Homeschool. Sigh. Will it ever end??? Yes, yes it will in fact end TOMORROW to be exact. Not that I’m counting. Wait. That’s a lie. Where most people have countdown to Christmas calendars going this time of year, I’ve had a countdown to “the end of homeschooling a first grader who spun around in his desk chair and loudly told me he was bored while in a live Google meets chat with his virtual teacher and classmates.” That’s the kind of countdown happening in this household and tomorrow is the big day. Last day of virtual school, followed by Christmas break (ahem, winter break since we are in public school) and then January 5th my little guy will be back in the classroom. Hopefully. Even if he has to be remote for a bit, at least he will be schooled virtually by a classroom teacher who is also teaching every other child in his classroom.

The other morning was pretty rough thanks to some ridiculous standardized testing he had to do for math and reading this week. Nothing like starting a Monday morning with some multiplication and order of operations problems for a first grader! Oh, and then having this question posed to a 7-year old for reading: Complete the following sentence. “The whale is ____.” Choose from the following answers – big, large, gigantic. What is this, the SAT?!? All the answers are correct but one is more correct than the others?!? I felt Eli’s frustration, I was frustrated for him, but having pencils chucked at me just reaffirmed he needed to be in a classroom where all his previous teachers described him as a quiet, model student who does his work and gets along with all the other students. Being taught at home by mom just doesn’t work for him and that is fine. Something we learned together this year and know going forward in his education. No online learning for my buddy. Funny thing happened that afternoon – I opened my email and saw a letter from his school saying he was accepted for January term in-person learning and his teacher would be blah blah blah. I told Eli this information and he in all seriousness looked at me and said “Why do I have to go back to school? I like virtual school. This is fine!” Are you kidding me child??? I reminded him he threw pencils at me, knocked over his desk chair, slammed his computer closed, and refused to do any school work just 3 hours prior!

Now to start online shopping for an awesome teacher gift this year 😉