Spring: The Home Stretch

I, like many homeschoolers, hit a rut during the spring. I just want to be done with school. However, we still have work to do, curricula to finish. So, I do my best to press on and celebrate each curriculum that we finish because that's one less subject we have to do each week.

That rut hit me hard this year. I'm tired. I've overwhelmed with the burden of teaching two children, trying not to neglect a preschooler, and caring for an infant. Somewhere in there I have to fit in cleaning the house (yes, the older two help a lot with housekeeping) and cooking three dairy-free meals a day. Tired of the struggle to find dairy-free snacks that the kids will eat between meals. Frustrated of the struggle with an over-scheduled week...computer class, film making class, taekwondo (x5), swimming (x2), MOPS. Overwhelmed with my special projects which includes packing up the main floor of the house and moving it upstairs...while still doing everything that is normally done in a week...so we can replace our flooring in a couple of months. I. Just. Want. To. Quit. School!

But I can't.

My solution is to press on the best I can. To complete the main subjects and alternate the rest so that nothing gets completely forgotten. Today is Monday, Mika's computer clubhouse day. School must be done by noon so she can eat and leave. She'll arrive back home in time for dinner, followed by my leaving for the night. We have three hours to do school on Monday. That's it.

How did I fill those three hours? We started with math, as usual. I needed to help Mika remember what she was doing and then switched to Sam, who was working on an honors lesson. His questions were difficult. Solve for x. Q(X + B) = R(X+C) We both enjoy these types of problems so it was a good start to the day. Then the kids worked on analyzing a grammar sentence and completing two map pages for history. We all took turns helping Josh, holding Madelynn, and working with mom. I tested Sam on two new spelling list, consisting of 36 words, orally. He's been complaining that his lists are too easy. He only missed one word; maybe he's right. We discussed the sentence he analyzed and corrected the portion of his math page that we didn't do together. Then it was Mika's turn. We discussed her grammar sentences and corrected her math page. We also tried an online multiple choice spelling test of the 100 most commonly misspelled words in the English language...for fun. She got 74% correct. I got 79% correct. I'm glad she didn't beat me. LOL She also did her regular spelling practice with ten more SAT words. Often I have to do some research before I can understand a word's meaning enough to make up a sentence for them. Finally, all three of us discussed a history worksheet together. And we called it a day. There'll be plenty of time for the rest another day.