The end of an era

Over 25 years ago, I gave birth to my first child (and if you ask him he'd be sure to emphasize my first AND favorite!) and started this wonderful, full time job of Motherhood.  For over 25 years, my days have been primarily focused on child rearing.  Because we chose to homeschool the children, for the majority of those 25 years, I have been blessed (or cursed depending on what day - or even what hour - you asked me!) to have at least one child with me 24/7.

That is all about to change.   Two weeks from today, Sunshine and Sweetness will be attending a private, Christian school near our new home.  We are all very excited about this new opportunity.  Don't tell, but I may be even more excited than they are!

Whatever will I do with myself with 7 hours to myself every day?!  I'm not sure but am eagerly anticipating exploring all the possibilities!

You know you might be raising seasoned travellers.....

When you encounter this math situation.

Today as I was correcting Sunshine's math, I was surprised at her incorrect answer on one.   She said 3pm, the answer key said 4:30pm.  "Not the first time the answer key has been wrong," I thought so I did some digging...

The math problem:

If it takes Kimberly 1-1/2 hours to get to the airport and park her car, what time does she need to leave if her plane leaves at 6 pm?

Her response to their "correct" answer?

"Well that doesn't leave time for traffic, checking your bags or security!"

With deepest apologies to Clementine

In the schoolroom, in the kitchen
in ev'ry cranny and nook
I have searched high and low
for this rotten missing book

Oh my darling, oh my darling
Oh my darling, missing book
Are you lost and gone forever,
next years Science lapbook book.

One for Sunshine, one for Sweetness
You were part of a pair
I splurged a little just to have you
To give me prep time to spare

Oh my darling, oh my darling
Oh my darling, missing book
Are you lost and gone forever,
next years Science lapbook book.

Have a new one in online cart
will you show up if I buy it?
Its a showdown waiting and
Daring me to order and hit submit?

Oh my darling, oh my darling
Oh my darling, missing book
Are you lost and gone forever,
next years Science lapbook book

My favorite part of the school year

The girls wake cheerfully, make their beds in their straightened room, get dressed, do their morning chores and have a healthy breakfast and are ready to start school right on time.

Everyone knows where everything is and comes to the table with everything she needs and a good attitude, ready to work diligently.

I am well prepared with an organized lesson plan for the day using the best curriculum we've ever used and all of us are eager and ready to put in a good day's work.  The girls do their work without difficulty, and I am an excellent teacher, patiently and diligently explaining everything in such a way that they understand.

We are done by lunch time and have the afternoon to pursue hobbies, climb trees, read books and stay on top of housework and on special days have play dates with friends.

You must be wondering how I've managed to pull all of this off this year. I'm sure you're thinking, after 16 years of this, she's really got this under control and knows what she's doing.  Perhaps she can teach me how to have such an ideal homeschool in our home.

I'll let you in on my little secret:  This is my favorite part of the school year because this is the part of the school year, that I'm planning NEXT year and envisioning it.

Its a very pleasant reality, please do not disturb.  September will come soon enough.

Unexpected school holiday

I'm sure you've heard of school being called due to snow, teacher strikes, inclement weather, maintenance issues and various other assorted reasons.  I bet I have one you haven't heard of...school called on account of hormones.

Yep, you read that right...on account of hormones.  Its a first for me too.  However, after morning devotions, a brownie and Nutella for breakfast, a retail therapy break involving 3 pairs of boots, 3 dresses, 3 pairs of leggings, and 2 pairs of tights followed by more brownie and Nutella for lunch eaten while watching the latest episode of Downton Abbey did nothing to appease the beast, this mama decided to call it a day after one math lesson and a half finished English test (completed in the car on the way to retail therapy no less).

It's no secret I'm entering those years, and I have two daughters who appear to be approaching those years at the other end of the spectrum rather early.  Yesterday, it seems as if it was all clashing together at once in one hormonal apocalypse.   It was just too much to handle.

You may say what you want about the evils of Facebook but yesterday, I'd like to think it saved my daughters.  No, not because I spent the day playing on it distracting myself, but because of a quote I read there last week which made me realize, calling it a day was the wisest course of action.

That quote:  Be careful how you speak to your children, one day it will become their inner voice. (I googled it and found it is attributed to Peggy O'Mara.)

I've been thinking a lot about that lately, unfortunately, too often, AFTER I've already spoken, but I am trying more.  (My apologies to Clone, Swan and Frog for their inner voices!)  Realizing pushing through just to say we got our schoolwork done,  was just not worth the risk and we called it a day with little done.

It means today will be way more packed as a result but that's okay.  If I prevented just one negative inner voice by my decision, a longer school day today is a very small price to pay.

Thus ends another summer fantasy of the homeschool mom

Well its the last official day of summer vacation.  Backpacks are packed, school uniforms laid out.  Lunches will be packed later.  The girls' tutorial and our official school year begin tomorrow.

At the beginning of summer vacation, a mere 14 weeks ago, I came up with a summer school plan.  I prepared 21 math lessons, 21 dictation exercises, planned to have them read aloud 28 times from 2 chapter books, and learn all 26 capital letters in cursive.

15 years of homeschooling and about 10 years of similar goals. So how did I do?

Well, we did 14 math lessons, 12 dictation exercises, and learned 22 capital letters in cursive. We did not finish a single chapter book, and changed our choices no less than 3 times each so finally gave up and just started getting books from the library and using them.  We didn't record our readings after that, but I am sure that in that one goal, we did succeed.

While we did not check off all the little boxes (and after so many years of this repeated fantasy, I would have been shocked if I ACTUALLY did it all) we did have a great educational summer anyway.  Sweetness and Sunshine learned to ride bikes without training wheels, and learned about (and experienced) an earthquake, a hurricane, and a variety of creepy crawlies found in our backyard.  Frog learned about bee stings, allergy shots and how to fly a plane.  Clone learned about broken bones...and patience.  Swan learned about using her gifts and talents to minister to others locally.  And I learned that its okay not to check all the boxes off but its okay to make them

Hope does spring eternal after all.