And together we learn

So which one is it?

A homeschooler's day, from two different perspectives.

We snuggle for a while in the morning, have breakfast and do our usual morning chores, dressed, etc.

We sing a hymn, read scriptures, and recite a memory verse.

I tell them a story about nomads learning to farm. We go grind wheat in the gorgeous early fall weather using a mortar and pestle. All the kids take turns grinding it and we discuss what it must have been like.

We listen to Snoopy and laugh about the Edgar Allen Poe song and the Clouds song.

While the younger kids nap, Hazel reads me half of Hop on Pop and does a fabulous job. We get some dice and play a probability game where we graph the results. Chloe joins us for this. They learn how to make tally marks.

I draw clock faces and they add the hands to the correct time. Hazel draws an adorable little alarm clock, complete with a mustache and jaunty little bells on top.

We read piles of library books.

Homeschool park day for 2 hours. The kids run and play the entire time.

We pick bowls of tomatoes together, eat dinner, and the kids have a bath.

Bedtime. An hour after I put them down, Hazel comes dancing out and narrates to me the story of Hercules and Perseus and Medusa. They listened to Jim Weiss' Greek Myths while going to bed and she was so enthralled she couldn't sleep. Gives her daddy a kiss and goes peacefully to sleep.


Great day, no? One any homeschooling mama could feel pretty decent about, right? Well, here's the other side of the story.


They watched cartoons in my bed until they clamored so loudly for food that I finally got up to feed them. Scripture reading was a fiasco. Hazel had a little fit and I banished her and read scriptures to just Chloe. I was sulking, also. That'll teach her the right way to have the spirit!! No scriptures for you!!

Chores are a constant battle. There is fighting everywhere I turn.

They didn't listen to a word of the nomad story. And the whole grinding wheat episode lasted all of 3 minutes. Calvin got into the wheat and scattered it all over the patio, where it remains still.

I snapped at them to turn the dang music down, it was annoying me.

Hazel rolled around on the floor for a while before deciding to even sit with me for Learning Time. The girls fought over who's number was winning during the probability game. They fought over which library books to read and where everyone got to sit. They fought while playing outside. Calvin hits both his sisters and everyone cries.

I yelled (lots) trying to get in the car to go to Park Days. When we got there, I was the only mom who didn't bring water bottles--all I had were juice boxes. My kids cried for water after playing hard and didn't want juice. "Why can't we have any water, Mama??"

I stuck em in front of the tv when we got home and I played on the computer for a few (ok, more than a few) minutes.

And when Hazel was so excited about Greek Myths, that was truly wonderful. Except for the voice in the back of my head that stressed over her not sleeping, how tired she was, how grumpy she'll be in the morning, etc.


It's so easy to read the first account and think that everything was just roses. But oh boy, it wasn't. I'm all confused now, also. Was it a good day or not? I guess some of both. So from now on, whenever I post my list of hs accomplishments for the day, know that it's most likely accompanied by a similar list of shameful moments, too.

Labels: homeschool, Kids

posted by Becca at 10:24 PM