I’m so excited to be participating in my very first “31 Days” series! All this month, join me every week day as I write about the place that we’re in: 31 Days of Classical Homeschooling in a Large Family!
I’m pretty sure that you’ve probably noticed that I’ve done very little talking about actually homeschooling this week, even though I’m writing on a series called “31 Days of Classical Homeschooling”. That’s not by mistake: I haven’t been writing about homeschooling this week because I haven’t been homeschooling this week.
I started out Monday, fully intending to plow straight through another week’s worth of lesson plans, printed material, textbooks, and lots of hands on activities. I was excited! The kids were excited! We were even going to make our very first lapbook: on Mozart, no less. Tuesday afternoon, about 12:45, I officially declared this week our Fall Break. Not because I was prepared to take Fall Break, or because I really even wanted to, but life kind of demanded it, and homeschooling demands that life cooperates, at least some of the time.
I’ve been avoiding writing this post all week long because I just didn’t want to come face to face with the frustrations of this week. Although some of it’s been great: my big twins turned 8 years old, after all!
Some of it’s been down right frustrating. I developed another ear infection. Allergies are not being kind to me or the children. One son, while running through the house, busted his head on a toy car and spent the next two days with a huge goose egg and a headache to match. {He’s fine, btw! Nothing was broken, no permanent damage… it was just a bad bruise!} Our insurance was canceled… two weeks before a very expensive, very necessary specialist visit for my husband… and I’ve spent the week fighting to get it back. I took on an extra gig cleaning twice a week, 2 hours a day. My broom broke, and I’ve forgotten all the 2 dozen times I’ve been to the store to pick up a new one. My washing machine broke, again.
So I took my executive power of our homeschool and declared this week to be not a homeschooling week. The kids {because they’re little and they don’t need to know any better} assumed that it was because of the Big Twins’ birthday and have made the entire week about them; so we’ve spent the week, in between all the errands and phone calls and doctor visits, watching Wizards of Waverly Place reruns on Netflix and jumping on the trampoline.
I wish that I had some wonderful words of wisdom that would solve all of the problems that show up when a homeschooling teacher {ie. Mom} suddenly has to be nurse, chauffer, accountant, statesman, and party planner instead. What I’ve learned through my time as a homeschooling mom is simply this: Don’t let it get to you; take a break and get back to it. So next week, we’ll be pulling out our books again (as the local public school is taking their official fall break) and getting back to the business of education, with this frustrating week where it belongs: in the past.
My Almost Domesticated Life 