Everyone knows that homeschooling requires patience. Of course so does almost every aspect of parenting. To me it doesn't require any more patience than every day parenting. However, it does require extra work that most parents don't experience.
Today is an extra hard day. The boys woke up earlier than normal. We haven't done any "real school" for about a week because Hubby was home. Plus Goose bit his lip pretty bad so every time he touches it he starts screaming.
(Behind the Scenes: Goose won't stop crying because he's over tired and hurting so I had to go crawl in bed with him to get him to calm down and go to sleep. And I had to encourage Monkey to stay in bed to so they could both get some much needed sleep before we attempted the rest of school and lunch.)
So today is requiring some extra patience but also LOTS of flexibility. I would say patience and flexibility are the two main parts of homeschooling that I need to remember.
Honestly because of my background in education and actually teaching 4 and 5 year olds as a career choice the teaching part comes pretty natural to me. But watching my son struggle over sounding out the word 'old' and breaking down and crying over the fact that he just hasn't figured it out yet is heart wrenching. I look at it as such a simple word. And I have seen him successfully sound it out. I've also watched him get upset, calm himself down and sound it out correctly and the excitement on his face. So today when he started melting down that's what I expected to happen but after several rounds of crying, calming, sounding out and still not getting it I knew it was time for some flexibility on my part and some tough love.
It was time to send him to my room to take an early rest/nap time. He naps about 75% of the time and I think it's because he's waking early and going to bed late. But today he needed mom to make the choice that nap time needed to be early even though it was not something he agreed with. And now he's fast asleep. Hopefully when he awakes we can eat some lunch and then get started on school again.
So to all you new homeschoolers or one that has been doing it for years...remember it's hard work but we can all do it. Remember that you are not alone in your daily struggles and when you or your children are having a hard day lift your family up in prayer and remember think about the other mama's that are walking through the same path you are. Sometimes all it take is knowing that you are not alone!
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