Plugging along

We're done with another week's worth of Official Schooling.

*deep exhale*

(On Fridays, Gabriel and Bronwyn join 125ish other homeschooled children at the church for group activities-- choir, gym, art, etc.-- and I get those 5 hours to focus on my younger kiddos and catch up on housework. I find that it's a good rhythm to our week, as by day #5 in the week, there are other things in the home that can really use my attention.)

I love homeschooling.

The time when we sit down at the table to work through math problems, practice handwriting, try experiments, and study together is my favorite portion of the day, second only to when we all pile on the couch together for lots of reading (both of the Learning to Read and the Read Aloud varieties). Of course, homeschooling is so much more than just those times, but I love those times. I really, really do.

That said, I find that we give our best time and energy of the day to homeschooling, leaving me scrambling to get the housework done and dinner on the table. Isn't that the way of a homeschooling mom? We do things like spending an extra 20 minutes exploring the house together for real-live examples of multiplication so that our first grader can grasp the concept that seems to be alluding him on paper, and that cuts into our chances to clean the bathrooms and organize the closets. Then we decide to go ahead and make the homemade bread suggested for the science lesson so that the kindergartener can see yeast in action, which means the list of phone calls that was hanging over our head continues to hang for another business day because by the time the dough is rising and the last bowl has been washed, the baby is inevitably crying and the toddler needs to be pulled out of the toilet she's playing in, and by the time those crisis are dealt with, it's 4pm and it's too late to make the calls.

(I try not to think about what things might be like when we've added even more students to the roster because Today is plenty to occupy my full attention. Just know, Mothers Who Homeschool Many and Those Who Have Been There, Done That, I am daily in awe of you.)

Yes, as much as I love the time we spend working through the curriculum together and doing all sorts of terrific learning side by side, I'm very, very glad that summer is a pause from the bookwork. I'm looking forward to "school" being less sums and more digging in the vegetable and flower gardens, if you know what I mean. After all, I'm a mom to more than just two school-age children, and I'm also a wife and a homemaker. Juggling it all can become quite the circus act at times.

I didn't start the school year eagerly checking off Days in Attendance in my book, but I'm not going to lie: I've started counting down the days. Summer is calling! And my response?

Another week in the books is in the books!