Photo Project #2

We've had our first camera-toting scavenger hunt today. Each of the boys were given 45 minutes to locate five items (or types of items, in this case) on their list - take a picture - and return home.
For the results, check out William's Photo Blog and George's Photo Blog.

My kitchen is full of notebooks and daily planners... weekly planners... planner planners.. calendars, schedules, and checklists. It is no wonder that I have managed to lose all track of time over the last couple of weeks. You see -- once I become dependent on little notebooks and scraps of paper to keep up with what needs to be done and keep track of what I just did (and the dependence sets in quickly, mind you) my brain immediately shuts down. Inevitably, I forget to mark something off a list somewhere or neglect to make a note of a finished project immediately after finishing... And then I'm completely lost. I'm left with big blanks in my memory.

So that's what happened -- I over-organized myself. For our first week I was keeping meticulous notes and faithfully recording completed lessons and instruction times. I started slipping at the beginning of the second week when life managed to rearrange our schedule a little bit and I found myself having to scratch-through here and pencil-in there. By mid-week I was winging it entirely.. and by the weekend it was anarchy.

It was 10:30 pm Sunday night when I remembered that we would be having class this morning but had absolutely nothing planned. Fatigue and time-constraints forced me back to the basics. One ballpoint pen - one simple daily planner - and the simplest, most flexible entries I could manage, such as: Math (50 minutes) Science (30 minutes) History (30 minutes) Reading (30 minutes).

We started out this morning finishing up any projects we left dangling at the end of last week. This gave me a little time to organize a few actual lessons for the remainder of this week -- and it gave the boys a little time to ease into this week's work. Still -- nothing's perfect and we didn't manage to finish everything we had planned for the day.

The boys colored a portrait of Mozart and then completed their grid-drawing art lesson from last Thursday. After that we read a story from Tales of Ancient Egypt entitled "Ra and His Children" and worked on notebook pages about what they remembered of the story. William drew a picture of Apophis - the dragon of darkness and wrote about how the dragon brought evil to the land of Egypt which caused Ra to create the lioness Sekhmet so that she would devour the rebellious Egyptians. George drew a picture of the council of the gods of Egypt and explained that Ra was so angry with the evil people that he wanted to destroy everything - but the other gods suggested that he instead find a way to only destroy what was evil and leave what was good.

Then our regularly scheduled programming came to a grinding halt when one of William's friends came over to play for a couple of hours. George took a little time to research the Egyptian god, Thoth -- after seeing his image over and over during our trip to the Exploreum on Friday he really wanted to find out what the guy with the bird head was all about... We tried our hand at a science lesson after that but he really didn't seem interested so we took a break until William could rejoin us.

We started our math lesson for the day with facts practice as usual -- and George was so frustrated with the timed sheets of 100 facts that I realized we had to try something else. We found a website with timed math facts problems and both of the boys tried beating the clock a couple of times. It clicked and they agreed that they would very much prefer to start their math lessons with the website rather than the daunting worksheets. Fair enough. The lesson after that went smoothly enough -- but since we only have one math textbook and the boys have such a hard time both sharing the book and actually getting any work done - when it came time to do the lesson practice problems I decided to let them work separately. William worked on the rest of the math while George reviewed the countries of North America via a great online game we discovered last week.

It was dinnertime when William finished with his math - so George didn't finish the math lesson for the day... but after today's session with the geography game he felt he was ready to label the countries of North America on an outline map. He breezed through it and we are thrilled to know he can find places like El Salvador and Nicaragua on a map -- something the average eighth grader probably cannot do. William got to play the geography game again some before dinner but said he's not ready for the outline map just yet... And though we probably had enough time to force George to finish the math lesson for the day -- we settled for giving him time to play a game about 'Place Values' online. Afterall - our lesson today just happened to be about place values... and he was having fun.

Tomorrow we'll try once again to conquer that science lesson.. and George will have to find the time to finish the math left undone today. Also on the menu: grammar, catechism, handwriting, free reading, and some online word games. All scheduling will be written out in pencil tonight for sure since tomorrow will also be beginning swimming lessons in the morning.

The Exploreum Field Trip

Today marked our family field trip to the Gulf Coast Exploreum in Mobile, Alabama to see the exhibit, "Mummy: The Inside Story" courtesy of the British Museum. We also were able to take in the IMAX movie: "Mystery of the Nile" (see the trailer HERE) and of course the kids got to play with the regular Exploreum science exhibits in Hands On Hall.

Mom does a good job of telling the story of our trip on her blog so I will leave the story-telling to her on this one and share some of the pictures instead. Uh.. of course -- all of these pictures are also courtesy of Mom. (Thank you, Mom!! I'd raft down the Nile with you anytime!)

George learning the value of a lever and fulcrum at Hands On Hall.

Yvonne learns about Ancient Egyptian wildlife.

I have no idea what William was doing but he almost looks guilty.


By the way... We have all decided that mummies are rather disturbing - and though studying the life and culture of ancient civilizations is interesting and even exhilirating... It seems like the dead should be given the respect due them -- no matter at all just how long they've actually been dead. Poor Nesperennub. May he rest in peace.

What about socialization?

The school year hasn't even officially begun yet and already I have heard the word 'socialization' several times too many.

First, I would like to point out that none of my kids are being raised in a bubble. Every day each of them interact with at least six other people from various age groups. If that's not socializing activity -- I don't know what is.

Second, I have discovered that billion dollar public school systems are really not necessary for facilitating social interaction with peer groups. Actually, it seems that an awful lot of money could be saved if some of those systems would take note of my technique. Here's what you do: Take a couple of your kids... give them each a plastic light saber and a bike.. and send them outside. Within minutes - your front yard will be overflowing with kids -- some you've never seen before in your life... all asking for snack chips and Gatorade -- and with plenty of interaction to go around.

Yvonne is very confident about her light saber technique and will challenge
anyone who will hold still long enough.

I honestly couldn't get a picture of all of the children in our yard this evening -- not all at the same time anyway. (Flocks of children move quickly - and almost constantly. It's fascinating to watch, really.) There were an awful lot of them though... girls & boys...some with bikes.. some with skates.. a couple with dogs... all fully armed and quite social. We ran out of Gatorade.

That's more like it.

Ahhh the day passed much more pleasantly yesterday -- and I'm happy to say the kids all went to bed with smiles on their faces. Yes - I measure the quality of a given day by the kids' moods at bedtime. A dangerous thing to do, I know (especially when everyone has an earache) -- but I always do it -- even when I'm pretending I'm not.

The mounds of waffles with syrup started the day as planned. Then we turned on Mozart and got out sketch pads and passed the time drawing whatever the music inspired. We chatted a bit about how the visual arts can reflect the emotions of the artist.. and whether or not they should... (They both agreed that they should - otherwise everything would be just plain dull.) And then we chatted some more about how the happy and the sad and the silly, scary, miserable and serious are somehow what come together to create beauty. It was going really well, I thought... So I explained how the music we were listening to could affect what we were drawing if we let it. George looked up puzzled and said, "You mean because I'm going to draw musical instruments, right?"

"Er.. not exactly, George.. I mean if when you listen to the music you are picturing the orchestra and the instruments.. that's fine... but it can make you feel things too.. and you can put those feelings on paper."

"Uh.. how do you draw a feeling?"

"Hmm.. well... you know how you said some of this music sounds happy - and some sounds sad?"

"Yes. But that's music."

"Okay but haven't you ever seen a painting and thought it seemed happy or sad?"

"Oh I got it.. Like if they paint a picture of somebody crying...."

"Well okay yes.. but you could paint a picture of a flower or a box or the sky and it can still be happy or sad..."

"A box is not happy or sad."

"Well no.. but how you see the box is all about how you're feeling when you look at it.. so when you paint it.. er.. What I mean is - we can express our emotions when we paint or draw by using certain colors, or drawing the lines in a certain way, or using certain brush strokes..."

"...."

"I guess I don't know how to explain it right now... Let's just draw - we'll talk more later."

"About what?"

"You know.. the emotion and art thing..."

"Oh! you mean like Picasso's blue period?"

Sigh. I wrote out this story to remind me in the future not to try to teach down to these guys.

So then we giggled through the rest of our drawing... Had a short catechism lesson and got in our reading and handwriting and copywork for the day all in the same lesson -- and no one was wounded. We took some time for the boys to complete their second typing lesson -- both were thrilled to have raised their words-per-minute one word this lesson (they're typing an average of 8 wpm as of this writing). Then we took some time to read a few stories about Mozart and the boys wrote short research papers about his life and work. Both of the boys thought it was pretty cool when they found out that Mr. Mozart was an avid billiards player and sometimes actually wrote music while playing. (They then thought it was the perfect opportunity to convince me to give them a few pool-playing lessons. I would have given in if I could play well enough to teach. :) We'll settle for some informal games later on this weekend, I'm sure.)

Instead though, they went outside to make an entry in their nature journals.

I don't recall pulling out any hair yesterday -- so things are good.

Things are as usual a little off schedule today - and I'm not panicking yet. William had his appointment with the eye doctor today: It's official - he needs glasses for reading. We're all very excited about this... but the glasses won't be ready til next Friday. In the meantime, the doctor told him to rest his eyes today -- no reading, drawing, or coloring until tomorrow...

So this means I have the day off! Woohoo!!

Tomorrow then -- we try a bit of ancient history...

The honeymoon's not over yet....

I was sitting here at this late hour with thousands of thoughts racing through my head about this 'homeschool' thing... Most of them weren't all that good at first. (It has been a long day.) But then I had one of those epiphanies that you can only have late at night when you started drinking coffee around 10pm and you've eaten way too many roasted peanuts for your own good and you're souped up on decongestants and fever reducers. It went like this:

Bah! I think everything would just be a little easier to handle if I wasn't feeling so bad. I mean, half of it is just that I'm so sick. Besides, none of the kids are feeling all that well either. Yvonne is sniffly and mean. George is prone to sudden tears as he usually is when he's feeling under-the-weather but doesn't want to tell anyone.. And William looks more pale than usual. So, I can't really blame them for not wanting to sit through math drills and grammar lessons right now. We'll just have to tough it out. That's right.. er.. Wait. Why is that right? Tell me again why we're toughing anything out? Why on earth am I sticking to a schedule? Uh oh.. It's been 72 hours and I've already forgotten most of the advantages of homeschooling. Don't we make our own rules here?

I'm going to blame it on my cold medicine. When I'm feeling fuzzy in the head I tend to resort to lists and schedules to get me through -- and that's exactly what I was doing here.

Today was tough. I woke up early enough and had everything neat and tidy and ready to go, but was met with a bit of resistance when I announced it was time to have the first lesson. My fragile and influenza-burdened ego just couldn't take that kind of rejection and I threw a little temper tantrum of my own and said I didn't think I was up to teaching anybody. The boys looked bewildered but they were quiet. I stormed out of the room and wandered around aimlessly for a few minutes, but when I returned to the kitchen I found the boys there still waiting. George was busily writing - so I peeked over his shoulder to see the words "I will not upset Mom" neatly scrawled on the paper 10 times. Eep! I kissed them both on the heads and hugged them 'hello'. And then I apologized. I explained to George that I think I am prone to sudden tears when I feel under-the-weather, too... And we went on with a decent discussion about how to tell when a story is taking place when the author keeps changing the tense of the verbs... and the difference between 'knowing' and 'understanding'. (From Wondering at the World)

We took a long break before I called them back for some math -- but, once again, neither of them were all that pleased with the idea of actually doing anything. I didn't storm out of the room. I slapped a deck of cards on the table and said "Okay - give me a chance here.. I am going to show you how you can practice your addition facts by playing a card game...." That perked them up. At first. Or at least until one of them started winning and the other ... well.. wasn't. It happened to be William who ended up on the losing end of the card game -- but I know full-well that had it been George he would have reacted in exactly the same way. William slumped and refused to play again. So I - in full drill-sargeant mode - handed him a sheet of 100 addition facts and a pencil and sent him off. I was a little surprised when he returned with the sheet neatly done and no complaints. My foggy head couldn't figure out why on earth he would seem to prefer doing traditional math drills to playing such a gloriously fun game. But I didn't get to dwell for whatever reason -- I think a baby cried or a buzzer went off or the phone rang.. I can't remember exactly -- but by then it was that time of day for me that always most resembles a Calgon commercial... minus the luxurious soak in the spa.

I was feeling sort of proud of myself for having the good sense to not load up our schedule with a lot of really intense work since we had done so much during the previous two days... and I waited a couple of hours before I asked the boys if they thought they would be able to label the world map with the names of the seven continents. They both replied that they could do it if they knew how to really spell them. "Well.. Haven't you been studying?" They both quite honestly said "No." And that was it. Not "No, but we will..." Just "No." So I put on the cheeriest voice that I can when I'm tired and congested and said "Oh! Well.. Okay! How about I help you learn to spell them?" That was followed by a couple of very audible groans.

I didn't storm out of the room again. I was proud of that too. But I wasn't very nice either. I found myself barking at them to sit down and get out a pencil because we were going to learn how to spell the names of the continents whether they liked it or not.

It wasn't the most pleasant experience. I don't think it was for any of us, that is... But they may have actually learned how to spell the names of the seven continents. If they haven't - it would serve me right. (I realize that now. At the time - I was still barking and so adamant... As if our very lives depended on the boys learning how to spell Antarctica TODAY.)

Thinking I was being most good and kind... I let another hour pass before I asked them to join me for a quick grammar lesson. I shouldn't have been surprised that they didn't want to join me for a quick grammar lesson -- but I was anyway. Their work ended up done neatly before they trudged off toward their rooms looking full of gloom and despair.

But it still didn't hit me. I sat down with my planner and reviewed our lessons for the day.. Math drills - check; Geography - check; Writing component - check; Reading component - check; Discussion - check.... Suddenly, I felt rather bored.

I jumped up and remembered that Dave had mentioned that he saw a sign about a booksale at the public library between 9 and 5 today. That's what we'd do! I would grab the boys and we'd go have a happy old time at the book sale!

"Put on your shoes!" I called to the boys.
"Why?" they called back.
"Don't ask why -- hurry up and come with me!"
"But why?"
"Because we're going somewhere."
"Where are we going?"
"We aren't going anywhere if you don't put your shoes on."
"But I don't want to put my shoes on!" shouted George.

William was heading for the door so I shouted back "Okay, fine - you don't have to come then."
And I made my way out to the stupid van. William was in the back seat already when George came running out - still shoeless - to ask again 'But where are you going?' I was quite frustrated by then as it was 4:30 and I knew it would take about 10 minutes to get to the book sale that ended at 5:00. "George.. put your shoes on in the car and come with me."

Ten minutes later we passed the public library and the big sign outside that read "Friends of the Library Book Sale 9am to 2pm." Ahem. I said absolutely nothing to the boys about where I had originally intended to take us.. But I was determined that we would go somewhere by then.. So I headed for the mall and the bookstore in Gautier. William found his dream book about World War II fighter planes and was immediately in a state of bliss. George had a harder time finding anything that interested him... but then he stumbled across this coffee-table sized illustrated book about the universe. He was so excited... and the whole day flashed through my mind as I turned over the book to find the price: Fifty dollars. I told him 'no'. He was crushed. Crushed! He finally decided on a couple pocket encylopedias -- one on space and the other about insects... but his heart wasn't in it. That's when I decided I would make everything right by taking them to the music shop to find a CD for them... I was hoping they'd have Holst's The Planets because George has always been very excited about it. Of course, they didn't. So we browsed the classical section together. George found a Bach CD and asked if we could get it.. In the meantime, I had selected Mozart. "Well, George.. I know you like Bach.. and soon we will study Bach.. But don't you think since we are studying Mozart right now it would be better to get Mozart?" He agreed. He looked sad though. I guessed he must have still been upset about that universe book....

We didn't attempt any more lessons today. It was already too much.. and I was sincerely wanting the boys to have a good day in the end. I thought they might like to have some fun drawing and coloring with me though after Yvonne and Emily were in bed -- so I got out the supplies while I waited.

In the process of going upstairs to gather the boys for me - Dave discovered that neither of them had actually finished their daily chores -- picking up their toys, making their beds, cleaning off their desks -- and mentioned it to me as they entered the room. What a bad idea. Don't tell me that. You know - me - big grumpy sniffly drill-sargeant mom... Don't tell me that!! I did what any big grumpy sniffly drill-sargeant mom would do: I told them they had to clean their rooms before we could do anything. They immediately burst into tears. Two hours later we all calmed down. Their rooms were never cleaned... and we never got to color either.

So that's what brought me here... Sitting in front of the computer late at night -- wondering where I went wrong... and then the epiphany...

Yes -- I'm grumpy -- but that's not the big problem. The problem is that I lost sight of our goals already. I spent the day trying to force things. Learning to spell the names of the continents became as artificially important as that stupid daily planner from the school... George wanted a book about the universe so I bought him something else. William was obviously upset about losing the game - but rather than taking the opportunity to reassure him and maybe join in the game with them or change the rules to balance out their different levels of math proficiency - I punished him with math drills. Egad! George wanted Bach so I bought him Mozart. And then I wandered around wondering why I was meeting so much resistance.

At least I have tomorrow's lesson plan figured out already. It's gonna go like this:

Wake up whenever we feel like it. Make waffles with extra syrup. Listen to the stupid Mozart CD while eating waffles. Ask the boys what they want to do today. Listen to them.

From there -- I think I'll just wing it.

Is there enough coffee in the world?

We have survived our first full day of homeschool-type activities! My feet hurt. My lips are chapped. Everything is blurry and leaning slightly to the right. I feel as if I'm having some sort of out-of-body experience as this is typed since I couldn't possibly have the current mental capacity to form words into sentences and type at the same time.

But it was great.

I will have to find some way to slow down the pace a bit for the future or I will die....

But how can I knock the boys' enthusiasm? All day long they were ready for the next lesson - asking for more to do... And when they both responded with a resounding "AWWWW" when I told them at 9:45 pm that it was time for them to go upstairs and do something quietly until they fell asleep because my brain was turning to mush - I couldn't believe these were the same two boys that I pushed and scolded and threatened and begged to do one hour's work at homework time for three years.

Our scheduled program for the day consisted of a modest four hours of work: grammar, math, geography, and a reading & discussion session. We conquered the grammar lesson in no time, spent 30 minutes each on facts practice drills, and had a great introductory discussion about our reading....

But what I wasn't planning on.. was that while William was working on his math drills on the computer - George was not content at all with the idea of just running off to play while he waited for his turn. Instead, he asked if he could take some extra time to write more in his journal. (!) How could I say 'no' to such a thing? What this meant though, was that George was still writing in the journal when William actually finished his math practice.

Then it was William's turn. He tried half-heartedly to go watch a movie or play outside with his light saber.. but things weren't the same without George running around - so he came back and asked if I had another assignment. (!) Since William is a bit of a timid reader - and I was planning on starting over with the basics with him just to rebuild his confidence anyway... I decided it would be a good time to introduce William to a phonics lesson.

But when George was done with the journal and his math practice... He didn't want to be left out of whatever William was doing and thought it would be fun for him to try it too! So -- I gave George his phonics folder and went through the instructions quickly just as Yvonne walked in and said, "Me write too?" Erg. Thankfully, I had a phonics folder for Yvonne ready for just such an occasion and sat her down at her Hello Kitty table nearby to work alongside her brothers. Then I ran around like a lunatic cleaning the kitchen, changing Emily's diaper and clothes, and making snacks for everybody.

I figured after such a long morning and some apple slices and yogurt dip (Thanks, Swapna!) everyone would be ready to go flop on the couch and watch some meaningless drivel on the substitute television and I would be able to sneak off with a cup of coffee for a few minutes...

What the kids had in mind was a little different though: they wanted to do their chores. (Oh why oh why did I have to give them their own chore charts?) "Okay. Where's the vacuum?" asked George. Then William chimed in "Hey - I fed the cats already.. I'm supposed to help you cook today -- what are you cooking?" Er... I was caught offguard but I managed to stave off a mutiny by explaining that we needed to let the babies rest a bit longer before we turned on the vacuum ... and that William would be able to help me cook dinner for us all later. George agreed and ran off to dust the upstairs instead and William followed behind to make sure his toys were picked up from the morning.

I had just enough time to clean the yogurt dip off Yvonne's face before they were back and ready to start school again. I felt a little bad when I told them to run off and play and be free and give me some time to rest... But then, Mom saved me. She came just in time for a visit and a cup of coffee! I was able to convince William to go upstairs and play in his room until I called him... And could only get away with letting George play a couple science games on the computer. The break was very much appreciated.

We had some lunch and George vacuumed the living room before we started anything else. Yet again, it was George's fault... He came up to me looking all sad and puppy-dog like and asked, "Can we do a drawing lesson? Pleeease?" Sigh. How hard could it be? I got out their sketch notebooks for them... rounded up a dozen pictures of real-life castles online for them.. and told them to draw a medieval castle.

In the meantime, I actually managed to get Yvonne and Emily both settled for naps... and had that cup of coffee I wanted all day.

They were putting the finishing touches on their castles when Dave got home from work. He was just as sniffly and feverish as I had been all day -- so I decided to make some home-made chicken soup for dinner. I showed William the basics of chopping vegetables and boiling water.. and we went over cooktop safety... but I admit I was a little relieved when he seemed slightly uninterested. I jumped on the opportunity and said 'Hey! It's not going to be light much longer... Why don't you go out?'

Nope.. He wasn't going anywhere without George... and George had asked for his writing journal again because he wanted to add an entry about the castle he drew. Hmmm... I had to find a way to convince George to put on his shoes and go outside when he was finished with his entry so that I could get them both out of the house and playing before the day was done...

Then I remembered the cameras! Why not? I had bought them both some pocket-sized digital cameras that I planned to use for various 'photo essay assignments' throughout the year... I wasn't prepared with an assignment just yet -- but they were going to have to try out the cameras at some point anyway. It was just the thing to get George to put his shoes on and the boys went out while I finished making dinner. (You can see their photos here: George and William) Mind you - I sent them out with their watches - but in the commotion I forgot to give them a time to be home... I wasn't worried at first because the cameras only hold 20 pictures each -- and how long could it take to take 20 pictures anyway?

The soup was done and the boys weren't home - so I jumped in the car and went out to round them up. I found them on their way home - sweaty and happy... George saw me and started talkingreallyreallyfastlikethis telling me about all the pictures he took. William just looked at me casually and said 'I took two pictures." Two hours -- two pictures. Hmmm... I tried hard not to make a big deal out of whatever William was doing other than taking pictures while they were out... Afterall - it wasn't a formal assignment.. and they were supposed to be having fun. And at least he got two taken before he was distracted, right?

We got through dinner and I showed them how we were going to 'blog' their photo assignments (once blogger decided to start working again) ... and then with one last tiny burst of energy I pulled out our map of the world to review the continents with the boys before I finally told them they had to go away because my brain was no longer functioning.

Four hours of scheduled work - turned into eight. *flop*

It's funny that I was worried we wouldn't manage to finish what I had scheduled in a day....

Homeschool Eve

Tomorrow is our first unofficial day of school.

I have no intention of making this any more stressful than any of us need it to be right now, but I thought it would be a good idea to use some time over the summer to get our feet wet as far as this home education thing goes.

We have all managed to catch the latest sniffly-nose fever bug -- just in time for lessons... So we're all set. We should be a bunch of cranky, snorting, bleary-eyed people in the morning. I can't wait!

I'm actually not kidding. I can't wait - sniffles or no sniffles.

The decision to homeschool is nothing sudden. The desire was there almost two years ago when the boys were just starting elementary school -- but at the time, circumstances did not permit my keeping them home to teach them. Or so I thought.

So after the baby and the puppy and the other baby and the kittens and Hurricane Katrina... Things changed. Whatever seemed so important before that storm does not carry much weight around here anymore. And the experience taught some really valuable lessons, such as:

1) You really do NOT have any clue what might happen tomorrow -- so pack in as much today as you possibly can.

2) 'Normal' is a totally relative term.

3) If you want anything done at all (not just if you want anything done right, as the cliche goes...) you might as well do it yourself.

It wasn't long after the incredible disaster that our boys were called back to school. That's about the time I started losing faith in the entire system. Two weeks after my eight and nine year old boys shared a near-death experience with the rest of their family and many of the inhabitants of their known world... They were suffering through mounds of 'catch up' homework assignments and sitting out recess on the sidewalk for such atrocities as not having one of their parents sign their daily planner the night before class.

Okay... The last thing on my mind was signing a daily planner. Is there anything wrong with that? Apparently there were those who believed so - for the increasingly agitated scribbled warnings and escalating levels of threatened punishment seemed to imply that the heavens would fall and the earth shatter into a million pieces if I did not get my priorities straight and remember to sign the blasted planner. I hated that planner. Several times - much to my horror - George would come home crying again for getting a 'check' or having to 'sit out recess' because the planner was left unsigned on days when I had been absolutely sure to sign. I would scramble through the pages in desperation only to discover that in my exhaustion that morning or the night before I had signed the wrong page.

Sure.. George often forgot to even bring the all-important planner home. Both the boys had a lot of trouble remembering to bring home homework assignments or notes from teachers....
And I had a lot of trouble reprimanding them since I was having my own trouble remembering to lock the doors at night and turn off the stove before I burned the house down.

The notes continued. "We must go on with our regular schedules and guidelines to give our children a sense of normalcy during this time." Could someone tell me what is 'normal' about sleeping on a mattress on a concrete floor among stud walls and exposed wiring each night - and expecting -- yes, demanding! -- the wrath of God upon you if you didn't send the two bucks for next week's field trip by Tuesday?

My patience with school in general was worn quite thin by the beginning of this year when I announced to Dave that I was ready to bring the kids home to learn.

But of course, it was not my only reason. Actually, it wasn't even my primary reason.

I missed my kids. I missed them a lot. For the majority of the year I got to see my boys for a maximum of five hours per day. Three of those hours were spent chastizing them for not bringing home stupid daily planners that I personally cared nothing about and then forcing them to complete mindless drills and busywork called 'homework' (Most of which consisted of material that quite obviously should have been completed at some point during the seven hours the school had my kids each day). For the next hour I cooked and served food... and then cleaned the kitchen and washed school uniforms for the hour after that... and then... Oh - wait.. That was the end of my 'quality time' with my kids because by then they passed out from exhaustion.

Unless you count the morning rush of flying cereal and lost belts and socks that don't meet dress code ("If your teacher thinks a bowl of cereal is not a balanced breakfast - tell her to come here and cook for us all every morning... Five minutes - get your backpacks! Wait.. brush your hair! Where's your planner? Did I sign the planner? Go go go!") as bonding-time.

So tomorrow we begin again... I'm up too late because I have those 'first something' jitters and it will take a lot of coffee and thera-flu to get things started....