You’d think, after 13+ “first days of school,” I’d know better than to expect a lot out of today.
I even made it a short day, with few expectations. At least few stated expectations. Apparently what my mouth says and what my mind wants are two totally different things.
I think I expected this year to be different. Kids are getting older, this is getting more routine. I thought this would be old hat by now.
But they are still the same kids that stopped school work two months ago. The ones who hated doing any assigned work and were often slinking off to crochet or draw or read Harry Potter are still those children. The ones that try to distract me for an hour by talking about our schoolwork instead of actually doing any are up to their old tricks. What blows my mind is that I was surprised when they did it again today. Obviously, I’m not the smartest banana in the bunch. 😉 (I like to think of it as being eternally hopeful.)
Luckily, the one that likes getting right down to business and doing what is assigned is still that child, too.
I had hoped that by giving them a loose framework, and saying they are free to do anything they desire within that framework, that they would be excited to have some control and get to work on their favorite subject. Today I realized — I’m sure not for the first time — that it’s ME that likes to work like that, it’s ME that would have loved that as a student. It hasn’t worked for my kids before and it didn’t work today.
So tonight I take some deep breaths, lower my expectations a little more, up my list making skills so they know exactly what it is I want them to do, and start over tomorrow!