Monday, August 18, 2014

Our First Day Was...

...let's just say, less than perfect.

G woke up this morning in a great mood. He was so geared up for school that he kept asking me if it was time all through breakfast. It gave me such a positive outlook on the day ahead and I was excited to begin. 

Trouble struck as soon as we sat down in the classroom. He instantly didn't want to do anything. It was a fight to get him to do calendar time. He did however enjoy filling in our thermometer and asking me what the C and F stood for. Once the fight over calendar time was over it was time for warm ups. For warm up first he traces the alphabet mostly to insure that he remembers them all as well as their sounds. He also enjoys telling me a word that each letter starts. For C he told me Celsius and for F he told me Fahrenheit. Second he traces numbers 1-35. We had less of a struggle during warm ups thankfully. 

Since he has been so excited to learn to read recently I thought starting the morning with reading would be a good way to go. It wasn't. He raced through the 'AT' family words no issue but as we started to do our 'AP' words he decided it was time to zone out. Instead of attempting to sound out the words he guessed. 
I won't lie. I was frustrated. After arguing through the worksheets that went along with his lesson it was clear that we both needed a break. 
     G                                            Baby K


In order to keep us both from exploding we decided to head into to town to check out some thrift stores. It was definitely needed! 

After a few hours we returned home and he was more than ready for math! YAY! 

This boy gets his love of math from his Momma and Daddy because I sure am not a fan of math. English is my thing and I get a little upset by his love for math at times. But hey! A love of learning is a love of learning right? 

He raced through his math in no time and with a smile on his face the whole time! 



Once he finished his math I sat down at my Cricut and started to cut the decor for the walls of our classroom. He was so intrigued by the machine that he began asking if I would show him what buttons to push. How could I not? He was thrilled! During the period of time I was cutting out letters we experienced a flash flood in our area so we opened up the windows and both boys stood at the window with our window markers. 

G drew the weather:

In a very serious tone he told me: "Mommy, if I get X-RAY'd (electrocuted) I will go ZZZZZZZZZZ!" At first I had no idea what he meant. Then a bolt of lightning hit and he said, "See mommy! It will make me like an X-RAY!" This was definitely a highlight of our day for me. How awesome is it that he made the connection between lightning and electrocution like he did when we haven't ever discussed it! 

I will admit this morning I was near a break down. I honestly was thinking that maybe homeschooling just wasn't for us. I feel like there is a picture painted of homeschool parents and I have no idea where this picture comes from, but in my head when I hear of people homeschooling all I see is butterflies and sunshine and happiness. I learned first hand today that that is not the case! Being a homeschool mom is like taking being a stay at home mom, multiplying the number of kids you have by at least 2 and dividing yourself in quarters. (This is how I felt today!) I found a great support system via facebook full of homeschool parents who were more than happy to share with me that they all have days where they want to rip their hair out and on those days when it is more than they can handle they take a "mental health day". I was told to not give up and to keep moving forward and adapting to what works for my family. 


Let's just say that after today, I am ready for tomorrow! 


Do you have any homeschool horror stories? If so I'd love to hear about them as well as how YOU cope when things get out of hand. 

You can find us and follow our journey on:

4 comments:

  1. We have many less than perfect days. Being flexible and being able to turn away from what you 'planned' is very important. But then, even horrible days have moments where you get 'ZZZZZZZ' into the amazement of your child's wonderful view of the world! Keep at it honey! It sounded like a great day to me. :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You know what it was an amazing day looking back on it. It definitely has me looking forward to tomorrow. :)

      Delete
  2. I don't know if it sent my first comment or not..... So, I'll do it again! :)
    Our daughter is 13 and still has days like this. But keep at it and stay flexible!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you! I have a feeling I'm going to get crazy flexible on this journey!

      Thank you for reading and giving words of encouragement!

      Delete