When everyday feels like Monday
Yep, it's Monday.
My children have asked already "When is the last day of school, again??" In the past, I would retrieve my planner and give them the exact date that I had written down. However after taking a deep breath (because I was knee-deep in completing a project that I'm participating in...#HVC2021...stay tuned!!), I looked up at my daughter and replied "I don't know. Whenever y'all finish the work you need to complete." She looked baffled and I understood why. She wanted a concrete answer so that she could mentally prepare herself to accept how many days she has remaining before the school year ends. I had to disappoint her because I honestly didn't know. Truth be told, every year I plan a start date and an end date, and we never start/end as planned. Why? Because life happens. We get sick. We are tired. We have to go out of town. We have to reteach a lesson for the third week in a row. (Or, my kids' favorite) It's raining outside. (Yep! It's a thing! I don't cave in as much as I used to when they were younger. One of our girls used to have pretty bad anxiety when it rained while she was in public school, so we would make rainy days 'pajama & blanket' day in our early homeschool days. Now, the kids are slowly getting over slight trauma from experiencing tropical storms & hurricanes, so it calms them when we take a mental break when it's rainy sometimes).
Well, Earth Day came & I forgot to plan a lesson because this was a week where I just was too tired to plan much. We traveled to visit family the weekend prior for a funeral and frankly I need like two days to recoup my energy when we visit & are overly social (introvert life!). So, I knew my kids were really enjoying playing on the Minecraft server my oldest daughter created for them, so I quickly thought about using that to my advantage. I gave them 3 days to create an eco-friendly living area, and then to explain what they created & why. They enjoyed completing it, it was easy, they learned about different methods of creating an eco-friendly lifestyle, they worked together without much complaining, and most importantly they enjoyed completing it (I know I typed it already!). Sweet & simple mini lesson that consisted mostly of my older kids taking over the Earth Day lesson by leading dialogue and talking about things they had knowledge of already. The cool part for me was that we can connect their tablets to our tv so we were able to get a big screen view of their creations and I do believe they were proud of what they created! Sometimes we don't have all the answers or all of the plans. This is how I feel every Monday, even when I actually DO have the plans! We chose this homeschool life and that includes accepting all of the highs and lows that go along with. Just think, many of those times when we think we are performing the worst as parents & homeschool teachers is when our kids are actually more excited about learning & being loved by us! Keep it up NaConda! Even on a Monday, you are rocking it! Remember to keep your heart & mind FULL of HOPE! NaConda