Start of 2012-2013 School Year

We officially started our school year on Tuesday September 4, 2012.   The kids were SUPER excited!   I was SUPER excited!  We got every bit of the schoolwork I wrote into my weekly planner DONE each day..whoohoo!

Monkey concentrating on his Explode the Code worksheets

Then came week 2 and week 3 and the mental and emotional crashes from both kids as well as ME!  We were lucky if we got half of each days schoolwork done.  And there were lots of yelling and tears from both sides of the school desk :(.  You would think that since I have experienced the "It's No Longer Fun, but Actual Work, Beginning of the School Year" melt downs from the kids for 2 years (this being our 3rd year homeschooling), that I would have dealt with it better.  But nope!  Even though I knew it was coming, I still reacted badly.  Which then got the kids more frustrated, then I got more frustrated...and the wheel of bad reactions just keeps going.  You get the picture. 

Needless to say I spent lots of time praying or rather asking, then demanding that God intervene before I totally lost it on one or both of my kids.  Why am I torturing myself?  Why am I torturing them?  Am I really the right person to teach them?  Satan kept creeping into my mind with self doubt.  So much so, that I couldn't sleep last night and my tummy was irritated all night long.  Finally at 5am I got up and got on my hands and knees and prayed.  I had 3 people on my mind all night.  One of them being Monkey.  He is my most challenging child of the two.  He speaks Boy and I speak Girl.  He is an Audio Visual and out of the box learner.  I am more of a Kinesthetic and in the box type of learner.  We clash...A LOT!  So I prayed that I was teaching what GOD wanted to me to teach them (in both academics and in life training).  I asked if I should continue homeschooling.

God answered me today.  When the kids got up I told them that we wouldn't be doing any schoolwork today because Mommy felt sick.  I went to lie down on the couch in the livingroom and immediately Monkey pulls out the Twister game.  Monkey and Bean play Twister for about an hour.  Both were having fun and LEARNING..even though I wasn't "teaching".  Through Twister they were learning colors, shapes, the right and left sides of their bodies, giving and receiving directions (from each other...and not arguing about it..SMILE), and body flexibility.  Woohoo!  A couple hours later I had a chiropractor appointment and I told the kids to pack up a few things to keep them occupied at the Chiro.  Bean brought her Disney Princess book and a stuffed animal.  Monkey packed his portable DVD player, earphones, and his co-op 3 ring binder.  While waiting for my appointment, Bean and I read her book, with me pointing to the words that I know she can read by herself.  Meanwhile Monkey sets himself up on the floor...



Monkey at the Chiropractors Office multitasking.  Watching a "Where In The World Is Carmen San Diego" geography/history DVD while writing the names of all the characters of his favorite TV show "Good Luck Charlie" in his notebook.

God showed me today that my children are learning what HE wants them to learn and that even though it may seem like I am not getting through to them, HE is giving me what I need to teach them in life and academics.  Little morsel of knowledge are seeping into their ever growing brains everyday, in everything that we do together.  God also reminded me that when things are getting crazy with homeschooling, to back off, cool down, and allow my kids own creativity and desire to learn to take off because in the end, they really do like "school".  And often times their best "schoolwork" is done in the most random places at the most random times.  And by looking at this picture..in the most awesome costumes!  :)  I have a really smart and handsome "Wolverine" Monkey Boy!

And so her brother doesn't get all of the spotlight, here is my cutie patootie Bean Girl (aka Wonderwoman)

Wonder Woman