Homeschool Friday

I had a completely different post ready to post today, and I chickened out as I reread it and thought, “Hmmm…is that what I really think?”  It was one of those ramble-y ones that no one ever reads anyway.  This will be much more interesting… I hope.

I’ll be honest and say that homeschooling 2 is harder than 1.  I know…shocking.  I feel somedays like I’m an air traffic controller or the head chef at some high energy, big city kitchen.

Normally with the garden, I burn out at the end of July, or beginning of August.  I actually made it to September, but unfortunately, my burn out is coinciding with school starting.  I’m trying not to blame school for my burnt out feeling.

Walking in on scenes like this keep me going:

Before I start another rambling post, I’ll organize my thoughts into praises and prayers.

Praise: Silje is loving every subject.  She’s getting into the flow a bit more each day.  Her handwriting is improving very fast, and she’s asking very perceptive questions.  She’s using her time very efficiently as she’s caught on that doing things sloppy means she has to do them again, and getting done quickly means she has more free time.

Prayer: She’s seemed a bit sad lately.  I talked to her about it yesterday, and she said she’s sad she doesn’t have as much play time as she did this summer.  She said she misses just sitting and reading a book from cover to cover in one day.  Now she has to read only a few chapters when she can fit it in.  Actually, I’m pretty sure this is what students across the country are struggling with: lack of free time.  Really, she gets 3+ hours a day to herself when there are no chores, no requests, and no schoolwork.  I have no solution for her.  I think wanting to do a lot and not enough time to do it all is a hereditary problem that she will hopefully find a solution to and tell me about.  I’m trying to talk to her about it, though, and I think that’s helping a bit.

Praise: David’s reading is improving way faster than expected.  He’s even surprising himself.  He’s learning so much more than either of us expected him to in just a few days.  He’s starting to “accidentally” listen to the history lessons I do with Silje and is starting to ask questions or rush over to see a picture. 

Prayer: He asks to watch t.v. 5,687 times an hour, if that’s even possible.  Sometimes he mixes it up and asks for food, even if he had a snack 15 minutes earlier.  He doesn’t want to play outside, with his puzzles, Legos or anything.  He just wants t.v.  Saying “no” is getting really old.  I need to think of some way to get through to him that he cannot watch school in the mornings anymore.  Ever.  I may have to take it away completely again so he can relax.  I don’t know why I do this “t.v.” thing to myself.

He does great when he has my full attention.  However, Silje needs my attention too, and whenever I set him up with something and go to the other side of the table or room to help Silje with something, the “Can I watch t.v.?” non-stop questions start.  O, and he hates Stuart Little, the book I picked to read aloud to him.  I’m bribing him by saying we can watch the movie when we’re done with it.  The whining is getting worse too.  That’s normal for him when he’s adjusting to a big change.  I just wish the adjustment period was over.

On Tuesday we started choir for the 2 older kids.  They broke up the K-3rd grade choir and divided it into K-1st grade and 2nd-3rd grade choir.  So they each have their own choir this year.  What that really means is I have to spend 1 hour in the lobby with Elias and Solveig and one of the older kids instead of 30 minutes.  Sorry, that sounded whiny.  The upside is the kids really liked it, and I have some ideas of little activities to do next time with the little ones.  Next time I will be more prepared.

Hmmm…I think I should have written the prayers and then the praises.  Get the “bad news” over with and leave the good news taste in my mouth.  Things are really going well.  Even homeschool moms need to vent every now and then.

That is our week, how was yours?  I just thought I’d put another Linky on this post to see if anyone wants to link up this week.  If you want to put a link to this blog in your post, and then leave a link to your blog post about homeschooling, whether rambling and philosophical (just no bashing), or day by day synopsis, just leave the link in the box below.  It will make great reading for me this weekend when I should be folding laundry.