We started back homeschooling full time this week. It’s been pretty much like every first week back after any extended break. Painful. My children and I will never fit the mold of the homeschooling families on the cover of Homeschooling Today. My children are smart. They are funny. They are fun to be around. (Most of the time.) But they very much like to plan their own days and school seldom reaches even the top ten of things they would like to do. They are convinced that nobody except their quirky mother cares if they put capital letters at the beginning of sentences or end punctuation at the end of them. They are certain that spelling conventions are really just suggestions and that writing an essay is a form of torture devised by me.
It is not uncommon for my husband to come home and find me in a “state” at the end of the first week back to school. (And any break in excess of a single schoolweek results in a “first week back to school”) and this week was no different. This week he walked in on me grading an Introduction to Catholicism test. I was in quite the state and saying something like “And you people will learn how to spell ‘Eucharist’!! You are Catholic and you need to know how to spell it. I do not care if you think I am being picky…..”
He thinks I need a “Homeschool Linebacker”……There are days when it’s tempting…..
4 responses so far ↓
1 Ouiz // Aug 31, 2008 at 10:14 pm
Ah, when our well layed-out homeschooling plans meet the reality of what our children want to do, the result is never pretty…
… at least, not at my house! *grin*
And while I’d love to kid myself into thinking that they would know how to spell “Eucharist,” the sad fact is that — were I to ask them tomorrow — the results would just make me cry.
Love, love, LOVE the Terry Tate video. Can he come to my house next?
2 Sarah R. // Sep 1, 2008 at 5:46 am
You know, whenever I think “Oh, wow, we should homeschool,” I also laugh at myself. That’s just how it will be with us…(and see, I know we’ll be doing it eventually!). Thanks for the early morning laugh!
3 Tami // Sep 1, 2008 at 6:29 am
Well, at least you started the year. You might be picky, but you don’t procrastinate! I’ll be mulling over our planned curriculum on this last day of summer…let’s see: last year, it was “how to file an insurance claim after a housefire.” That one was pretty math intensive. This year, it’s “how to survive divorce.” We might not learn how to spell “Eucharist” this year, but, with God’s grace, we’ll learn what we need to make it through.
And hey, can I borrow the Linebacker? I’d like to introduce him to my soon to be ex-husband. Terry might be able to teach HIM a thing or two!
Tami, always looking for the silver lining!
4 Marie // Sep 1, 2008 at 7:39 pm
And here I was telling myself that all the troubles starting up was because they are young and a few weeks off (we did an Olympic unit study) is a long time for them. When they were older it would be easier to get back on schedule.
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