Jesus

Bad Days

A mom's scream

We've all had them....when day after day the kids fight and complain and no one wants to work. When they do work they make dozens of mistakes and no one is around to comiserate with you.


The one thing I've read repeatedly on the homeschool boards is that the best way to deal with bad days is to break the cycle. Once you realize things are going from bad to worse begin the next day by doing something totally different....for a day or even a week. These are some suggestions that I've clipped and saved:

In the morning ask the children what they want to learn about. You may have to give them ideas (eg., fish, trees, rockets). Then set them loose with any related books you have in the house (or make a quick trip to the librar). Give them construction paper and glue with the instructions to prepare a lesson for you and dh to be presented in the evening. We tried this and I was amazed at what my 10 and 7 year old came up with.

Young children (under grade 3)benefit from short study sessions. If they are complaining often, reduce the time they spend consecutively on any one subject to 15 minutes or less.

When homeschooling gets to be too much I pull out all the supplemental material (art workbooks, science magazines, "Key To" workbooks, etc. and pass them out to the children to use for a week or so. Usually this does the trick.


Write down your philosophy and put it somewhere you can refer to it when needed.

My favorite burnout preventer - take a break!

Give them good books to read and let them tell you about them. If you do this at the beginning of the week they won't want to do their regular work later in the week. I usually do this on Thursdays and Fridays when the week has been going bad.

Some days we have "computer school".

Some days we have life skills day and clean the house. I take their lesson plan books and fill it out with chores. They are usually excited about having a "day off" and the chores get done quickly.

An e-mail friend just sent me this anecdote on patience.
A young man was having a great deal of trouble developing patience. He had tried everything, but could not develop the habit. Finally, in desperation, he visited the nearby monastary and the wise man who lived there.
"Father", said the young man, "Please help me! I am so impatient and nothing I can do seems to help! I would really appreciate it if you could pray and ask God to develop in me some patience!" "Certainly," replied the wise priest, and began to pray. "Heavenly Father, send this young man tribulation. Send him tribulation in the morning, send him tribulation in the evening..."
"Stop!" cried the young man. "Tribulation? I asked you to pray for God to develop in me some patience! Why are you you asking Him to send me tribulation? That's the last thing I need!" The wise priest smiled at him. "How else do you think you are going to develop patience unless you get a chance to practice it? Hence the need for tribulation!"


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