Getting It Done!

There are so many things that need to get done in this house.  Most of them involve some sort of struggle or fighting.  No one wants to do chores.  No one wants to help cook.  No one wants to take out the trash and recycling.  Most of all, no one wants to do homework.

It's been a constant struggle since school was started to get the kids to do their homework, even the good students when it came to homeschooling.  Once the kids got home from school, they wanted to do fun stuff.  They've been doing school all day.  The last thing they want is to do more school work, especially Creeper.  He gets home latest of the kids (4 pm) and still has to do homework.

As I'm sure you can imagine, the last thing he wants to do is homework, so we try to work someplace fun to work.  The other day it was on the bed in my room, which seems to be his favorite place to work.  This gives him a great chance to have a little more control over his working environment, so as much as he has to do his work, he can at least have some say in how.

How long it takes him to do his work varies.  He's pretty good with math, so that takes him almost no time at all.  It's the writing that ends up being rather time consuming.  He takes a full half hour to do his work on a good day, an hour on a bad day.  It time for me to make dinner by the time he's done with his work.

Still, in spite of it all he manages to get all of his work done most days.  When I'm in charge of his homework he does every page.  When he's left to do it on his own he makes some excuse about how he was told he didn't need to do it.  Then he leaves his homework at home instead of putting it in his bag.  It's been a struggle to get the assignments complete and in school on the day they're due.  It seems like he'd rather not have to do the assignment at all if he could at all help it, and I don't blame him.  It takes him so long to get it done, then has to do his reading on top of it, I wouldn't want to be in his shoes either.

Today was also another great adventure.  We went out to meet a friend at the train station today.  That led to an interesting walk home, and a wonderful snack of donuts and fritters.  Pinkie was with us after a trip to the ER yesterday.  She wasn't hurting too bad so she opted for the walk.  It reminded me of what things were like when we used to homeschool.  We always used to go on the grandest adventures.

I miss the days I went out with all the kids to the library or just out for a walk.  We used to have all sorts of adventures, or moments like this tree hugging one here.  It was fun having them all along, and it actually meant getting out of the house more.  We had so much more to do all the time, which helped.

I'm looking forward to more days when we can get out of the house, especially when the weather gets nicer.  It's going to mean we have more freedom to go out, though that's a long ways off.  I really miss having the freedom to do that any day, but I think we'll just have to make more of our weekends.

That's one thing I miss about homeschooling.  The name was so misleading.  We were almost never home.  We were out having adventures, hiking in the woods.  We had so much more to do.  I miss that.  It was so much better than being stuck in the house all the time, waiting for this bus or that one.  True, I was able to go back to school easier once the kids were in school, but my class availability is extremely restricted because I can't even leave my house until almost 9 and have to be home by 2.  That means cramming all my classes into the morning.  It's been a good week, but it's been frustrating too.  I really miss homeschooling and the kids do too.