Day 6

{Recess}


{Dogwood tree}


{Working on her map of the neighborhood, she is very into this project}


{My favorite autumn "flower" to photograph}


{Ryan's wool shirts, washed and drying so they are ready for fall}

After 4 blissful days of school our happiness came to a screeching halt yesterday morning (on day 5 of school) as we sat down to do our "circle time".  Circle time for us is a variety of things.  It is singing some seasonal songs along with a Spanish song.  It is practicing numbers and times tables in the form of bean bag games or rhymes.  It is a poem or an outdoor game.  Since we have a preschooler, a 1st grader and a 4th grader it includes things for preschoolers, 1st graders and 4th graders.  However the majority of circle time is for little ones.  This can sometimes be a sore spot for the two bigger kids.  Last week I talked with them about it, reminding them that in circle time we do things for everyone and there will be preschool songs for the preschooler in our family.  Given that there is very little "homeschooling" to do for a 3 year old, and that this 3 year old often spends a good portion of her day tagging along with a class or activity geared toward her big brother and sister, I feel really strongly about making her stuff important too.  Last week they did awesome with this.  And quite honestly, they actually love most of the songs we sing, they grew up learning them and it is not uncommon for one of them to start singing a song we learned when they are off playing on their own.  But yesterday they were not having it.  Resistance quickly escalated into name calling followed by aggression.  Jackson was able to recover but Grace spent the next hour upstairs.  As all of this was happening I realized that my tolerance for the really bad homeschooling days (especially when it is a fight that we have over and over) is less then what it use to be when we started homeschooling two years ago.  Granted the good days far exceed the good days of our bumpy first year but that doesn't outweigh the fact that when things are going horribly wrong I can't help thinking I don't have to do this.  Except that I want to do this, I love doing this.  They love doing this.

So last night we had a family meeting.  We talked about everything and I asked them if they really wanted to keep homeschooling which was met with a resounding yes!  Then I explained my fear, that as much as I love homeschooling, if I ever get to the point where I am feeling resentful, I will have to stop.  So let's not get to that point!  So we decided to make a contract.  Today we had a second meeting.  We made lists of everything we like and don't like about homeschooling.  We made lists of what we have to do as homeschoolers even if we don't like it.  We focused on the fact that like life, there are going to be things you don't like doing when you homeschool, it is okay not to like them!  But you still need to do them and be respectful about it.  Then Grace typed it up and I printed it out and everyone signed it.  I am anxious to see if this has an impact on our days.  I will say that today was awesome, but then again, it's only day 6.