The brutal truth about homeschooling...

So, here we are...nearing the end of the second week of school. Four days of hybrid school and seven of homeschooling (eldest two are only in the hybrid one day a week) are completed...still one to go and, quite frankly, I am brain-fried and bone-weary. Here is the brutal truth about homeschooling. Even if the love teaching runs in your veins - that art of conveying information in multiple formats, constructing lessons to cater to each pupil's learning styles, many (if not most) days can suck that love dry! Why?

Although you may be able to take off the parent hat and put on the teacher one, that hat is invisible to your child! Chances are high that a kid in a classroom isn't going to groan when Algebra begins...or sigh on the ground when Biology textbooks are opened...or release a massive and noisy gas with a giggle, stating, "Fiction makes me fart!" Most likely, they don't bicker or make faces at their fellow classmates or dance around victoriously singing, "I finished before youuuuuu!" Am I correct? All too often, I have to remind my kids that I am now wearing the teacher hat with a, "Would you do this in Mrs. (Insert a present hybrid teacher's name)'s class?!"

I have yet to discover a curriculum, with all subjects included, that fits the varied styles in which my kids learn. With kids in three different grade levels and curriculum, the planning for each subject's year takes no less than five hours. Then, there is the preparing for instruction, teaching it, and grading work each day. Part of FL homeschooling also requires us to create and maintain a portfolio through the year to submit to a licensed teacher at evaluations. On any given school day (between the different levels of instruction and the above), each child spends 3-5 hours doing school, whereas I spend no less than nine! This almost always translates into bill paying, emails, writing, changing laundry loads, and such, being done sometime between dinner and bedtime.

The "pay" is worth the sacrifices of time and sanity, however. Although it isn't received in the tangible form of salary and is often unappreciated, homeschooling does earn me a peace of mind - I know my kids are learning what they need in order to succeed in college and life. They are being taught in the styles that they learn and are given chances to use what they learn in practical applications. And that, my friends, is the brutal truth about homeschooling!

One of those practical applications - after learning all about dinosaurs, why not a trip to Dinosaur World?!

It's Wednesday - Humpday?...

Perhaps some of you recall a certain auto commercial from a few years ago - the camel is walking through the cubicles of a work place asking if anyone knows what day it is. "Mike, Mike, Mike, Mike - guess what day it is, what day it IS?" Finally, someone answers, "humpday." The tagline is comparing how delighted drivers are with their insurance and a camel on a Wednesday.

Of course, no employee shares this particular camel's excitement of it being Wednesday or humpday, even if it does mark a halfway point of the usual work week. Today, I relate more to the employees - all was fine until the camel entered, or, in my case, the lack of a hump in the form of a book bag. More than 25 minutes into the drive to school (and less than 2 minutes from it), I realized that my youngest forgot her back pack. (Insert - a freak-out began, which included the phrases, "This is the worst day of my life," and "I am never going to graduate!") In the parking lot, I emptied my purse (which can strap on like a backpack) and placed her pencil and sketch book inside. With the promise of returning before her third class, the tears were gone and the drama ceased for my quiet ride home.

Although this is not truly an incident worthy of note, it did set off a domino of other events through this day that were unexpected - making an extra 50 minute round trip in the day does that to a person. For instance - in rushing with writing science terms onto the white board, instead of writing the word "organism," I wrote another word, with two less letters. "Um, Mom?" Sigh. it didn't particularly help that it was part of the definition for "asexual reproduction" and thoroughly confused my 13 year old son. Later, I was writing out the brainstorming of the older two in their discussion of the differences between a democracy and a republic (for their history class). One of the older two said that a democracy doesn't have a Death Star. Yes, I actually started writing the words out on the white board before giggles ensued. Those are a couple of the more humorous dominoes of the day.

Some Wednesdays are very much like that commercial - the proverbial camel running around saying, "Guess what day it is, what day it IS?" - The ever-annoying reminder that there are still two more days AFTER today to get through before the bliss begins, before the weekend, before the break in classes, human taxi time, and homework. Happy Wednesday to you all!

This about sums up my "Humpday" feelings - Evan, when he did NOT want to have his 9 month pictures done in 2006!

As summer ends- random musings...

As the sun sets and the noisy chorus of katydids begin their evening tones, I sit on my pretentiously named lanai and muse about the ending summer break. Traveling, company, camps, and lessons…it was less of a break than I hoped for, yet…lunches didn't need to be packed, setting out clothes wasn't required, and the "mom taxi" took a breather, mostly.

I am officially "Floridian" now - blood so thin that sitting outside, fan on, in the middle of the summer days doesn't phase me…so thin that waiting in an overly air conditioned airport for four hours sent me into the gift shop for a sweatshirt by hour two. When we moved here, on the first day the temperature dipped into the lower sixties, I spotted a woman in a parka jacket. I was donning shorts and a t-shirt and laughed before suddenly realizing that I might be just like her someday in the near future! It took the better part of four years, but now I am -  Albeit I don't have a parka, but I can be spotted in long pants when the temperature falls into the 70s and a long sleeve shirt in the 60s. Yep - cold wimp, but hot strong!

This is, most likely, the last summer that my eldest two will be shorter than me. My daughter looks me eye-to-eye and my son isn't far behind…of course, I am a bit vertically challenged and always assumed they will all grow taller than me. It is also the last summer that all my kids were under high school ages and not driving. Next week, my eldest will officially be in high school and in November, behind the wheel with her learner's permit…wasn't I just cleaning poop art from the walls last month?

Next week, the streets will be speckled with yellow buses, bringing children to and from schools…backpacks will be out of the closets and on kids' shoulders, all brimming with books, notebooks, pencils, and lunches. Strict bedtimes resume and the mornings will once again begin with the struggle of waking the teens and getting everyone out the door. I call this herding cats, as it feels equally successful. However,  at 8:30am, the car doors will open and I will enjoy the twenty-five minute ride home alone…my bliss…until noon rolls around, that is. To clarify - their school is a hybrid homeschool, so these three hours are only on Mondays and Wednesdays - the rest is all up to me. Yet, in those six hours, there is no need to quiet children for their at-home and working dad, no instruction to give, no arguments to break up, no interruptions while cleaning, and no one to barge into my bathroom time!

Thus begins the 2018-2019 school year…

Yep - about sums it up!