Is this a pattern?

Hmmm… something about Wednesdays. It’s the only day I seem to MAKE time to blog! We made a short trip to Oklahoma over the weekend for Craig’s grandfather’s 89th birthday party. It’s a long trip for just a weekend stay, but it really wasn’t bad. The kids were excellent for having to be in the car for two 7 hour trips. We listened to some audio books and I typed recipes into the cookbook files both ways. I did get sick from an allergy overload, but have recovered. That was the only part that wasn’t fun. The birthday party went well, and almost the WHOLE family on that side was together for the first time in ages. My kids had never even MET most of them.

Now our focus is on getting school started. New schedule, new books, new subjects… lots of new areas to work on. I think the schedule is the hardest part, and the hoping that we’ll actually stick to it! We are planning to co-op with another family for Science and History, which is really the only way to ensure that we actually DO the fun stuff. It tends to be the first to get the axe when we are short on time, and that makes school boring, which defeats an important purpose in homeschooling. Not THE purpose, but one of them. There are many, of course. Fun, though, is what makes them happy to be at home, instead of in school with a bunch of other kids that appear to be having such a great time on the playgrounds we pass. I never pass up the opportunity to point out that they are only out there for about 15 minutes, then they have to return to their studies indoors. Then here are my kids, begging to STAY indoors because it’s too hot, or too cold, or they are too tired, or, or, or. I’ve heard of one homeschool mom that enforces public school rules on her kids when they whine about their studies. She takes two days and follows the procedure of a public school, meaning they stay in their chairs, cannot go to the restroom without a pass, cannot talk during lessons, must abide by recess, etc. After 7 hours of that, two days in a row, I can imagine they are happy to return to their normal schedules. Hopefully, she adds homework in there, too! I don’t know if that would work here. Maybe. I guess it could still be effective, as long as Luke doesn’t realize that p.s. kindergarten is a LOT more fun than homeschool kindergarten! Jake would definitely see a difference, but I don’t know about Levi and Luke, if I REALLY tried to make it like public school. We’d have to sing some fun songs, play some games… things we don’t do much of here. We have been playing Uno Attack several nights in a row, but none of the nursery rhymes, hand play, etc, that they get in “real” kindergarten. I don’t think they’ll miss it in the long run, though. If they decide, when they are grown, that they missed out on those ‘essentials’ of early learning, I’ll be glad to go back and teach them. I’m sure I’ll have much more patience by then. J