Spice of Life

We have good days and bad days since we started doing home school.  Some days Kieren is in his room reading a book enthusiastically and I'm listening in feeling so proud of his improvement.  Some days he transitions from "break" time into lesson time pretty smoothly and totally nails his spelling words or math problems and has fun.  Other days are bad and he puts up a fight when it's time to do a lesson or read a book...and then there are the really, REALLY, epic bad days like today.  Today when it was time to start he screamed at me about how he "hates school" and I am "the worst mom in the universe" (because I told him calmly that his disrespectful attitude would have to stay up on his bed with him and was not allowed in the rest of the house).  When he came out I asked, "can I have a hug?" and his response was, "No, no hugs for you".  I tried to talk with him again and again and finally we were able to have a civil conversati...

We started doing Kieren's schooling at home after Christmas break, if you haven't read "Things I Said I'd Never Do", that will explain why we made that choice.  So last Monday was the first day and I'm not going to sugar coat this people, it's hard as shit.  Instead of "I hate school" and various stories about bullying, not getting enough time to eat and so on, it's directed at me because I'm the teacher now.  "I hate school, I don't want to do school at home", "I just want to play!", "Ughhhhhhhhh".  Then there's trying to keep Zoe entertained while also allowing her to learn the art of entertaining herself.  Before you say "I told you so" just remember I knew it was going to be hard as shit going into it.  I am not the worlds most patient person and although I have a college degree, it was not in teaching.  However I love Kieren deeply and wanted to see him receive the one on one teaching I...