Eastern View

The Way of it…

So, some days… homeschooling doesn’t go so well.  Or maybe it is just a bit more challenging, more often than I expected it to be this year.  Or maybe it’s my attitude (probably more often than not.) Or maybe I need to really get rid of the distractions… (Helllooo, Facebook, anyone?)  Or possibly it’s just because this has been kind of a rough year…

Last year, being wet behind the ears with it, I employed a few things to kind of help us get by.  They were computer programs mostly, that the kids could work independently on. It was fantastic, because it freed up some time for me to do my normal “around the house and such” things.  I still had a bit of a life. (Ha!)

This year, I am “taking things a bit more seriously” and have thrown out the “patch jobs”, as I call them. Instead of doing math and language arts on the computer, we’re… not.  Which means a lot more one on one teaching time for me.  This is not a bad thing; it’s just a time consuming thing.  Also, this year, Selah is a first grader, and therefore requires a bit more focus from me as well.  So… I’m stretched a little thin.  Throw in soccer practices, church youth group, and hubby’s schedule, and I’m stretched so thin, I’m transparent.

These changes have required me to be a little more disciplined.  (Just when I thought I was doing so well!) I am not a morning person.  But if I want to get a jump on my day, get a work-out in, have a few minutes of solitude, I have to get up early.  This is hard for me, especially with winter drawing near and a comfy warm bed hugging me tight in the morning.  (I really should have requested some in-floor heating!)

So yeah, everything is not always roses and sunshine. Homeschooling has (quite a few) difficult days.  But I’m chalking it up as learning experience, and opportunity to grow and change for the better. And I trust that with every hour of hard work I log, things will get easier in the future.  (Right?!)

Post Script:  And next year, maybe next semester, I think I will try to find some legit computer programs to help lessen the load for myself a bit.  No shame in that!

Miss Selah

This girl has been the cause of many giggles, proud moments, and exasperated ones, and lots of heart-tugging thoughts.  She is in the stage of asking questions about everything.  “Why” questions.  I know, this is a stage most kids go through at about the age of four.  But for Selah, it’s seven.  Which also means some of the questions are harder than your average 4 year old would ask.  She is incredibly impressionable right now too, and takes every word that is said literally and seriously.

Last night, daddy brought us home some piping hot fries for a treat.  He said to me that he knew the fries would steal my heart.  Later on, he encountered Selah, sitting bolt upright in her bed, eyes wide, looking a little flummoxed.

“Daddy?” she says in her tiny little high pitched voice, “is it true that french fries will steal your heart?!”  Poor girl was terrified her heart was going to be missing the next morning.

Lately she’s had an obsession with the word “illegal.”  She doesn’t totally understand what the word means, but she gets the gist of it.  I have been asked all manner of questions about which things are or are not “illegal.”  We were learning about columbines last week.  (And as a side note, you should know that Selah absolutely loves flowers and gardening of any sort.) I mentioned that it is illegal to pick them in the wild.  A few minutes later, a crushed looking Selah dissolved into tears in my lap.  When I finally got her to tell me what was wrong, she said, “I don’t wanna go near any wild columbines anymore!  They’re illegal!”

And my personal favorite, she calls us older people, “adultments.”