Huhtala Homeschoolers

I promised my friend Kimmie that I would be honest about the good and the bad of homeschooling. That I would not sugarcoat it and act like it's always perfect, but tell it like it is. I actually expected to immediately feel discouraged and frustrated right from the start of homeschooling, so it was no surprise when today was "a bad day". I was frustrated that I couldn't get my house to my level of perfection I wanted before school. I was frustrated that a 2nd child has come down with pink eye overnight. I was frustrated that my daughter still won't put toothpaste on her toothbrush unless I catch her and that I made her feel like she's worthless because she always forgets this very basic and essential step to TOOTHBRUSHING! Then school starts and as usual our devotional is wonderful and brings back the calm, but immediately afterwords comes MATH and once again....I am frustrated to no end that my child is taking 20 minutes to do 4 math problems that he should be able to finish in 5 minutes. I am frustrated when my daughter whines that she doesn't want to copy sentences out of a book, and starts to cry and snot and wipe her nose repeatedly with her hands. I keep saying, "You guys wouldn't do this with your teachers at school!". How the heck would I know that? I wouldn't because when they are at school, I don't see them for at least 6 hours, and I keep reminding myself that for some twisted reason, I saw this as a bad thing and decided I wanted to keep all those joyful moments for myself! Lucky me!

I took this picture to capture the joy my kids find at the thought of beginning their homeschooling day:


Pathetic huh? Of course Katrina is smiling.


I then snapped, "Everybody smile like your happy!"


Much better!

On a positive note (insert annoying positive mom voice here)...We are studying the art of Raphael Sanzio (so of course Payton keeps raising his hand and asking questions about Ninja Turtles). I had some of Raphaels art work printed out from Walmart. The guy at the counter tried to give me copyright grief but the fact of the matter is, neither of us knew whether or not it was really OK to print them out and once I mentioned homeschooling, he just let it go. So, I pass an 8x10 of a picture around and let the kids study it, then I take it back and ask them to tell me what they remember about the picture. They were very observant! They noticed lots of little details and they enjoyed "finding" little hidden objects or details within the painting. I also had a 3x5 of each print for each of them to put in a small photo book, and I will be having them make an opposing 3x5 that lists the name of the artist, when he was born/died and the name of the painting. This way, they can look back at their books to remember the art we have studied.

My house in the middle of homeschooling looks like a tornado hit. There are flashcards thrown all over the living room (when did the imp sneak past me and get those out??) There are tiny bits of paper everywhere from Tyson and Bella's scissor practice. There are random tools and utensils all over from Tyson getting them out of drawers while I was distracted with Art Studies. Water has been spilled on the floor, Bella's screaming because Tyson hit her with a toy Katrina is crying because she doesn't want Bella to have any of her stuff and HAS PAYTON SERIOUSLY ONLY DONE 1 MATH PROBLEM IN 10 MINUTES AND WHERE HAS HE GONE ANYWAY?? I mean who's responsible for all these kids? I am, and until I figure out the magic formula that is going to bring order to my life, we are not going to succeed at this. Although I had originally decided not to have a strict schedule for homeschooling, I think I need to start out with one until we get a good routine going. And I will be sure to pencil in on that schedule, "Go into your closet with a pillow, press it over your face and scream as loud as you can for 1 minute. Then check your smile in the mirror and go educate those kids!"