Some days are like that

It never fails, you tell people about how wonderful something is and the next moment, it doesn't seem so wonderful anymore. I should have guessed that after yesterday's post about the glories of homeschooling that today would not be quite so glorious. So in a continuing effort to portray a realistic view of life, I'll share the less complimentary side of homeschooling.

In homeschooling a lot depends on the parent. So if that parent gets up a little later than she should have it throws everything off. And if that parent has to spend more time than seems necessary on the phone making a doctor's appointment (something I should really, really excel at by now) in order to be a step closer to finishing the homestudy, then that throws everything off as well. And if that parent has very little tolerance for adoption paperwork and is worried about how to get everything done in a timely manner, and if that new doctor's appointment conflicts with something else that needs to be done for that same homestudy, then that parent is not feeling at her most patient and understanding when the family actually gets around to starting school.

That would be starting school amidst more chaos than usual, because little children have been keeping themselves busy while Mommy has been on the phone. It also means that older people must be located because they have taken advantage of the phone call to disappear to do their own thing. The older children are not quick to return, so that means that some small person suddenly finds it difficult to wait which means in her little world it makes sense to take a crayon and color all over her sister's picture. Noise ensued.

We did get to schoolwork. Some people needed more help than usual. Some mothers (I'm not saying who) should have been more understanding and helpful, but some mothers were really wishing they could go back to bed and start the whole day again... maybe tomorrow. Some mothers find it difficult to concentrate on anything except the mounds of paperwork which need to be completed and the writing projects they signed-up for but really wish they hadn't and the various non-adoption paperwork medical needs and appointments that need to be taken care of and getting older, adult children to make the appointments they need to. It's hard to find the brain space to think about phonics. (My biggest pet peeve at the moment is the fact that though my older adult children do not count as children in the house, they still need to have completed medical forms for the homestudy. Do you have any idea how difficult it is to get older children to the doctor much less in a limited time frame in between their busy schedules and when they don't have a car?)

We even managed to build a respiratory system and took many deep breaths as we learned about it all works. This was probably good for all of us.

We survived. It won't go down as the best homeschool day in history, but we did something.

Thank you for attending my little pity party. I hope you had a good time.

I hate adoption paperwork. I despise it with every ounce of my being. It makes me inordinately stressed. More stressed than it really deserves. I would rather go through labor delivering twins than do adoption paperwork. And I can say that because I've done both.