Homeschooling is good for the brain... Mine!

You know all those studies that have been done about Alzheimer's and that one of the recommendations to help ward off the disease is to keep you brain active and learning new things?  I think this must be a little known benefit to homeschooling parents, especially those with more than the average number of children.  There are some mornings where I fear I will suffer from whiplash of the brain.  While many of my children do much of their work independently, sometimes they will have questions they need to ask or comments they need to make.  And since my time is pretty well scheduled with one child or another throughout the whole morning, any questions need to be squeezed in while I'm working with someone else.

This explains why I sometimes find myself discussing the Code of Hammurabi at the same time checking a long division problem (and trying to figure how on earth she managed to get that answer), all the while offering suggestions as to how to word an email to various beekeeping groups.  Or why while I'm helping a son read a book I am also helping a daughter find resources to research Mount Vernon and trying to discuss the causes of the First World War.  It is the trying to think about two completely disparate topics at the same time that I find most challenging.  It is the mental equivalent of trying to do the splits.  Sometimes it gets to be too much and I start talking to the wrong child about a topic meant for another which they either find horribly funny or vaguely vexing.

It is also why I'm trying to write a blog post and at the same time I'm quizzing M. on her French vocabulary for her test demain tomorrow.