Still working on the school frustration thing. I talked with Hubby about it and he mentioned that the fact that the older boys don’t have desks to work at bugs him a little. They love to lay on the floor to do their work. I do too, so it’s hard for me [...]

I don’t remember if I have told you lately about my frustration levels. They’ve been rather high.
We started school almost 4 weeks ago, and it took me all of 2 days to announce that this is the last year I’m planning to keep the older boys at home. On top of that, I [...]

Just yelled my head off and sent all the boys to their rooms.
It started this morning when I was fetching dirty laundry and asked The Mercenary to bring any stray clothes down to my room so I could sort and wash them. (Note that I do all the washing, drying, and folding [...]

So, here we are at the several-weeks-into-the-school-year point, and things are going well. I KNOW! Wonderful, in’nt it?
The older boys have finally stepped over to the dark side. They actually believe that they can do the work set before them. On top of that, when I assign a task, they [...]

Sing the Hokey Pokey to learn left and right.
Spin in circles while practicing your counting to 100
Offer a choice: “Do you want to read on the red couch or the brown couch today?”
Act out stories with Papo figures.
Draw a picture of the story you just read.
Go on a bike ride in the middle of the [...]

photo credit: Busko
The older boys have been a lot more independent with their school schedule this year. Today there was a bit more computer-game-playing happening than I liked, so I called them on it.
Me: Have you done your Spanish lesson yet?
TechnoBoy: No…I’ll do it now.
momentary pause
TechnoBoy: Have YOU done your Spanish lesson yet?
Me: [...]