th birthday present to myself. It's a lot, lot, LOT of work, but I feel so accomplished now that I'm halfway done with my second degree. I feel like I'm finally evolving into the person I was meant to be and it feels so wonderful. Yes, I'm tired at the end of the day and there are plenty of days where my house is no where near how I'd like it to look. But you know, the homework has a time constraint, the kids are only young once, saying I love you and spending time talking to my husband is vital every day. Housework and dust bunnies will still be there the next day, pretty much unchanged. I do work fulltime and have 3 children, ages 8, 9, and 18. They each help out a pretty decent amount, and my husband does also on the 4 days a month he's home. Other than that, I make sure the kitchen and bath are clean. The rest will wait, lol.

I budgeted my time so that I could do my homework after the kiddo's were in bed. I stayed up late and worked in the quiet of my home. It was nice and since the kiddo's were in school I could take a short nap the next day. I got used to the new schedule and was able to do very well in class.

The best tip I learned from a "professional" student, she had about 4 degrees, was to figure out the professors style, what they focus on, what their areas of interest were in, how they liked test questions to be answered.

This actually came into play when I was going to OU, one professor kept giving me failing grades on the assignments and I had no idea why. I took all my stuff from the class to my friend and she read them over. She said I had answered the questions correctly. She started asking me questions about what the teacher chatted about, what kinds of analogies he used when making a point. I told her he was a huge sports buff. His best friends were the football coaches and some of the other sports coaches. He told women in clubs when he gave them his number (it was to the sports department at OU) that he worked there, not that he worked in the communications department but alluded to working as a coach in the football department. If he wanted to appear to be scholarly he would tell them he was a Professor of Communications at the University of Oklahoma...he had it down pat. If he wanted them to think he was a cool jock he gave them one number and acted out one persona and then if he wanted them to think he was super intelligent he acted out a different persona.

My friend told me to start using sports terms in my papers and to use them in my test answers. I was at a loss and she helped me by telling me some analogies that the professor had used could be switched around and made to appear different.

I started making straight "A"'s after that. I used that lesson for the rest of my college days and came out with nearly a 4.0 GPA. I still knew the information but used the right phrases and examples and the teacher could understand it instantly.

It's just a bit of advice and I hope it can be of use to you. Good luck in school.

Congratulations! That 1st step is the hardest! By this time next year you will be an old pro. I did it and loved every minute of it. Don't let your age scare you. The older students are the most successful. You bring a discipline, life experience and understanding that 19 yr olds dont have.

My advice - organization and discipline. Set daily, weekly goals based on the syllabus and create a schedule and plan to achieve them. FInd a quiet workspace free of distractions. Engage all your senses in the learning process. Read it, write it, sing it, visualize it, listen to it on audio tape.

Buy used books but look for ones that are not annotated. It's a myth that books that are alreadyhighlighted are helpful. They are not. Each prof emphasizes differant points and it will just be confusing. The act of highlightiing it yourself is part of the learning process.

Also, the semester has a flow to it. It will start off very slow and simple, almost elementary and then about 3 to 4 wks in, it takes off like a rocket, gets extremely hectic at midterm, then papers are due and then finals. Take advantage of that slow start to get ahead of the game. All the profs seem to want to throw tests at you during the same wk. Look ahead in the syllabus at the required reading, lab hours, and papers that will be due. Get a jump on those things by starting your research early and knocking out as much reading as possible. Complete any little assignments in a rough draft folder so that when the time comes, you just have to tweak it a little with notes from class and new insights you learned, but the bones of the assignment will already be done. If you take the classes as they come, you will be on a crazy rollercoaster of stress! Take control early.