how I love thee.
Everyone cooperated perfectly. Not one child was grounded for rolling his eyes or sighing heavily.
Okay, it's possible that one child was grounded.
Later, Hypothetically Grounded Child discovered the rewards of finishing book work:
Cooking class with Dad.
Where were his brothers? Playing video games of course! (If they rolled their eyes during school, I didn't catch it.) All in all, I think that Tate got the better end of the deal. I mean, a cooking class with Dad and eating cucumbers...
that's living the dream, man!
(Sure he started out in a pickle, but...
What? Yeah, okay, that was bad.)
Here's to another day of chugging along the tracks to Routine Land. I think it'll take about two weeks to pull into the station, but the trip is part of the fun. :) Learning to work with what Life throws our way is an important life skill, so we'll just shift with the turns on the tracks.
Cheering you on & checking the fuel gauge,
Layla
Sometimes I wonder why we (a general term) tend to beat ourselves up about a "basics" day or a day that doesn't go as planned. I mean, really? In what non-existent world do we believe that a public school room is all-learning every minute of the day? And the dvd's they show are, 95% of the time, entertainment movies (non-educational) that would not be allowed in our home! (And yes, I know from six years of experience!)
ReplyDeleteEVERY classroom - public, private or homeschool - has their days and it sounds to me that for a "first day of school" you had an amazingly productive day!
By the way - I ♥ T's face in the first picture - there are no signs of eye-rolling in him at all! LOL
Amy, I completely agree. I think that home school moms tend to carry loads that are unnecessarily heavy. We place these burdens on ourselves, because we know that the education of our children falls on us...100%...and we don't want to mess up! Sure, we read the literature, polls, reports, and such about how home schoolers are not only doing "ok," but flourishing, yet we still have that pull within us to offer all that we can. We should (I should) offer ourselves the balance, grace, and creativity our schedules, children, and us as teachers/moms NEED to still have fun WHILE learning. Routine turns stale and suffocating when too rigid. I always enjoy hearing views from those who have worked within the public school system, as it provides much relief to learn that we are on track with our homeschooling endeavors. We don't want to set the bar unrealistically high, creating the opposite affect we were going for: A lack of excitement for learning. There has to be give and take. Grace. Patience.
DeleteAs far as T's face goes...LOL...we had just finished Bible lesson in that pic. He rarely has a sour attitude during Bible time. Math time...well, that's a WHOLE other thing! I think we had a total of three VERY animated eye-rolling moments. I warned him him after the first one that he would be grounded if I saw it again. It took him less than 10 seconds to show me again. Ha! Don't let that cutie pie face fool you, he's a stinker! But he did stop the eye rolling and had a rather pleasant evening. Pickles and all. :)