NOT Back to School Reality

If you are looking for a feel good, homeschooling rocks kind of post, this isn't for you. If you are more of a homschooling isn't always easy but I am grateful for the opportunity to develop my children's and my own character, keep reading!

Today was our first day NOT back to school. I am a planner so the books have been on the shelf since May, and much of the prep work done long before this week. However, we had a super crazy summer and there was more than usual on the last minute To Do list this weekend. Even so, we woke up to start school today ready. I had planned a slow start: Bible, Math, Language Arts for this week, adding in History and Science next week.

 I planned to finish by lunch and take the kids to the pool to enjoy the summer while its here. What a wonderful first day of Kindergarten for ds (or so I had planned . . . ). And then reality happened. 

We actually got off to a pretty good start. Over breakfast we did our first We Choose Virtues character quality "Diligence." We will be highlighting one virtue a week. Ron joined us for that and Bible. Bible was our first uh, well, maybe this isn't going to work for the day. I love what we use, but reality says that running 2 levels of Bible Study Guide for all Ages and still doing Bible "together" is not going to work. I need to reevaluate here, maybe just keep E on the beginner pages another year, I doubt she will mind! We also started TRUTH 66 Bible memory. 

I sent E off to practice piano while I did Right Start math with C. We finished the lesson in about five minutes. OK, I am all about a slow start, but that was not gonna cut it. I added lesson 2, barely a hiccup. I can see doing 3+ lessons a day for awhile though. Good thing my online planner has a good bumping feature!  

E then started on math, review for her, so nothing traumatic. Though in typical E fashion 20 minutes worth of work took around 45. While she worked on math I did Phonics with C, again review, so nothing groundbreaking. I really wanted to ease him into Kindergarten.  

 First K lesson of Handwriting without Tears. He was thrilled when I told him he didn't need a pencil for handwriting today!

E then worked on Explode the Code (which she "loves!" in her words), handwriting, Writing with Ease, and a review lesson from All About Spelling (since we stopped mid level). E loves doing spelling on the whiteboard app on the iPad so that is always a highlight for her!

By 11:45 we were finished (well all except for First Language Lessons which I forgot to do, and our read aloud which we planned to do later). Dinner was even in the crockpot! I made lunch, the kids got into their swimsuits while both muttered things like "that's it?" We're done?!?" I smiled to myself, so pleased that the morning had gone so well and the kids were happy. Nothing like the drudgery they had complained about and anticipated! Even the toddler loved the activities I had ready for her and did well. After lunch the kids played while I cleaned up and got ready. The bag was packed, suits on, and I asked the kids to clean up, gave them a few minutes and then asked if they were done. They said yes and we went to leave. And then, REALITY. 

I knew the day had gone too smoothly. Toys were everywhere. This is the third time they have lied about cleaning up this week. UGH. The great thing about homeschooling is the character flaws of our children are glaring. They can't be hidden outside your view from 8-3. Lying is so not tolerated and apparently I had not gotten my point across the the other two times it had happened this week. So, reality says you lied to get to the pool faster, you can clean up and not go to the pool at all. What happened next was even more of a debacle. Things were not cleaned properly to which the rule is if I pick up toys left out after you have declared it clean those toys belong to me. I can choose to throw it away, yard sale it, or allow it to be "purchased" back. Well, sure enough E's new American Girl doll got confiscated among many other things leading to the meltdown of the century. I warned you this wasn't a warm and fuzzy post! So instead of the pool, we ended up with a few chapters of a read aloud and rest time. 

I am a firm believer in reality discipline, but ugh how I hated to take this away from them today. *I*  had expectations for today. I wanted today to be fun, a great way to remember the first day back, especially for C, his first day of kindergarten. Well, I hope it is memorable because training my kids hearts is the most important thing.  I had to sacrifice the NOT back to school story I had envisioned and replace it with real homeschooling life! :) This summer was uncharacteristically lax in our house, and now we are paying the price. I am grateful for the return to structure and consistency! 

Is it bad that I feel slightly better that is just started raining?