This week has been hard, it's been one of those weeks where I have questioned if homeschooling is right for us. If I am really made for this. If this is what is good for my children.
3 hours, it has taken Peanut 3 hours to do math each day for the last week. And I am exhausted, and she is exhausted. I will be quite honest, some of my least favorite parenting moments with her have happened in the last few days. She just CANNOT focus on math. And to say it's frustrating me is a HUGE understatement. And that's just the tip of the iceburg, it felt like we struggled in every way.
But then....
Today we went to the aquarium. And, oh my sweet Peanut was in her element. She LOVES animals, everything about them. And she loves reading, and she LOVES facts. When you first walk into the aquarium there is a huge tank where they have created the Blacktip Reef. It is amazing and gorgeous and actually looks like a Coral Reef. It's wonderful. There are touch screen learning computers all around the tank, and Peanut took about 10 minutes to study the different species and then proceeded...without looking or reviewing.....to name each species of fish and ray that lives in this tank. It was amazing. She was like a sponge (see what I did there).
Before we left for the aquarium I had printed out a scavenger hunt that was provided for us and Booger completed all but three questions which, I was told we WILL be finding the answers for tomorrow. He was so focused on learning and completing his project. I was stunned. But his approach was sooo different from Peanut, he was task focused and she was open to everything. And both were thoroughly enjoying themselves.
And I was talking with a new (but it feels more like an old) friend about my kids and their strengths and their weaknesses. And I started to think about all the reasons that we do this.
All children are unique, everyone has different strengths and weaknesses. I have 3 children and all 3 are different. It amazes me how different they are, but I love it and I wouldn't change it.
So without knowing it my kids taught me today. They taught me once again that they are amazing. They taught me that WE can do this. They taught me that it's okay to struggle and it's okay to have a bad week. Because in a month I am not going to think about the bad week, I am going to think on what came from the bad week....a revelation and a reminder of why we continue to do what we do.
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