It Must Be Said

We are finally starting school tomorrow!  Tuesday and Wednesday didn't work because of doctors' appointments and when I suggested starting today (Molly's birthday) she nearly broke down in tears begging for us NOT to start on her birthday.

Now, this brings me to this post.  If we were the poster perfect homeschool family, my daughter would have jumped up and down and declared that starting school on her birthday is the best present ever.  She would have wept and the prospect of NOT starting school on her birthday.  All the children would be begging me daily to "Please, oh please, can we start school today!!"

Here is the reality of it.  My daughter did almost cry at the thought of starting school on her birthday.  Others in the home have been more than happy to push off our start date indefinitely.  Actually, I got a groan out of one or two of them when I told them we are starting tomorrow.   So, for those of you that are discouraged because YOUR kids don't jump up and down with glee at the thought of school, I am here to encourage you.  Neither do mine!

Does this make me a bad teacher?  I don't think so.  Does this mean we are doing something wrong in our schooling?  While I don't think we have the perfect system here, I don't think there is some huge flaw in it either.  So what is it then?  Well, I think my kids, like most people, really enjoy the freedom of summer.  They don't particularly like doing hard things, either.  So, when school comes along and requires them to apply themselves to learning and takes away a large chunk of their free time, they DON'T LIKE IT.

Tomorrow will dawn and at 9:00 we will sit down and commence our school year.  If this year is like the ones in the past, I will find my desk covered with apples and other produce that my students bring me on the first day of school.  We will laugh and cry and learn together for the next nine months.  Some days my students will be happy, some days they will be sullen.  Some days we will make it through the lesson plan in record time and other days we will still be schooling at four in the afternoon.  There will be projects that are fun and actually work and there will be projects that the kids HATE and don't work.  And that is how it's going to be here.

For those of you with perennially happy, cheerful, obedient students - I am happy for you!  Enjoy it!

For those of you who persevere through the thick and think of schooling your sometimes eager, sometimes stubborn students - hang in there, I know what you're going through :-)