Changes

Many, many things are changing. The Young Adult is now 12. Lately, life has been rough for him. Like many kids his age, school has become a chore, and life is always unfair. Not to mention his parents! We have had a major overhaul of his schedule. Before, we were up when we woke up; started school about 10am, breaking for lunch at noon; afternoon school until 3pm; homework as the day allowed time.
After the recent rebellion and spate of missed work and dropping grades, The Young Adult now rises at 7am, begins school at 8, and follows a carefully crafted schedule throughout the day. It is much more work for us both, but we are also much happier. Thus proving again that children tend to thrive when they understand the boundaries and what is expected of them.
We have had to pull out the parenting books again. We used them often when the three big boys were little. Things settled down into a routine and we felt we had the hang of things. Adolescence has thrown us for a loop. One important lesson we are learning: changes in our children require changes in our parenting.
As The Young Adult approaches the edges of growing up, we are all entering new waters. From the beginning of his life, we have called him our "guinea kid"! He breaks us in as parents.

One of the joys of homeschooling is taking advantage of good weather. This morning was nice, so we got ready and headed out to the park. It was a good way to start the day! I had fun continuing to get to know our new camera!