My husband just wrote a post on how awesome homeschooling is. That is really funny considering the day I have had today. For the record, I do agree, at least most of the time, that homeschooling is awesome. I’m glad to be able to teach my children our values, and have a relationship with them.
Today, I want to “stick a fork in my eye,” as Loralee would say. One of the children made it their objective to argue, complain, whine, pick a fight, be defiant, swear, be generally rebellious, and disrespectful. Now that I have consequences for all of these behaviors, this child has a very long list of chores to do, bible verses to write and money to pay. I was calm the entire tirade through. Although I felt like killing afore mentioned child. Even when the child stood up to me and said, “You are *issing me off!” I calmly told them that they could have an extra chore and pay money to the adoption jar. Even after the child decided to rip up the paper I gave to write the verses on, I just picked up the papers, brought more and added more verses.
I feel like a hero. (I hate to say it, but I almost feel triumphant, like I won, which I guess I did.) All that without raising my voice at all.
Normally, homeschooling goes very smoothly. We have a schedule that we follow every day and we try to stick to it. This is the first major outburst we have had all year. But I bet with the consequences there are now, the child will think again about doing what they did today. At least I hope they will, because I’m exhausted!