So hysterical. Here is a link to the skit if you've never seen it. Do me a favor and go watch it if you've never seen it. Heck. Even if you've seen it before, go watch it. It's classic.)
Anyway, what I'm about to say has absolutely nothing to do with that skit. Nothing. Get your mind back on this blog. Hello? Hello?!?
OK. You're back. Whew. Thought I lost you to Chris Farley's sweet moves. So why are we working for the weekend? Because there's NO SCHOOL NEXT WEEK! Yep, I made the schedule, and we ain't doin' school next week. Yippee for fall break!
MONDAY CC this week was a little different. One of the kids' tutors felt very sick after she got to CC, and so I stepped in for her at the last minute. Of course this meant that I was completely unfamiliar with the material I was presenting to the kids. But we muddled through (the tutor was still in the room with the class and was able to show me hand motions from the back of the room). Leading a class is much harder than it looks. It's easy to be an armchair tutor and think of how you would teach the class if you were leading it. But man, oh man. When you're up there, it's a whole different ball of wax. Plus, the class I tutored this week consists of 5, 6 and 7 year olds (mostly boys). They don't exactly sit still for you.
I'm beginning to realize the older I get that I am an introvert. This doesn't mean that I'm a wallflower and incredibly shy. It means that I need downtime (away from people) to recharge my battery. (Scott, on the other hand, is a total extrovert. He gets charged up by being with lots of people.)
After leading the morning class (from approx 9:30-12:00), having lunch in a loud-ish lunch room with my kids and the rest of CC for an hour, and then sitting in a two-hour let's-cram-your-brain-with-all-things-grammar class, I was exhausted by 3pm on Monday. If I didn't like CC and the things we (my kids and I) are learning so much, I'd be very tempted to quit and save the money.
TUESDAY Not much to say about this day. We started a little late (my fault -- I was sleepy in the morning) but managed to get caught up later in the morning. It was a very average day. Things weren't great, but they weren't horrible either.
WEDNESDAY We actually started on time Tuesday! And it felt GOOD. Unfortunately, it was also the day that the biweekly cleaning lady comes to clean the upstairs. So we were a little disrupted by her (which is fine, because I'm just thankful the upstairs gets cleaned!). We are working on finding someone who can clean on Mondays since the kids and I are gone almost the entire day at CC.
By lunchtime, though, many mildly irritating kid things happened to make for a hugely irritated mommy. :( No way was I going to treat my kids kindly when I was in that kind of mood. So school was pretty much done at that point.
A high point of Wednesday was Jack reading (and finishing!) a book. He is a very reluctant reader. Did I mention that he is reluctant? It seems that, if a book is too thick or has too many words on a page, Jack will refuse to read it. While the book Jack read on Wednesday was by no means a large book, it was a chapter book that was fairly lengthy. And what's more, he enjoyed it. Yea Jack!
A kind of scary moment also happened on Wednesday. I was sitting out side my friend's house while the boys had their piano lessons. I received a call from my mom, and she asked when I thought I'd be home. Come to find out, my mom wasn't feeling well and needed to go to the ER. But, my mom being extremely stubborn, she insisted I take her to the nearby fire station for them to do an EKG and monitor her heart (which was palpitating). Against my better judgement, I took her to the fire station. The picture below is of the kids while we were waiting for her to be checked out at the fire station. I was very proud of them; they behaved extremely well. I had to leave them when we first got to the station so that I could walk my mom back to the ambulance. When I came back to the car, after the paramedics took my mom into the ambulance, the kids were reading library books out of the book bag (one of the errands I was going to run was to the library) quietly. I was floored. I half expected them to be pulling each others' hair and having Smackdown 2013 in the back of the van.
Mom is fine; nothing showed up on the EKG at the fire station. Later that day, she went to the doctor to have blood work done, and she already had an echo-cardiogram scheduled for Friday (she's under the care of a cardiologist already). She's following up with her doctors to see if her medicine needs to be adjusted or if there's something else going on.
THURSDAY Thursday was swell: great attitudes, everyone quietly working on their stuff, and minimal squabbling. Makes a mom so happy! (Claire is "hiding" behind the white privacy folder so she didn't have to look at Jack)
FRIDAY Last day of the week. Woot woot! Good attitudes abounded. And we were even ahead of schedule, working diligently and getting things done (with excellence) quickly.
Scott asked me some State-of-the-Homeschool type questions this week, and it made me reflect on the bigger picture. How have attitudes changed in the 7 weeks that we've been homeschooling? Are we in a routine? Would I still do this (homeschooling), knowing what I know now, again?
Attitudes, for the most part, have improved. There are days, and there are moments, where that's not true. But we are all allowed to have those moments, right? Even as adults, we have bad days. Days where we don't wanna do what we need to do. As long as those moments don't last too long and affect other people, I'm ok with that. The kiddo that was having the hardest time controlling their attitude has improved quite a bit. So success!
We have established a routine. I've had to change the schedule up several times ("Mom, I don't want to do math first thing in the morning anymore."), but we still aim to start school at the same time every day, have snack and lunch times about the same time every day, etc. We always start out with Bible study time to get the day started off the right way and to reflect our priorities as a family. The kids know not to ask about playing video games or TV until after everyone has finished school. The kids also know what to expect from each day and what is expected from them.
Yes, I would still do this thing (homeschooling), knowing what I know now. Let me tell you: it's tough. Homeschooling is tough. It's humbling, it's a sacrifice, it's exhausting. But what in life that is of great value is not a struggle? Nothing! If it's valuable, chances are 99.9% that there will be some struggle and effort involved. While I try not to act like a martyr, I recognize the struggles, and (sometimes) embrace them. This is my life now. This is part of who I am. I don't have the "leisure time" I did last year when the kids were in public school. I no longer have the luxury of meeting friends for lunch, reading a book, or running errands during the day. Homeschooling is much like a paid job (without the pay, unfortunately).
1 comment:
I've often considered leaving Trip at the firestation under the Baby Moses law but I had no idea I could drop my mom off there too!
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