Monday

Monday-a day when everything goes wrong; kids fight, the homeschooling mom feels like the kids never will learn, the laundry grows into mountainous proportions and dirty dishes line the counter and overflow the sink. If you had a dog, it would wet on the carpet, if you had a cat it would tear down the curtains. I'm sure you get the picture. Mondays seem to come to all of us.



"I'm too tired, I don't wanna get up, it's cold in here." These words are not conducive to starting out a day right. After much encouragement, discipline, breakfast and prayer the day seems to get better for this student.


Copying a final copy of a research paper, a science test and fractions all combined together seem to overwhelm the next student. Mr. I Can't knocked and was welcomed. His buddy Mr. It's Too Hard came with him. Dealing with another errant student sets the homeschooling mom on a downward trend. The laundry gets behind, dirty dishes litter the counter and the preschoolers turn the clean living room into a maze of books and toys.


The third student, after being instructed in English is left to choose indefinite pronouns that agree in number and gender with its antecedent. While Mom is busy with another student, a new book received the night before beckons. The book wins and he begins reading, leaving the pronouns to agree with the antecedent of its choice, not his.

After completing a good amount of work with the younger student, Mom comes out to find not too many of the pronouns and antecedents agreeing. Realization is not long in coming. Though the student is busily working, the guilty book is lying alongside the schoolwork. When charged with not fully concentrating on English, but playing around, tears come and soon Mom is wearing the blame because, "she never listens and adults just don't understand." The "dressing down" he receives (and rightly deserves) is taken wrong because unbeknownst to Mom a guilty conscience had sent the student back to work, leaving the enticing book bereft of its reader. So feeling wronged because of the "dressing down" received when he had quit reading and began working, when he was trying to do right yet received no commendation for that right choice, the student invites Mr. Attitude to be his companion.

Mom is at loss to understand why homeschooling is acclaimed to be so wonderful and wonders if teaching will bring learning as a result.

Plodding along, moment by moment, listening to spelling words, explaining Phylum Arthropoda to one and the intricacies of magnetism and electricty to another, sees a bright spot when a 97% is received on one test, a 98% on another and 100% on a worksheet of another.

Maybe, just maybe we'll make it through the day. But Mr. Attitude and Mr. It's Too Hard crashes the "party" again. Measures are once more taken to rid the students of these unwelcome guests.

One student finishes their allotted schoolwork and happily runs off to help the preschoolers wreak havoc on the rest of the house. The other two students and Mom continues to plod through the remainder of the schoolwork. Another student finishes and soon Mom hears, "Come look what I made!" and what to her wandering eyes should she view but a maze of string, boards and a box.

Refraining from saying, "What's this mess?" Mom listens as her son explains how the string is the wire, the boards are the telephone poles and the box is the transformer. Inside the box is hung the coiled wire that will produce electricity. A generator is built out of tubs and string, and a sub-station is added. Mom leaves the maze of string, thinking that just maybe her teaching isn't all for nothing.
School is finally completed, and supper is fixed and partaken of somewhere admidst the fray. Dishes need done, laundry needs to be finished, folded and put away. Rooms are cleaned and sanity in some semblance returns.

Thinking on how to make the next school day work better, the bad parts of the day seem to re-live themselves over in Mom's mind. Inadequacy returns and all positive aspects of the day seem to fall by the wayside. Dad steps in and students are "made to see" schooling in the proper light. Apologies and promises of change are given. Hugs and love are shared. One little boy whispers, "Mom, you're not the one to do everything wrong. I've been wrong and want to turn my life over to Jesus."

Now that can redeem even a Monday!