The Dream...

 

Well, this is what it looked like the day we moved in all the stuff...

I wish I could say it still looked like that today! 

 

The Reality!!

We are on Day 6 of this new epic adventure.  There has been epic awesomeness and epic reality checks.  Yes, in 6 short days, there have been both!

First, the Awesomeness...

1. Day 1... Found my 10 year old and 12 year old, packed onto the oversized chair in the school room at 6:45 am... doing their Precepts for Kids Genesis Bible Study together.  By themselves, they decided that each day should start with Bible Study.  What mom can argue with that decision??
2. Day 2... Spent today's PE time hiking a beautiful waterfall with my magnificent friend from Holland who is here visiting... And watched my oldest son rekindle an old friendship in the process.
3. Day 3... Realized that we would not be needing to sell $150 worth of magazine subscriptions to our poor, helpless friends, neighbors and relatives for a middle school fundraiser.  Just so my kid can go on three field trips... LOVE.
4. Day 4... Took a little bike ride to the local community center... and promptly schooled both my boys in a fun little game of BUMP... Yes, mom rocks the house... and the basketball court!
5. Day 5... Took the boys to 5 Loaves 4 Kids to help unload a truck of 5,000 pounds of food to be passed out in the backpacks of kids in our town.  And watched them work hard, jump in and ask for a new task when they were finished, and not complain...
6. Day 6... Realized that I have time and attention to give my two little ones when they walk in the door... because the other 2 have already had what they need from me.  2 at time, I can handle that :-) Oh, and had dinner prepared by #1... that he shopped for with a budget, cooked, and well, sort of cleaned up after... It was awesome!  And tomorrow night, #2 gets his chance!

 

And now, the epic REALITIES...

1. We have already dumped our science curriculum.  Note to self... cheap does not equal quality.  Do more research before buying... :-)
2. We have had one major meltdown/fit... because mom and dad made a someone... or maybe 2... re-do their math.  Because it was sloppy and WRONG... okay, maybe that is not an epic failure, but my kids sure acted like it was!
3. And we have decided that we may have jumped the gun in putting our kids as high in Saxon Math as the Saxon test told us... We need to re-teach our kids to do their best job... Not just get by with the right answer.  And this means stepping back a bit and giving them time to figure out what our expectations are.  We will get this.  We just need time!
4. Un-met expectations... isn't this a part of life?  Number 1 told me yesterday that he didn't expect homeschool to look... so much like school.  You mean, I have to define the words on this list??  Like, look them up in a dictionary?  I thought we were going to go on field trips.  Everyday.  Bam.  I crushed his dreams with a vocab assignment. 
5. We might have been a little lax the last 3 days... and now we have 2 days to bust out the rest of our list for the week.  We can make this happen, right? And if not, I am convinced that my children have done more actual schoolwork in the last week than they would have in school... so we need to give ourselves a break.  Cause you know, reality hardly ever matches up with the dream :-)
6. I thought I knew my children.  But now I realize that the things I saw as annoyances before are really character issues... that can be dealt with... when I have the time and the focus to do something about it.  I have great kids.  But they have some bad habits... that need changing... unlike their mom, of course, who has it all together.  All the time. Cough. Cough.