Six Months Later.

In my head, my homeschool would run like a ship. Kids up and dressed, reporting for morning prayers, flag salute, and scripture study at nine A.M. By then their teeth and hair would be brushed, their rooms straightened, and their little spirits cheerfully prepared for another day of schoolin' by Mom.

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAAHAAHAAHAAAAAA!

Two words: Saxon Math. Saxon Math was our undoing.

Animal is doing Grade 1 Saxon math. It's tons of fun: flashcards, blocks, rubber bands and pegs to make shapes, teddy bears to represent units, etc. Seriously fun.

Scooter is doing Grade 4 Saxon math. It's no fun at all: here's the lesson, here's 26 homework questions on top of 10 mental math questions and 5 lesson questions. There's an arithmetic test every day, and a unit test every ten lessons. It's boring, and, worse, it TAKES FOREVER each day. Also, there are tears from both of us, along with some yelling, also from both of us. Clearly, it is not for us. Just knowing he has to do math every day is enough to turn him from a cautiously optimistic homeschooler to a rebellious math hater.

I see a light at the end of the tunnel, though. We started his new math curriculum today, and the change was immediate. Using his base blocks to skip count and find the area of rectangles, realizing that he was multiplying without pulling out his hair, and seeing that worksheets have only 8 to 10 questions on them was enough to get him truly excited about math, and homeschooling, again. Phew.

Thank you, Math U See. The DVD is brilliant, and I am contemplating buying the skip count CD of songs, because Animal will be starting Math U See next year.

The philosophy of homeschooling that I follow is all about short lessons: 10-15 minutes per subject. In all other subjects, we were able to pull this off. Now math has joined the ranks of the brief but meaningful.

As for the morning ceremonies, they're up to me. We do them when I'm on my game in the morning. Unfortunately, I like to snooze well past wake-up time. It's a matter of self-discipline.