Monday - again

I didn't think that days of the week would matter so much now that I'm not working, but it turns out that the day of the week is probably even more important now. When I was working, I learned to make myself feel that I was never "off work" unless I was out of town or signed out for a special occasion. That way, it was never a big deal (theoretically) if I was called to deliver a baby at night or on the weekend. And, I was on call during the weekend about every 6th week.

But now, I look forward to weekends more than I used to. Days with full homeschool schedules are very taxing. Not only is there the physical stuff about trying to keep the laundry moving and the kitchen clean, but there is the emotional work of trying to keep the kids on task and helping when they run in to trouble.

Mondays are especially difficult. I worry about my kids' intellect sometimes when they get up on Monday morning and act like they have nothing to do in life but play video games. They seem truly suprised when I tell them to eat breakfast and do their chores so we can do school. It's like the first day of school after a long vacation and they are perplexed by the whole concept. But, we eventually get moving, and they do their chores without too much trouble, and we eventually start school.

L has dance classes on Monday evenings, too. I love to take her because I love to watch the dance classes. By the time we get home Monday night, though, we're both pretty beat. P takes C to AWANA on Monday nights and then P finds an empty room at church to do his reading for Tuesday. He spends the entire day Tuesday and Thursday at school (college). He spends a good bit of Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at the middle school or high school, observing the math teachers.

The good news is that Tuesday is a pretty quiet day for us. I hope I can go grocery shopping. I had a migraine today, but it was pretty mild (I think it's my new meds working!). Hopefully, all will go well tomorrow and I can get groceries purchased and, perhaps, some laundry done.

I introduced a new concept into our school today - grades. We had always shied away from doing that until high school because we feel like we can evaluate our kids by our daily interactions with them. Grades are not very helpful for the teacher in homeschooling, to my mind. But, L has been doing her work so quickly (so she can play or go to the library) that she has not been very careful, so I want to impress upon her the importance of doing work well instead of doing it quickly (or doing both, if possible). I was worried that the concept of grades would be very distressing to her, but she took to it pretty quickly. She was also happy because the first several items that I graded were done very well, so she got A's. C has been asking me to grade his work, as well. He doesn't do much written work except math, but I was happy to grade his math. (He does writing in his new reading program, but I don't grade it.) I'm not sure how things are going to be tomorrow, though. L's math was not up to her usual work. Not only did I not give her good grades, but I'm making her go back and redo the ones she missed. I'm afraid there may be "wailing and gnashing of teeth" around here tomorrow!

Well, my kitchen and dining room are clean, there's a floor in my living room, and the rest of the family is in bed. Sounds like a perfect time to sit and read or knit.

Scratch that - in the time between typing the last paragraph and hitting the "publish" button, both kids came downstairs. L can't sleep because it's too hot, but she won't change from her satiny PJs into a T-shirt. She won't turn on her window unit AC because she's afraid that more ladybugs will come inside. C says his legs are sore, and he just needs a hug. Even after the hug, he was still not interested in going back to his room. He finally decided he'd try sleeping again. So, now I'm going to try the reading or knitting thing. We'll see how it goes;-)