Sorry, I have been wrapped up a bit in politics lately (no, don’t worry I will keep the blog politically pure), and so I had to borrow the phrase from the recent legislative process to describe the recent experiences of my life. We are finally emerging from a few rough weeks and I am still processing it all. I said I would be honest in this thing so here it goes. I was really resentful and actually hating having everyone here all day all the time Ok it was only for a brief time but it was not very pleasant. I was getting wrapped up in my own stuff and becoming a bit resentful of all the time that was going into the planning and copying and preparing of the school day, then those little ingrates were not being very appreciative of my efforts, nor my ideas (shocking huh?). Additionally, they would complain and whine and overall be a very difficult about working on their assignments. ( I mean they would fail to scream with delight when reviewing the day’s assignments, go figure). Days started getting longer and longer and more full of yelling and cajoling and threatening. It was becoming more common than not to throw in the towel (whether work was completed or not) at 5pm and push everything over to finish the next day. I would be angry, frustrated, short tempered, and hostile and the kids would be exhausted and poor Papaschnuck was dreading walking through the door at night.
So what did we do? simple actually, I changed my attitude. I tried to re-center myself and realize that :
1) It did no good to my children if I was resentful of the effort that was required. That was part of it and I needed to do it and move on, not carry it into the day and expect appreciation.
2) Homeschooling,while work, needs to be fun and engaging. The more I hated it, the more the kids hated it, and the less we accomplished.
3) school time needs to be school time, not Facebook, not news reading, not ‘my’ time. The kids want to goof off and do their own thing when I am doing my own thing, we lead by example and my example is the most powerful one.
4) expectations are needed in both attitude and achievement. Kids rise to the occasion if you let them.
5) rewards need to be present and consequences need to be in place so #4 can be successful.
6) You cannot stay home and do work all day, you must get out, have fun and enjoy the time even if you miss math once in a while. it is OK to miss math once in a while.
and finally,
7) curriculum changes are needed to help the teacher as well as the student. Even if a course is working well for a child it does not mean it works for the teacher. I need to be able to manage all the different subjects and making changes to make life easier on me is OK ( and I am doing some changes now).
The last week or so things are better, we are all more engaged, happy and feeling more empowered. I must continue to remain flexible and open in order to make the most of this experience, for all of us. I am only human and we are going to have highs and lows. I am glad to be out of that low and eager to continue to grow and learn from this, after all, I am in school again.
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