Why We Don't Homeschool In The Morning Or How To Make Your Life Easier!

I was thinking this morning about how nice our days are and then that made me think about when I first started...don't even want to tell you how long ago but let's just say Bush and not George W. (dubbya) was in office.  

What I found was that EVERY so called "expert" or homeschooling mom would tell you (and still do)  is what I like the call "The Homeschool Mom Protocol":  get breakfast, do chores and then start school and be done by noon or 1 (lunch time).  I tried this...really...for years I tried this.  And every morning SUCKED!  I started thinking that if I had to fight like this to get crap done I'd rather send the kids to school and if you know me, that's pretty bad since I'm a HUGE proponent of homeschooling.  

And then....



I decided to not do anything but let the kids play first thing in the morning.....
    ......And our life began to look like what I thought homeschooling could be. 



Then I got wild.....and I started asking the kids what they wanted for breakfast instead of me dictating what they were going to have.  We made out a list of things they liked to eat and what days they wanted them (for my sake)..........and mornings got even better!  No fighting about not wanting oatmeal~

And if that worked......I asked them what they liked for dinner and we made a weekly chart for it.  My cravat on this was it had to be easy or in a crockpot.....and our nights started becoming better.  Daddy's started coming home to a happy house.

now we were on a roll.....we decided that they would do some math and english before lunch and then.....
 .....before dinner they'd do Science and Social Studies and more joy prevailed!


my point???

Stop looking to the "experts" to tell you how YOU need to run YOUR house.  If the kids are running around the house madly first thing in the morning, maybe you need to do afternoon school or even Gasp!!!  evening school!  Maybe you do all your work after dinner!!  Just reading that for some of you may seem like a relief and for others you are cringing right now.    If your kids are full of energy, maybe break everything into small pieces like,  just this one and now run around and come back for the next one or give me the answer while your jumping rope!  But either way...ask your kids what THEY would like to do.  How would it feel if your husband told you exactly how to vacuum or grocery shop or some other thing?  Wouldn't that be annoying?  You bet it would!  So why not let the kids tell you what they may like to do.  What's it going to hurt?  Probably nothing so why fight over it?? Seriously!

Better a dry crust eaten in peace than a house filled with feasting--and conflict.

                                                                            NLT  Prov. 17:1

A bowl of vegetables with someone you love is better than steak with someone you hate.
                                                                           NLT Prov. 15:17


Now go!  Find your families' joy!