Homeschool Start Up and Nearly 13

School is in full swing now.  Day 3 today.  I'm actually so glad that sometimes the world chooses the date to start for me.  As homeschoolers I can start whenever I want, but knowing myself, I would never start.  Summer went the fastest it has ever gone as far as I'm concerned.  That makes me sad, but at least the weather is still warm.  I was enjoying summer soooooo much, school seemed a lifetime away.  But routines needed to be started, chores I'd been putting off needed to be rebooted and I'm kind of happy about that.

I'm definitely a much more laid back homeschooler now.  Yes I had my schedules made and printed out, even all my little chore pack lists, but I was super lax on getting school supplies knowing I had old pencils, etc., from last year.  This really upset my one son!  How can  you start school without new pencils?!  I refused to be in the shopping chaos and so I will go this weekend to get the final supplies.  My poor deprived children.

I'm not sure if I mentioned that the 9 year old declared a gap year.  Yes, he wants to take this year off - to travel, make some money and just not do school.  After how the first two days have gone, I can see why - he just doesn't like being chained to a desk.  Doing school work is just ridiculous to him.  I've seen tears in 3 kids already.  This is not for any reason other than I asked them to open their math books.  The 9 year old took about 20 minutes to do that.  He just couldn't seem to bring himself to open it.  Then, when he did, and he got to the first question, he couldn't immediately remember the answer to a multiplication question.....he lost it.  My older sons walk around the kitchen as they see the younger ones with tears and they just look at me with eyes that say, "What can they possibly be crying about?!!!  Times tables?????!!!!!"  Yup.  I actually make them do times tables and because they don't remember immediately, I get the drops coming out of their eyes.  It's almost funny if it weren't so pathetic!   They would NEVER cry like that in school.  Ah....the nature of being at home I guess.

I will say the best thing I ever did was have them write about their life.  That same 9 year old who wouldn't do any math must have written for 45 minutes about all his summer injuries.  Spelling mistakes were rampant, but I didn't even ask him to write.  He just ran to the couch and stated, "I have to write about all my accidents this summer!"  That was a dream come true to most parents of boys!  So that was a great part of the day!

Around noon and 3, when I let them officially escape, though I caught the 9 year old outside many more times than he was supposed to be outside yesterday, a hush falls over the house....the kids are nowhere near me.  They run for their lives!  What a great life they lead.

My 12 year old is nearly 13 in a couple weeks.  How I've prayed for him as he's clearly getting older, more mature, not as interested in the little boy things, longing to be with the older siblings and their gang of friends.  I always beg God to take over as I feel so inadequate to parent these boys and this age group.  And so He does.  I've watched as each one of my boys develops an interest in a certain area that is always out of the blue, perhaps bees, weapons collections, drones, cars, whatever...it's often an area that is out of nowhere.  This son is no different.  I've watched him learn about all sorts of things without me initiating anything.  He has taught himself ukelele, trampoline tricks, bmx tricks, and now recently he's discovered a unique interest in old riding lawnmowers that he plans on fixing and selling.  On the first day of school he went and picked one up with my husband and brought back a broken riding mower which, according to my husband, should be an easy fix.  Then yesterday on my husband's way home from work, he saw 2 more riding mowers for free on the side of the road!  So we're picking those up this weekend!  My son is set for projects this fall/winter and I couldn't be happier.

These are great things for me to remember and reflect on when anxious thoughts try to enter into my head.  I don't need to worry.  God is the true parent, I just work for Him.  These kids are on loan to me, not my ultimate responsibility, His.  That takes the load off of me.

Hopefully today there will be less tears.  Each day is a restart.  Routines will get set in place.  They'll learn.  I'm glad for the laughs throughout the day and even the tears. I can always laugh about them later on as I explain the day to my husband.  They'll look back one day and laugh, too, I hope.