Raising Boys~~Homeschooling

I sit here on the couch beside my son, unsure of whether to laugh at the irony or yell in frustration. He is in the throes of a stubborn fit over his reading lesson....the word over which the battle rages is the word SUBMIT. He cries, pulls on his cheeks (an angry habit) and is in constant figeting motion with his hands, twisting and turning, picking and pinching. I (ever so calmly, of course) remind him to fold his hands, put his eyes on the page, sound it out, and READ THE WORD. We are going on 30 minutes with this word, a word I know he can read, and I scribble blog notes and shopping lists to help me keep my own impatience in check.

This is not the plan. The plan for these first years (1 and 2 grade) with these active boys is to focus on the basics and keep it quick. I want the majority of their day to be spent outside, where boys belong. On an average day, we are done with 4-5 subjects in just a little over an hour. We multi-task (their pennmanship is copying out their Bible memory verse, and their reading is the Bible, (the gospel of Luke) devotions, and time with Mom. The math and piano lessons are after those subjects.) and try to keep distractions to a minimum. Right. I remind that distractions and learning to perservere through them is a life-skill that they will need as grown men.

Today, schooling is taking twice as long. It's character time, I hope. Inevitably, this happens on a day when I had planned on going somewhere fun after school. Even that doesn't motivate him. I pray silently for wisdom and patience. And I knit.

Knitting is my secret weapon for the early years of homeschooling. I am able to channel my own figets and frustration, rising temper and plain annoyance at the current events into the needles and string. And, usually, something useful and beautiful is to show from it.

Our plans have cancelled, foiled by a six-year-old who is learning the hard lesson of submission. I am, too.