Difficult Days

Mom’s who are home educators are often telling others about how great home schooling is. There are many reasons why thisis true. When a new concept is understood and the light dawns in the child’s eyes there is nothing that can compare to that feeling. I sometimes wonder if this everything is great attitude has enticed more than one mom to give home education a try only to be frustrated when everything isn’t all giggles and sunshine.

Bearing the sole responsibility for the education of your child is dauntingly hard work. Some days, especially when you are first starting out and planning the curricula you want. That is probably the biggest fear, the big “what do I do?” Many times we even start out with one curricula that we have spent very good money on, only to discover that the format doesn’t work with our child’s learning style and we have to go back to the proverbial drawing board to seek out another great product.

Then there comes the days of actual school work. The ins and outs of homeschool. Some days really are all you ever dreamed they would be. Some days, however, are NOT sunshine days.  These days, like today, are filled with stress, struggles, and a lot of butting heads. As the educator/mom, you have a desired plan for the day or possibly the week or quarter and you find that your child isn’t on board with completing the tasks at hand. There are many reasons why this may be; perhaps they are bored, tired, frustrated or even completely lost. They really are their own little person with their own thoughts, feelings and struggles. Most days, I am pretty good about being flexible and reworking the plan to fit my sons needs. Today was not that day. I’ve recently been dealing with the struggle of my 8 year old son trying to assert his need for control over me. It isn’t just me, he is doing it with many women in his life, his gym teacher and piano teacher for instance. I reached my limit today. After much tears on both of our parts, we finished up school on task. I figured that we had made progress only to sit and listen as he tried to exert control over his piano lesson, then later in the evening when it was near bed time, he again tried to exert control by telling me what he was going to do rather than asking for permission to do what he desired.

Aaah parenthood, tomorrow is another day.