Our homeschooling days can be far from perfect. I know that lots of think that homeschooling families are all perfect, like the Duggar family is portrayed. I love the Duggars and I think that they are a breath of fresh air to television and are the same in real life as they are on t.v. However, my days are nowhere near their days.
     Homeschooling is all about flexibility and interruptions. I do try to keep a schedule and a routine. This morning began no differently. I began the day very tired as I had only gotten about three hours of sleep the night before. I somehow made breakfast for the kids in a drowsy fog and got them going for the day. As I was brushing my teeth (and frankly, enjoying 2 minutes alone), I looked down and saw that my 8 month old, Ethan had somehow crawled all the way down the hallway to the bedroom and made his way into the bathroom. To top it off, he had a handful of cat litter in his hand and was about to take a bite of the tasty clay. Not being completely sure whether or not he had ingested any of it, I washed his hands thoroughly with soap and then called poison control. The nice lady was very sympathetic and chuckled when I told her my story. Thankfully, cat litter is made up of mostly clay and silica, both which are non-toxic. So for the rest of the day, he was put in the play yard if I was going to be out of his sight.
    Because of that interruption we were late starting school work. Seth took it all in stride though and did his work independently. I spent the rest of the morning trying to do dishes and catch up on laundry which all ended up thrown into laundry baskets unfolded.
    Enter the afternoon. Seth bitterly complained that he had had no time to play when I told him he needed to read in his reader and read his science lesson. Sigh. Meanwhile I'm trying in vain to get Ethan to go to sleep for his afternoon nap.
    The rest of the day went pretty smoothly until after dinner. The kids were quietly (yay!) watching a t.v. show when I realized that Scott wasn't in the room and was being quiet. This means one of two things: he's either playing with something he shouldn't be such as "playing" with a cat under my bed or sneaking into the closet where he knows the candy stash is and helping himself. It was neither. He was in the bathroom and had painted the cabinet and part of the bathtub with Taylor's blue nail polish.
Thankfully now the kids are all asleep and I finally have some time to breathe (until Ethan wakes up to eat).
    But even with all the crazy days and frustration at times I remember why I'm doing this and I wouldn't trade it for the world.