Homeschool Meltdown

"Just one more week, just one more week, just one more week." 

This is the mantra that this homeschooling mama has been repeating all day long.  There is just something about the first week in May that makes us all start to twitch.  The 78 degree days, sunshine, and green grass tease us endlessly.  The outdoors beckon us.  The birds sing sweet melodies as they bask in the sunshine, and the occasional fly buzzes at the window, signaling the beginning of warmer weather. It also signals the beginning of an unexplained phenomenon in my house called "homeschool meltdown".

These days the forces of spring are so powerful that it takes super-human strength for my children to stay in their seats during school hours.  The warm weather puts my children into a state of frenzy.  They wake up and run around the yard in their pajamas until breakfast.  We start school at 8a.m. on the dot, and their bottom lips begin to pout.  They stare longingly out the window as they do their seatwork, and it's hard for them to concentrate.  It's nearly torture for me to teach them on beautiful days like this.  It's criminal.

One of my best friends bought me this antique sign at a swanky local boutique.  I cracked up when she presented it to me because its meanings are vast.  It speaks volumes about the way I feel today.  It was definitely a S-L-O-W school zone at our house today.  And I do mean, SLOW.   The day crawled by, and my kids were a little "slow on the up-take" with all of the distractions outside.  New material should never be introduced during the first week in May.  It should be outlawed. My kids' minds are in a spring induced delirium.

For this gal who will forever prefer to be working outside, it takes divine help to get through the last two weeks of teaching school.  During the first week in May, I start every morning prayer with a petition to Jesus for strength to get through the school day.  Please don't misunderstand me....I LOVE to teach my kids.  Just not in May.  I would rather be fixing fence, gardening, pulling weeds....anything that involves fresh air and sunshine.

By the first week in May:

-The homeschooling cabinet is a disorganized mess.
-The books are shoved in  haphazardly.
-Every pencil in the house is either missing an eraser or is 2 inches long.
-Not one child can find a "red" crayon in their pencil box.
-The pencil sharpener is coming out of the wall. (But I'm happy to report that it is still working!)
-The glue sticks are dried out.
-The dry erase markers are used up.
-Every tray in the watercolor palette is now some varying shade of brown.
-The scissors are scattered around the yard.
-The zippers to every backpack are broken.

These are the symptoms that the school year must end quickly. As far as I'm concerned, summer break can't come soon enough! When the last lesson is taught, and the last test is graded, and the last paper is turned in....then, and ONLY then... my heart will sing, "Free at last, free at last!"

Longing to feel sunshine,

Nell