Finally, Friday!

This week seemed so long!  I guess after having two weeks off with the holidays, getting back to school and our routine was harder than I'd expected.  Preparing for semester finals didn't make it any easier.

I got up later than usual this morning.  Getting up early everyday must have worn me out, because I didn't even open my eyes till 6:45, then stayed in bed till almost 8 am.  That's very unlike me; I'm a morning person, and I like to get going bright and early.  It wasn't until I heard my oldest son coughing up a lung that I even stirred.  Poor kid, he's feeling bad but he has a good attitude about it.  He was off from work today, and he stayed home trying to rest and recover, which is good.  I finally got up and got moving, making breakfast and looking at E's schedule for today.  It's been hard getting everything done because all his pretests, assignments and reviews have been overwhelming.  Today is the first day that he's caught up, and it's Friday.  That should give an idea of what our week has been like.

E had his Algebra review test along with his Hope collaboration, and he had his English thesis to turn in.  We started on Algebra at 10:00 am, an hour later than usual.  As I said, I was running late.  He began working on it but stopped at 11:00 and headed over to his live lesson.  The collab was super easy.  Basically he just had to participate with the entire group, answering questions from the semester review.  Once he was done I started on lunch: macaroni and cheese, and Tyson chicken strips.  Actually, the boys had the chicken strips; my daughter and I had breaded shrimp.  Now, when I say macaroni and cheese, I don't mean Kraft or Velveeta.  This isn't boxed mac and cheese.  This is me making a rue, adding milk and cheese to make an actual cheese sauce, then adding the elbow macaroni and baking it in the oven with bread crumbs over the top.  My kids won't eat boxed mac and cheese after eating this stuff.  Trust me, it's delicious.

After lunch E sat down again to work on his Algebra pretest, but he was so distracted.  Many of the questions are long, detailed word problems.  A lot were from lessons that he'd done well on but he didn't remember how they were done.  That's the problem with Algebra: you do the work, then put it in the back of your mind because there's a new system to learn.  When the tests come, it takes a moment (or two, or three) before it all comes back.  With my son, the idea that he has to do 58 problems and he can't remember all the steps to solving them gets him flustered.  Suddenly, the room is too hot, his head is hurting, he can't think straight, he's tired of sitting, yada yada yada.  I have to sit there with him and remind him that if he were in school there would be no excuses.  He finally finished the pretest, and he got a 74.  We are gonna have to go over a lot of these concepts if he's gonna bring his grade up.  I see many hours of studying over the weekend.  What fun.

Thankfully, he did get his English thesis submitted.  His sister reviewed it, made a few corrections, and it's done.  Now he has 5 final exams to prepare for.  I'm thinking that he should just do his Hope exam over the weekend so he can focus on the other classes, like algebra and science, which are harder.  It'll take some convincing; working over the weekend is not his cup of tea.  But as I've told him before, if he were back in school he'd be doing homework every weekend.  As it stands now, he rarely has to work over the weekend, so he should be thankful for that.  Besides, he'll have a short week once these exams are over.  Best to get it all done so he can enjoy his time off.

That has been my entire day.  School.  I cooked, I cleaned up the kitchen, and I fixed my bed.  I did no other housework, I went nowhere, I did nothing else.  My day was absorbed with homeschooling.  Some days I think, ugh, I'm exhausted!  I'm so stressed!  But then I remember when he was in school.  I was equally tired, equally stressed, and I spent more time on school than we do now.  There were weeks when it was never ending homework assignments, projects, shopping for projects, computer work, reading, and weekends that were always work filled.  There were time restraints and deadlines; not that there aren't any now, but homeschooling is so much more flexible.  He no longer comes home saying he didn't understand the lesson because the class was distracting the teacher.  He doesn't complain about his teachers; instead, he loves them and is so appreciative of them.  When I think about all that, I know it's worth the effort.  This is what is best for my son, and for my family.  Rather than see this as a burden, I see it as a blessing.

I need some rest.  I'm gonna shower, and take it easy.  God bless and good night to all.