The Struggles of Home School

Today seemed to start as all the others, got up to a warm fire blazing and a pot of coffee waiting for me - Thank you Steve! I had a few moments to be alone and listen to the house wake up. How is it we never notice the signs of a hard day starting and why can't we just stop it right then?

Chores were usual, everyone was very happy to see me and receive their freedom from their pens and wander into the pasture area. Ice was thick and took a little extra muscle, but I won! Everyone fed and happy, I venture back to the house to see all three children in the beginnings of their day - making breakfast, cleaning up their perspective dishes or getting to their chores. I am enjoying these little older ages where mom is not needed for every task, and at the same time am sad that mom is not needed for every single task!

Our home school schedule is very simple - we focus on one main subject each day and always have spelling and reading everyday. Example of our schedule would be Mon. - Math - 4 pages, then 1 spelling assignment and 1 reading assignment; Tues. - Language - 4 pages, 1 spelling assignment 1 reading assignment; Wed. - Science or History (which ever we are in this 9 weeks) 4 sections, 1 spelling lesson, 1 reading lesson. Thurs. - go over all the areas in Mon - Wed. lessons (Math, Lang, Science or History) and work on those you missed & really struggled on. Fri. - tests on which ever lessons call for it, always spelling and the others are typically every two weeks, but we alternate weeks so as not to have so many tests in one day. We set up this schedule for our middle son who has autism - too much information on one day overloads and confuses him - this way he has one day to receive, workout and think on each subject - works great - went from getting 30's & 40's to 80's & 90's. Our older son was struggling as well with the typical work load of all subjects everyday, so we revamped his schedule the same as Logan's. Now my Wed. night is checking all work from Mon - Wed to set up their days for Thurs - for Logan this is great, he really gets to focus on those and has been nailing his tests on Fridays. For Matt....not so good....Wed. night has been the night we find out he has blown off Mon - Wed in the hopes that mom is not going to check anything. IF you really work hard, Mon. - Wed. will be kind of long days, but Thurs has the potential of being 1/2 day or less and Fri. you should be done before 11 am. Today was horrible...from the moment he saw that there was so much to do (can not even say re-do). I tried with ever fiber of my being to be calm and collected, but I lost it! I actually vented my frustration from one child on another - you talk about feeling lower then a slug....that was me! I had to send everyone to their rooms and I also put myself in time out! I know in my heart that home school is the best for our children - I just wish we would have been able to do it much earlier - the public school system has taught so many bad habits! The kids can sit and do nothing all day and never get below a 50 - they do not get points removed for not turning in assignments late or not doing them. They have taught the kids that if you do well one day a year that you're good and you can go on to the next grade. WHAT????? What life lesson is this teaching our children....can you show up for work on the day you are getting fired and save your job? Can you be the best husband ever on the day of your divorce and save your marriage? This is the lesson that they are being taught subliminally in public schools today! So my days are fighting the bad lessons that society taught my son from his first 6 years in public school. My prayer is that I have time to save him from himself.

Shame on society for accepting this for our children...Shame on our Gov't. for the education in our Country.

I love my son and I always will, I am just so scared for him...he is on the verge of being a young man and is so lost.

I also blame myself...I did not start today with devotions and prayer - shame on me!