Yesterday, for some reason, was "let's challenge mom at every turn" day, with all 4 of the youngest kids, during school.

During Bible, they all did well, and it was a good lesson. After that, it was me repeating myself numerous times, with each direction, with each kid, in math, spelling & phonics. During science and reading, it did go well, however.

By the time lessons were over at 12:15, I was more than ready for lessons to be over. It was just one of "those" days.

We have a chalkboard in the schoolroom, and each night after the kids go to bed I erase the date, and write in tomorrow's date. Each morning I have one of the kids read the board outloud to me. For example, today it says:

Today is Tuesday, September 13, 2005. It sounds so... so... not that big of a deal, but it sure is. I did this all through the summer, and just by doing this 1 little thing each night, Samuel has begun to get a grasp of yesterday/tomorrow. By reading the board every morning, the kids have all really made progress on getting a better perspective of time. So it's helped quite a bit.

When Kev came home last night, he asked how the day went. I told him. He looked sort of bummed out, and had a talk with the kids about staying focused during school and listening to directions the first time.

When I got up this morning, I found this message on the chalkboard.

"Papa says: kids, pay attention to your teacher!"

Kev's at work today, so this was nice of him to leave for the kids, and also an encouragment for me.

I just cannot stress enough how important it is, if you're going to make the decision to homeschool your children, that it ought to be a joint decision between both parents. Both supporting each other, teaching, encouraging, and presenting a united front, for the children. It's been my own personal experience, and also in observation, that even though it's generally the mother who does the bulk of the teaching (and planning), that the father in the home that supports homeschooling - sure makes it alot easier on days like yesterday.

Kev's work schedule, combined with us only having 1 vehicle, makes for a situation that allows me only twice a week to get out and run errands. On those days, I go over the lesson plan for the day with him, then I'm outta here, and he's Mr. Teacher. He has his own teaching style - and his own strong suits in certain subjects, just as I have mine. I've privately told him, if he were my substitute teacher when I was a kid, he'd be the guy getting paper airplanes thrown at his back when he was at the chalkboard. :-) (we dont allow paper airplanes in our class though)

I know there are alot of homeschooling moms that don't have this kind of support. I also know there are alot of dads that wish their wives would be open to it - but they're not, and this creates a tension in families that just should not be there. With 5 kids still at home, and Ruth (2) being in the classroom this year, we have plenty of tension around here, I'm just grateful that this kind of conflict about homeschooling is not one of those things that cause it.

SDG,
me