I want to be more excited than I am. In my mind, we were going to spend a minimum of 3 hours each day learning. Jonah would happily go from subject to subject, completing all of his work, asking questions, and wanting to learn more. I know, I know, that was all very silly of me, but sometimes I get so carried away with my plans of how things are going to be that I forget that reality rarely follows plans.
The first day we finished our lessons after just over 2 hours. I asked some of my homeschooling friends, is this right? Should we be done already? Did I miss something? 2 hours is fine, they said. You're still learning throughout the day, even if it's not as structured as that specific time you sit down and call it homeschooling. Besides, it's kindergarten. Most of the learning happens just from living life.
Jonah was not as curious or as excited as I expected either. He did the work, some of it begrudgingly, and tried to get out of some of the things he didn't like as much. "Maybe I'll just finish this later, Mom." I let him get away with that, once. I don't want to push too hard and make him dislike the things he already dislikes even more. But the work still needs to be done.
I forgot math today. We got through the rest of the subjects, and later on, while I was at a doctor appointment, I realized we skipped math. The one subject Jonah is the best at and is flying through, and makes him feel super smart right now, and we skipped it.
The kids have always loved doing projects, and we had two days this week with projects that involved painting. Yes, painting. With a three year old and a four year old, while the one year old runs around trying to grab things off the table. I don't know why I did that to myself this first week. Maybe because I thought it would be fun for the kids and that would be worth it. They lasted for two minutes the first day. The second day they made it seven minutes. That's less time than setup and cleanup took me.
All this to say, the first week had its challenges. But we also had good moments. Jonah can count to 30 with no problem. He can hold a writing utensil correctly now, something I thought was going to take weeks if not longer to correct. The kids love to read. They know the first 12 books of the Bible by heart. Jonah can remember the basic plot from our chapter book from day to day.
These are the successes I'm holding onto. This is not going to be easy. I'm still figuring out how to include teaching and preparing in my day to day life, along with all the other household things. Most days I feel like there's not enough time for everything I want to do, and I have to remind myself that my free time doesn't always win. It doesn't always lose either, though.
We are learning the balance, bit by bit. Who knows what we will learn next week?
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