Fellow Mothers/Students

[Clarity]

I'm going to say something here that is potentially controversial but......why don't they make audio textbooks readily available?
I feel ridiculous saying that I'm in a graduate program and I want an audio textbook so I don't have to read but I'm SO FREAKING BUSY that I struggle to find the time to read everything that's required of me in the time I have allotted.

On the other hand, I have time to listen and learn on 2, 20 minute commutes daily. I have time walking across campus on my lunch hour or to a meeting, I have time while folding laundry, I have time while cooking dinner. I LOVE to read. I'm not a slacker. I'm a mom who is working 40hrs a week, taking 12 semester hours of grad level courses, raising 2 kids and taking care of a home. I'm barely managing - and only with bunches of help from dh. In fact, I'm sitting here at the office at 7p.m. reading a chapter in my developmental psych book that I would have soaked right up on my drive home from work/school.

How do you all manage to find the time to read!?!

[niccig]

I don't know. Like you I could use my 35 min commute that way too.

It depends on the class how much I read. Some classes I use the book more as reference and just check what I didn't understand in class. Some I read the whole chapter. I've had some professors before and they never ever ask something that is in the book that they didn't mention, so I don't read the whole chapter.

I just can't read it all and stay on top of everything.

[Clarity]

Nicci, I'm trying to figure out how to do homework (I have 3 large writing assignments on deck) with the kids in the house too, but that's challenging. During the summer crunch, I had dh take them outside, to the park, etc. to keep busy but dh is back teaching off summer break and it's just harder to manage. How do you do it?

[niccig]

Nicci, I'm trying to figure out how to do homework (I have 3 large writing assignments on deck) with the kids in the house too, but that's challenging. During the summer crunch, I had dh take them outside, to the park, etc. to keep busy but dh is back teaching off summer break and it's just harder to manage. How do you do it?

I'm not working full-time. I am working for my old boss, but some weeks it's only 10 hours and it's all from home. I'm in classes 3 full-days a week, two days until 7pm. I have 2 days where I try to get stuff done, but those are also my days to be at DS's school, go to a work meeting.

Some of my classes are all study and quizzes - takes time, but I'm good at memorizing. I do feel that it's etch-a-sketch memory though.

Some classes have papers to write. I used to be a librarian, so I can at least do the research part quickly. Writing I procrastinate, so I have to kick myself to do it.

I cut corners at home, have a cleaner, make things easier on myself by saying no to things. I don't get much done on weekends for school, so I'll try to do house things and do most of school work during week and in evenings after ds goes to bed. Some nights I don't get much sleep. DH helps out at home too - and there's only one DC to chase after.

I can't do school work when DS is awake. So I use that time to do things together or to do house things like put laundry on. Today he has a playdate with a friend, ad I can get some of my paid work done.

What's killing me this semester is I have my own clients and it takes hours to prep for each client. I don't cut corners there.

I'm also trying to let the stress go. I always have a lot to do, it's beter to just look at what's in front of me and not freak out. And I'm trying to be less perfectionist. Done at 85% is better than nothing.

[niccig]

Isn't this your first semester being back at school?

It's my 4th. It took a little while to get into the groove of juggling this extra big ball. I know how I can deal with school and home. Eg. I do lots of prep before school starts for house supplies, hitting costco etc to minimize trips once I'm busy.

I also have a good group of study mates. We share information, help each other out. We've even divided up required reading material and each shared our summary - I still read the article, but it was easier with a summary already done by someone else and I just added as needed to.

We give each other notes, compare written work before handing it in - we still do our own work, but we double check for each other etc.

[mytwosons]

When I was in school, some guys used some software to convert the text to audio. sorry, I don't know the details, just that it's possible.

ETA: A google search would turn up the text from the coursepack or text and they would use that to convert

[Snow mom]

To answer the original question: there isn't a market for specialized textbooks on tape. There is barely a market for the books themselves. Also, some people learn well from listen whereas others really need to see the words or something else (I learn best from writing it down myself.) And so alas, no textbooks on tape. If you find you learn well from listening and want to utilize that time where you aren't doing something else (or multitask) have you considered recording lectures? Some of my undergrads do this. They ask the lecturer for permission to do an audio recording and put a small recorder at the front of the room. Then they use the audio files to review the lectures and study. Or you could record yourself talking about a subject you've just reviewed and listen to that?

In terms of getting it all done, there are 24 hours in the day and something has to slide somewhere. For some people this is sleep. For others it's the house or child rearing duties that could be done by someone else or just left undone for some period of time. Academics can slide too although you have to consider how you measure your goals and success. In grad school the goal should be to gain the knowledge you will need to succeed in the next goal of your life. You may or may not need specific grades as part of that success.

Here's my recent child rearing/ schooling breakdown: I don't do a lot of reading. There is often more assigned than what I feel I need for my own goals. I also have shifted a lot of typical "mommy duties" to poor daddy. We have a very different labor breakdown in my household than in many and that works for my family. My DD goes to preschool full time (daily 9-5:30 at least). I work during that time and sometimes in the evening after she goes to bed. I try to be efficient and prioritize based on my goals. I work weekends A LOT. Sometimes (like recently) I don't sleep much. I can't sustain not sleeping though so it's not something I'm likely to sacrifice. This has been long winded (maybe because I wrote it over a series of a dozen interruptions) but you'll figure out what balance is right for you and your family.

[rin]

You may want to contact your school's special student services department (or the equivalent) to see if they provide text-to-audio conversion services. One semester one of my students was blind, and she would have all of her textbooks converted to audio files for her by our university's special student services office. I don't know any of the details, but it's clearly possible!

[jjordan]

You may want to contact your school's special student services department (or the equivalent) to see if they provide text-to-audio conversion services. One semester one of my students was blind, and she would have all of her textbooks converted to audio files for her by our university's special student services office. I don't know any of the details, but it's clearly possible!

My understanding is that this kind of service is required to be provided for disabled students by the ADA (one of my friends used to work for our college converting texts for blind students here). However it is unlikely that the school will provide that service for a non-disabled student. (I suppose there is a chance that if you *happen* to be taking a class with a blind student and they are doing the conversion for the student anyway, then maybe they don't mind if other students share in the benefits. However I wonder if there might be copyright laws or whatever that limit how a school can distribute audio texts.)

[endlessheather]

I feel for ya! I'm currently in school and work part-time (~25 hours a week) with a 4 year old and 6 year old. Starting in the Spring I start my nursing classes/clinicals to get my BSN and will have 2 years of making a 45-hr long commute 5 days a week!!! I'm planning on recording as much of my lectures as possible to listen to on the drives. I could see how listening to the books might be easier than reading!!!

It's a real juggling act for sure!! Housework for us is done Saturday mornings and I try to keep the laundry going through the week so it doesn't pile up. Other than that it's one day at a time!