Buddy, We Have a Long Way to Go.

This is pretty much what I told my oldest son today...and yesterday. I hate to be negative, especially when I would prefer for my children to look back on their school years with something that resembles fondness. I'd hate to think that they remember their schoolin' with me and shudder at the memories. Yet I was at a loss and totally frustrated as my son acted like he was at a loss and totally shocked that we would sit down to do school on a weekday morning, as we have every weekday morning for as long as he can remember. I said to him "It is Thursday. Didn't you know that we would do school today? We do school everyday except Saturday and Sunday! This is just the beginning, young man. You will do school everyday until you are about 18 and then more after that if you are lucky and then when you are done with that you will get a job and go there and work EVERY day ...except Saturday and Sunday. If you're lucky." Yeah. Hey, what better way to motivate and inspire your child then by telling them of the endless drudgery that lies ahead. Sheesh, no wonder my kids cry at the very thought of growing up.

I will admit, I struggle with my attitude at times. So perhaps it is not so surprising that my kids would struggle with their attitudes. "Your attitude stinks." I say sharply to them when they are moping and whining because of our lessons. Surely...surely there is a better way to motivate them, to inspire them. Why does it always seem to be just beyond my grasp?

Today, I came up with a way to make math a bit more fun. I would go so far as to say it was Divinely inspired, because lately I've felt like a dry well when it comes to creativity. So the Lord brought to my mind a way to ease the monotony of learning addition. I spied the unused Yahtzee game in the game cabinet and felt a light come on. I handed Harrison the cup and two die and let him shake it up and drop it on the table. Whatever the die said was the addition problem he had to write and learn. The sweet little grin he had on his face as he shook the die in the plastic red cup will stick with me for quite a time. I said "How many more times should we do this?" after we'd already done it 5 times. It made my heart swell with pride and excitement when he said "Ummm, let's do it five more times." Five more times! That meant he was enjoying learning addition in this way enough to want to keep at it!

Unfortunately things never did go very well for my eldest son today. We did continue to butt heads all morning long. Yet painfully, slowly, we got through it all. But you know what? Tomorrow is another day and I eagerly await to see what the Lord has in store for us.