::sigh:: (Week 5)

This week marks the beginning of our time to really get all of our work done.  The first several weeks, we've been trying to hit all the subjects but not necessarily complete all of our work.  That fantasy ended this week.

Tuesday was dreadful.  We got started late, took a longer lunch than expected, and didn't finish until 4pm.  And at 4pm, we weren't even done with all of our work.  Jack was in the middle of a grammar lesson and still had to tackle latin.  Claire still needed to do a reading lesson with me.  Cade was blessedly finished.

But a neighborhood boy came calling for Jack at 4pm, and I didn't have the heart to say, "NO!  We're still doing school!"  I mean, who still does school after 4pm???  Apparently we do.

There were a couple of factors that led to us working late in the day on Tuesday. The late start was one.  Taking a longer lunch for me to rest was one factor.  But the fact that there are a lot of subjects my kids can't/won't do by themselves means that they have to wait for me to work one-on-one with them.  There's only one of me.  And there's three of them.  So while the kids may get numerous breaks during the day (waiting for me to work one-on-one with them), I don't get many breaks.  And we end up doing school past 4pm.

Something's gotta give.  I'm exhausted.

Wednesday got started late (again).  I met with a friend at 8am for an hour and then the biweekly cleaning lady was here when I got home around 9:30.  So we didn't get started until 10:30 or so (it's hard to do school when someone is vacuuming around you).  And the boys had piano lessons at 1:45.  So we got 1/6th of our work done that day.

Thursday we got started on time.  Hallelujah!  And we got pretty much everything (except Latin -- easy to skip that) done.  And minimal tears, too!

Friday was great.  We were supposed to go on a field trip to the Heard Museum of Natural Science.  But it actually RAINED!  It RAINED!  Did you hear me?  It RAINED!  Because half of what we had planned to do at the museum happens outdoors, we rescheduled our field trip and did school instead.  BUT.  It was a very relaxed day of schooling.  We purposely did about half of our subjects and had a stress-free Friday.  It was really nice.  Wish all of our days could be like that!

A bright spot in the week was when I caught Cade helping Claire with some of her math homework.  She wasn't having a hard time per se with her work.  I think Cade just wanted to feel helpful (and not do his own work).

Another bright spot is the Bible study with which we start our day.  It's called Grapevine and we are currently studying the Old Testament.  The schtick of Grapevine is "stick figuring through the Bible."  Below is an example of the stick figuring.  We read Scripture, and then the kids will copy the simple stick figure drawing(s) I draw on the dry erase board.  Wednesday morning we read about Cain and Abel in Genesis.  Abel is on the left, happy that he is bringing God the best of what he has to sacrifice to God.  Cain is on the right, grumpy, and he's not bringing God his best offering. 

When people stop and ask me how homeschooling is going, I tell them it depends on the day.  More realistically, my answer depends on the hour in question.  Some hours are good.  Some are not so good.  But overall, the kids are learning stuff, and I'm enjoying watching them struggle through difficult subjects and seeing the light bulbs turn on.