If you have been homeschooling for any amount of time, you know that rough days are part of the package.  They are gonna happen, period.  You will oversleep, the kids won't want to get up, the phone won't stop ringing (and you won't stop answering it),  bad attitudes will reign (yours and theirs), there will be sickness, boredom, restlessness,  the cat will throw up on the rug, sisters will fight like...sisters (that want to throttle eachother), and your 6th grader will still insist on reading aloud as though there were no such thing as puctuation.  Just roll right on past those commas and periods. Your second grader will be unable to retain the fact that 6+4 is the same as 4+6 and that looking at the first letter of a word and running down a list of words that begin with that letter is not an acceptable speed reading method.  That new curriculum you just spent beaucoup bucks on hasn't made history any more thrilling than the $5 reading guide you already had.  Assignments that should have been completed by lunch are dragged out til their presence on the table is threating to push back dinner til who knows when?  And oh yeah, what is for dinner anyhow?  You will wonder some days, in desperation,  if there are any redeeming qualities about a Sponegebob marathon that you could count for something, because it's raining,  and you are fresh out of creative ideas to keep them occupied.

Sometimes our family experiences all of these things, or similar things, in the same week, and more often in the same day.  They are a part of homeschooling that cannot be separated, because they are intregal to life.  Homeschooling settles us squarely in the middle of life and the real world, which some insist we are avoiding.  Ah, would that we could,  avoid the annoyances of life and the real world.  But no,  as aggravating as all of the above can be, I would not really want to skip right over these trials and frustrations.  How much sweeter they make the good days (and moments). And honestly there are few days that are completely trial ridden or completely uptopian...for that is not how the real world operates. Days on end with no challenges or frustrating moments would indeed ill prepare anyone for life in the real world.  Being at home all day with children, teaching them everything from math to manners, grammar to Greek,  writing to worshipping does not lend itself to a constant  idyllic existence. But that isn't really the goal anyhow.  At least it's not our goal.

A few of my favorite homeschooling moments from today:

Letting the girls sleep in after a later than usual bedtime last night.  Late bedtimes and sleeping in are not good options when you are in government school.

My 7 year old daughter and I taking a walk to identify leaves while her older sister had her piano lesson.  Me, carefully trying to identify trees by their leaves and bark and choosing a sample leaf from each tree; while 7 year old runs wildly from tree to tree grabbing handfuls of colored leaves, presenting them joyfully to me to "take home for our clection"! (collection)

My 11 year old daughter begging me to read a chapter aloud with her in science (A Beka, yes!  We have a winner!) and learning more than we ever thought we could or should about domesticated and wild canines.  Cuddled up on the couch the whole time. Practicing for an old fashioned spelling bee in an 1880's one room schoolhouse in November.

Same 11 year old daughter reading to 7 year old from a chapter book based on a kid's movie, after I refused. (OK-I was driving and even if I wasn't I detest children's books based on Disney or Pixar movies, although I often like the movies)  11 year old patiently reading aloud 3 chapters of this book, while little sister sits in the back seat talking to her rubber snakes and lizards, having quit listening after the first 5 minutes.

The excitement and pride of an emerging reader who is finally starting to "get it".  Smiles, hugs, great job stickers, and requests by the new reader to "read it to you again, Mommy"!

Reading aloud a letter written by 11 year old (as a writing assignment) demanding "my monkey back"! when she really meant to demand her "money" back!  :~) from an errant mail order book company.  Laughing uproariously with her over it. "I want my MONKEY back"!!

Going to the playground to meet friends only to be stood up (they forgot, it happens :~) and having a great time just playing together. Pretending to eat cedar chips at 7 year olds "fast food restaurant" under the slide.

Snuggled on the couch, praying for Poppy (who just had his gallbladder out) and thanking God that he is home now and all better,  and for all of our family.  Thanking God for the rain, the autumn, our many friends, and all of his blessings, which could never be completely listed, including sharing our days, the good parts and the hard parts. 

So yes, I love homeschooling today for all these reasons and tomorrow I will love it for the same reasons and a bunch of new ones too.  It will also make me crazy for reasons new and old.  That's life!