Ups and downs

Homeschooling has been a rollercoaster this year. Here are some good things that we've got going:

• The kids are pretty consistent doing their before breakfast chores so we start the day with a clean living room area
• We are reading The Story of The World--Volume 1 for our history and I love all the things we are learning that tie into the timeline song.
• iFamily has been great for us--kids' classes and my teaching
• Morning scripture study has been pretty consistent

And here are some struggles we're trying to work through:

• Read-alouds can be hard for all three kids to be quiet at the same time so we can hear, and I get tired after reading for a while . . . I wish I had the energy to go for so much longer!
• Fighting, kind of a lot. I feel like things got better for a while but contention is making a comeback.
• Tantrums, back-talking, complaining . . . all the parenting things that are magnified when we are together all day. Still trying to figure out how to teach my kids with love and minimize all this.
• It's still hard to know if I am doing enough academics with the kids . . . I imagine this will be an ongoing struggle to find the balance here.

That's what comes to mind right now. I just feel like it might be helpful for me to get my thoughts out in writing and maybe I'll be able to remember the good things and even see progress with the difficult things later on.