What homeschooling is teaching me...

Monday/Wednesday/Friday, Lily's off to school down the road, working on her French vocabulary, polishing her Creole prayers, playing on the playground, working with other kids, learning how to be in a classroom, perfect...

Then Tuesday and Thursday, I get to homeschool...something I absolutely never wanted to do.  And it has been more challenging than I have expected...but more rewarding, as well.  

Here's a few things I'm learning...

If you can get them to focus long enough to do one 3 minute exercise, you are GOOD.

If you can get them to stay in their CHAIR for more than 5 minutes (even if they're not actually sitting in it), you are also having a very good day.

They will be hungry, thirsty, and have to pee at least 5 times an hour, so you might as well start with a snack and send them to the bathroom ahead.

When they DO just what you had asked them to do, and are proud of it, you are SO proud.  Like, giddy.  Over five words.  

I know my teachers in school did not give us candy.  They were some kind of miracle workers.  I can't figure out how to homeschool without it.  Candy reduces five hours of whining and squirming into 1 hour of productivity, and that's just ME.  You should see what LILY can do with it!

Your other children do not CARE that you are trying to educate.  Do not care that it is impossible to keep everyone focused.  The only hope you have is if Dad is home (hence, Saturday and evening sessions), or if you can surround number two with all the toys in the world, and be ok with a huge mess to clean up later.  

If you can do it, just an hour of teaching small children to write and read and color and number, without threats, without raising your voice, without tears, without begging, without losing your mind and without losing your cool, you are making progress.  THAT is a good day.

If at the end, you realize that your little one and you just had good time together, and laughed a lot, and learned a few things, and she knows she's loved and is proud of what she's learning...oh man, the success.  

If they are working so hard that they're biting their tongues and panting, you're on to something!

I'm thanking the Lord for giving me this challenge, even one I had hoped to avoid, and this opportunity not just to grow my child, but to grow myself.