This morning, I counted up how much time B has to get his work done (both learning and homework) about 2 hours in the morning, 4 in the afternoon, rarely using evenings or weekends for kitchen table work. When I was in Jr High, I had 5 1/2 hours of school, plus about 2 hours of homework. So maybe B isn’t slow to finish his work, maybe we need to schedule another hour of evening work. It was encouraging.
I also realised that I’ve been nervous about his homeschool because I want to look like the cool Mom who doesn’t nag too much – even though the kitchen timer is broken and B doesn’t always know what time of day it is, so I have to remind him of what time it is. We are experimenting (again) with what system he will use to keep track of what work needs to get done. Lately I’m giving him a check off list of daily assignments. It feels like we are going backwards because he is not in charge of when he does his work. But it is getting done now, or at least I know exactly what needs to be finished in a given day (as long as he remembers to make his checkmarks) It was sort of encouraging.
I explained to B that we’ve been arguing about how long it takes to get his work done, partly because I feel like a bad mother who nags every time I have to remind him, so I do it without much grace whenever I do have to. That made him laugh. Laughing was encouraging.
K is crying in her room at the moment. We are leaving for the park in 2 minutes, but she was tackeling M and he complained, so I told her she had to stay in her chair and read books for right now. I think she misses M. It’s discouraging how hard everything is for her right now.
I pulled out B’s 3rd grade portfolio this morning, partly to see what sorts of books B could read at that age and to gage M a little, even though B was 6 months older than M is at that grade. B looked over my shoulder and got nostalgic at the photos. It was encouraging that he had good memories. But there were such a lot more field trips back then with only 2 entrances to pay for, not 4, and no teens to miss huge amounts of homework each day if we took a day off. That was discouraging.
Well, one thing is for sure: I’m buying B another kitchen timer.
SweetP is very frustrated about a lot of things right now (most of them related in some way to my failure to let her do whatever she wants at any given minute.) I agree: discouraging. And the observed decline in field trips (for the same reasons) is happening over here as well.