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Aug. 25, 2009
Our Homeschool Days
For the fourth week of the "Not Back to School" Blog Hop, we're supposed to share about a typical day of school in our homes. We started our school year yesterday, and I'm purposely starting slowly. To be honest, when we started school yesterday, it seemed as if not a day had passed since we finished up in the summer. I don't mean that in a good way. All the little annoyances and problems didn't magically disappear over the summer.
- Sixth grade son still interrupts me constantly and has no concept of the distraction that he is causing by asking me questions willy-nilly.
- Fourth grade daughter still breaks into tears when her brothers' interruptions break her concentration for the hundredth time.
- Second grade son still can't focus on anything for more than a few seconds. I have to stay right on him, but then he gets annoyed and frustrated at my interference.
- Almost three year old can't find anything quiet to amuse herself while I'm teaching the others. She can play quietly any other time, but there's something about my busyness that makes her need to be with me and talk...or yell.
I honestly am at a loss as to what adjustments I need to make to help with these problems. I can make beautiful schedules on paper, but somehow things just won't happen the way they're supposed to. (I know it's only the second day. Things will get better, etc. but this is not the newness. This is our pattern.)
Part of me thinks that I need to let go of some of my ideals with how school should be done. One of the things I'm thinking about changing is our beginning. I want us to start our day TOGETHER with a short devotion and time of prayer. The problem with that is I've got 2 dawdlers who aren't ready to start, while my daughter is ready. She winds up doing nothing until mid-morning when she could reasonably be done with her seat work by then. Part of me says, yes, the starting together is important, you just need to keep pressing toward the goal, and not give up and they'll get it. Then the other part of me is asking why? Maybe things would work better if I allowed for the staggered start. We could have our devotion time at lunch when we are all together. Beginning the day in prayer points to our reliance on God, but if I'm frazzled and frustrated every morning when it's time for prayer, then what I'm teaching them?
You may wonder why I'm posting this. (Actually, I am wondering that too.) I'm going to post in the hope that it will provide encouragement to someone else. Even though this is our seventh year of homeschooling, we do not have everything figured out. We grow, we change, we make necessary adjustments. I will spend time in prayer over this, and many of the underlying issues with the children. I will seek my husband's opinion about our schedule. I will press on.
Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but [this] one thing [I do], forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
Phil. 3:13-14 
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