The Day that Didn't Happen

Sunday night I sat down to "plan out" the week. Ladies, bear with me, I'm still trying to get off the conveyor belt. I feel like I've combined 3-4 kinds of homeschooling styles: classical, Charlotte Mason, epic adventure and some workbook stuff. I liked the romanticism of the classical education (they get to work out of the books from the 1800's!). I liked the quickness of Charlotte Mason (10 minute lessons, boring subjects followed by exciting subjects). I love the excitement of epic adventures. I like workbooks because "I" think they are fun (ok, I'm kinda nerdy like that).

So, my plan for the week was all written out. It had scriptures in there, it had science, health, social studies/history, math, reading, grammer, spelling, etc. We were going to have a great start!!

I woke up Monday with a fever of 102. I have Strep Throat. Two of the kids were just recovering, the babies look a little off kilter and Hannah lost a tooth. Not to be deterred by mere illness, we sat down and did school in the afternoon after I could sit up without falling over from dizziness. I had originally started school the first week in August, but then we had to move and we only really got that one good week in, so I was determined we were not going to waste any more time and we had to get back to work. The kids cried. Hannah yelled how she didn't want to learn to read because it was too hard, Jesse cried because he had to carry the one on math problems. Isaac cried because he I blurted out a word he didn't know and was struggling with it. I tried to keep my cool and we pressed on. Eventually we got everything done on Monday I had planned for.

Tuesday. I'm feeling better. We clean up the house, which the kids did very well with their assigned duties, went to an appointment and bought some new toothbrushes. Great, we can get home and get to school work. It's 11:30. Ok, lets eat, and then do school (the babies will take a nap then). We eat, get interrupted several times with phone calls, mail deliveries, Joshua has diarrhea, Ammon won't sleep longer than 15 minutes, Isaac tried to spray paint Hannah, Hannah got poked with a fork, then kicked in the head over a fight about her bed (with Isaac),then the babies would not lay down for naps. Then my friend calls and she'll be stopping by. We haven't seen each other for over a year. We sit down to do school work and the door bell rings: it's my friend. I visit with her and the kids go outside to play. Joshua finally goes to sleep, and so does Hannah. Isaac is grounded for the spray paint incident. Joshua still has yucky diapers. Ammon is still screaming, sleeping for 15 minutes, playing, then eats, and the cycle repeats. And then, just to make me feel like parent of the month, Hannah comes in to announce that the girls next door (9 and 10)called the police on Jesse (the wonder child) because he smeared hotdogs (that were in a cat bowl on their front step) all over their front door. And then Jesse lied about it. And then I made him take some cleaner and paper towels over to clean up the door, apologize, and then sweep up all the catfood thrown in the street by the girls. Just FYI, no police were actually called, but it made for great effect to hear the sirens as I came marching out to find out what was going on. It's now 6:20. No dinner is ready, the kids are crying, Joshua is pooping, Simeon is addicted to Curious George, Hannah is insisting on talking with a lisp because she lost her front tooth and Isaac and her are STILL fighting, and Jesse is kicking something because of some injustice perceived in the cat food hotdog incident. What is going on?!?!

By the time dinner was served (standby spaghetti)and baths were done, it was 8:45. Ammon was screaming everytime we laid him down, so I'm suspecting earaches. I gave him some homeopathic remedies and loaded him up in the car and drove around loving Ogallala for 30 minutes until he finally fell asleep.

Did anyone see than any school got done? Did my precious scheduled plan ever get done? NO!

I remember when I took on homeschooling I read a book that was journal entries of homeschool mothers. They all had to pick a day and journal exactly what happened THAT day. The first day I read about sounded like a scene out of the Sound of Music. No way could anyone compete with that. Her kids were doing some kind of schooling from the time they woke up to an hour just before bedtime. I read a few more and then, there was this beauty: Her kids roller skated on the porch for PE, they fought with each other, she had appointments and tried to get them to do car-schooling, lunch was eaten out, and then she was home again, in which she sent them back out to do more roller skating. It was not a normal day, and I'm sure there were many days she was on track, but that day just wasn't it.

I've had to learn to let some things slide. This has been very difficult for me, my being somewhat of a perfectionist and control freak. Days like today I have learned to evaluate and think about what teaching opportunities there were for the kids.

Today's focus was on social skills.

Maybe tomorrow will be a different story, but don't we all have some day like this? Maybe, hopefully, not as circus-y as this? Haven't we all gotten to the end of our rope and wondered why did we ever decide to homeschool? I'm not even going to try and count how many wrenches got thrown in my day today. What's important is that we pick ourselves up and move on. If something doesn't get done, move on. I don't know if this post is even close to TJ Ed, but I thought it might help comfort those of you that have had an off kilter day. The best laid plans sometimes just do not work.