It was not a splenderifically productive schoolday for us today.  I suppose that being Monday after a 4-day birthday weekend didn't help, nor did the fact that we are still struggling to get into the routine and flow of our new "homeschool year".  Which would be a little easier if we would actually put the "home" into "homeschool" a little more.  Monday is one of the few days --and beginning next week, the only day-- in our school week that we are not running to some good activity or another.  (And no, I don't like all the running, but that's how it is this fall.)  So it is supposed to be a good, productive day for schoolwork.

Yeah.

I had to leave the house at 8 to take Cheez to a doctor appointment.  I made sure I had the kids' math ready and checklists printed out and instructions written.  Huz would come in at some point to make sure they got up and got going on things.  I figured they could get their morning routines finished, eat breakfast, and at least get started on schoolwork and piano practice before I got home at 10:15-ish.  Because I am delusional like that.

Yeah.

I walked in the door at 10:09 and they were in their pajamas finishing up their Before Breakfast Things.  "We got distracted," they said, and so went the day.

I am trying to let the kids' distractedness and dawdling and lack of diligence be their problem and not mine.  Today it was definitely a problem.  Total work completed by Spaz over the next six hours:  (1) Math (2) Piano practice (3) Spiffing up half-bathroom.  In six hours, people.  Fuzz did a little better.

Huz and I both had talks with Spaz about his need to take responsibilty for his work.  Considering all the outside activities he has going on right now (football, drama, piano, soccer, Friday classes), I have cut his current "workload" down to the essentials plus a little extra.  But that leaves me very little wiggle room for caving being merciful when things don't get done.  If it has to be pushed to the next day, it gets piled on top of the next day's work.  And if the next day happens to be a "short" day because we have an afternoon activity or lesson, well then, the work accumulates.  This is what happened last week.  And this week was off to an even worse start.

The day was not a total loss, however.  For one thing, I kept my cool and did not nag or scold or lose my temper.  Go, me.  For another, I had some holds come in at the library, and it was a beautiful day to pick them up on my bike.  (The library is less than a mile away, so I try not to drive there when the weather is decent.)  The Tagalong was still hooked up from the last ride, so I invited Fuzz to come along even though she too was behind in her schoolwork.  Because she is still "little", I am trying not let schoolwork preclude opportunities like a bike ride to the library on a cool September day.  I did tell her I wasn't going to "cancel" any schoolwork because of the bike ride, which I would normally have done, but she happily agreed to come anyway.  So I grabbed my backpack and we bid adieu to Spaz, who was finally getting started on his math.  (It was 2 pm by this time, and so far the only things checked off his list were piano & Bible reading.)

"Oh, can you see if you can find some books on Native American wars & weapons?" he asked.  That fit right in with our history for the week, so I readily agreed.  Of course, "some" would inevitably turn into "lots".  So much for riding home with 5 thin books in a backpack.

After huffing and puffing all the way home with my 40-pound backpack, I took it to the bathroom scale to weigh it.  22 pounds.  Okay, well, it felt like 40.  Some of it was uphill, you know.

Spaz managed to finish his math and do his chore before four o'clock, and then, with much work still undone, it was time to get ready for his first football game of the season.  We had to have him at the field at 5 pm, and with the game not starting til 6, I grabbed one of the books I'd picked up to read to Fuzz in the truck while we waited.  History reading, check.  Whatever works.

Let's not talk about the game.  It was 42-12 and we didn't get the 42; 'nuff said.  Let's talk instead about after the game.  The After the Game in which the normally indulgent Huz amazingly tells Spaz that he may not watch any Monday Night Football because he was not diligent in getting his work done today, and in which the normally argumentative Spaz amazingly says, "Okay Dad", and in which I fall over backwards in a dead faint and have to be scraped up off the floor.  And the After the Game in which Spaz decides to wind down for the night by doing some of the schoolwork he didn't get done, and does it.

So who needs ADD meds to focus when you can just play a good, rousing, tiring game of football?  And the day thus ended better than it began.  Now to see what tomorrow will hold...