Here we are...in our homeschooling room sitting on the red seventies era carpet. I am trying to 'teach' my six year old about the Compass Rose. Just in case you were not focused on your teacher during grade one and missed what that is...It helps you figure out what directions you are headed on a map or compass. Let me preface this lovely story but letting you know that first of all my six year old has a fractured ankle right now and is in more pain then usual because her baby brother twisted her leg and fell on her ankle today, second of all she has a hard time focusing on a good day, and lastly she could care less about the Compass Rose.... because she is six!
I try to explain how important it was for early explorers and how runaway slaves used the North Star and how if she was lost in the woods today she would want to know how this works and what a Compass Rose is... but I can see her eyes wandering.
I wonder, I just wonder if it is because her little brother is SITTING on the globe I have out to show her where the North and South Pole and Equator are? He is saying, 'look guys I am sitting on a matoe' (I am sitting on a tomato), next he is running back and forth across the world map I have spread out on the floor yelling, 'Look a pirate!!!!' I am trying to yell above him....'So the Sun rises in the EAST in CANADA;' and the six year old is saying, 'what planet is that?' and pointing to a spot of PAINT on the map then I am trying to explain about the solar system and how the earth is a planet and that there are continents on our planet and no one is really listening as the baby then launches himself onto the six year old to giver her a big hug and I am trying to protect her ankle, and the ten year old is just laughing hysterically and I start to yell like my grandpa and so the baby starts parroting everything I am saying and THAT my friends....is how we homeschool here.
Oh my word!
I am going crazy.
I ask my six year old a couple hours later...'So what is the Compass Rose?' and she says...'Ummm...South East West?'
Its a start I guess. Its a start.
I dont know how you other homeschooling mothers do it but I just dont have the mojo. It is all just crazy town every day. The two year old will not do puzzles or playdough or color or any other thing all he wants to do talk endlessly when I am talking and ask his siblings to play with him over and over during any sort of teaching I attempt to do.
Today I want to throw in the towel and say forget it. I am done...School and day care for you all!!!! I am going to get a job with sane adults!!!! Deep down I know that in the end it will be worth it for them ~ I know it is the best for them right now, at least I hope it is!! I just have to try to not morph into my yelling grandpa voice and keep trying to channel the angelic patience my mother displayed during her homeschooling career. I am trying okay but today the baby yelled oh my gosh, what the hell and shut up....so we'll see how this keep progressing.
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