Wednesday

Okay, so some days you just wake up ready to take on the day. Today I was awake (not UP, but awake) at 5am, mind-reeling with all of the many things I could accomplish. The homework struggles have re-ignited my desire to homeschool the children, so I've taken on a new task of researching my options. The playroom is currently cleared out, so I'm trying to get rid of the hockey table so that I can set up a classroom in there. However, FEELING motivated and actually being able to accomplish anything are two separate things, so I am sitting here overwhelmed and discouraged. Not by the homeschooling prospect (which still feels like a great idea) but by parenting in general.

Getting up and getting ready for school has been a challenge all its own in our house, and I recently charged Hattie with the responsibility of getting herself up and ready. Today she decided to sleep in and I tried very hard to not get involved. At about 7:05 I reminded her that maybe she should get dressed and ready. (We usually leave for carpool at around 7:20 and school starts at 7:40) She dawdled and dawdled and ended up at about 7:17 with no shirt, no shoes, no breakfast, no lunch. With a great deal of yelling we managed to get her set up with clothes, shoes (way too small! sorry!), breakfast and lunch and out the door at about 7:33. It was ugly. She did, however, calm down by the time we picked up her friends and dropped them all off at school. She even told me she loved me (whew! quite the contrast to the many "I hate you"s I've heard lately). Oh my gosh, so much for my positive outlook on the day.

Just now we all got to listen to about 20 minutes straight of Derek screaming and crying. I'm not sure why he's decided this is the most effective way of communicating, but he's become quite proficient at it. Part of his problem this morning was that he wanted someone else to search for toys for him to play with. The playroom is all packed up in the "baby room" so the toys are piled in bins. I kept telling him he had to find his own toys, but that was not sufficient. Oh my goodness, the CRYING AND SCREAMING! I will myself to ignore it, but it still wears me down!

Jason's obsession/addiction to computer games has also been part of my inspiration to get moving on homeschooling. I can't keep letting him wasted hours playing on the computer. As easy as it is for me, we have to find a more constructive way of doing things around here. Plus, Hattie is capable of so much more than she is accomplishing at school these days. The Final Report they've been assigned seems to be way too easy for her. So she is having trouble getting motivated and I'm having trouble dealing with it all. She won't include things in the report because "everyone already knows that". Duh. That's the point of writing the report. But I sincerely believe she needs to be challenged more. She just found out she gets to move up to reading 5th grade books. For a second grader, I think that's pretty good - and she's the only one in her class!

So, my plan is to get this "classroom" set up over the next week or two. Then start school July 7 and see how things go. If I can start Hattie on a 3rd grade curriculum and Jason on Kindergarten and some sort of preschool for the babies, then we should all be busy and entertained enough. And we'll have a good month or so to see how it goes. To ease into it before public school starts and we can make a permanent decision about SCHOOL then. I'm a little concerned about making the investment, but I think it'll be worth it. And I've thought about homeschooling so many times that I don't know how long I'm going to be able to put it off anyway.