Putting the home back in our homeschooling

.It all started with me yelling, surprise!  Yelling hurry up get ready if you want to play at Karsten's.  Hurry up get ready we need to get the playground (yeah I said that)  I was yelling a lot and asking the kids rhetotrical questions like, "well do you want to go? because you sure aren't showing me that you want togo"
Rush rush rush...and where were we going?  To play.  I never felt so stressed getting kids to go and play, to see their friends.
Last month after a non stop week of , get get ready let's got to;  piano, the museum the sciences center, ice skating, friend's houses, the day came where we going to the highly anticipated Crayola Factory.
Michael refused to get dressed.  Refused to go.  I was shocked and tried reasoning, threats and "are you serious? 
He outright did want to go.  He spent the day at Mike's work with him while Johanna and I went off to Pennsylvania.
Time to slow things down. 

Although all we were doing was in the name fun, all thing my kids like to do, all the activiutes they've chosen and all the friendes they like to see.
Yet it was so stressful.  Most days we don't have the luxury of hanging anywhere past 3 b/c I need to get home for work so everything needed to be done in the AM so we could have "enough time"
My kids were fighting me and with each other.  Our connection needed some recharging.


So now we are focusing a bit more on some home time.  I am not filling each second with playdaes, where the kids play and the moms chat.   I had to face to truth I was not spending time guiding my kids, it was a break for me and I wasn't actually parenting the way I should be.  My kids actions showed me , time to come together again.
We are still attending all of our activites but only ice skating requires us to hurry out the door.  Also I didn't want to leave them to just sit on the floor playing star wars, Brady Bunch , monster trucks or dolls all day.
I wanted to be in the mix but not be playmate. 
So I invented, "Popcorn Literature"  Each afternoon I make a bowl of popcorn and read actual literature to the kids.  No Franklin books, No Nancy Drew,No Puppy place.  Those are all fine books  for the happy quiet reader but reading aloud should be more challenging at this point, in my opionion.
Pop corn Literature starts with humorous poetry. I have book tha we took out the library that was written in 1955 so I doubt it is available in the stores but it really is very funny. We will also include poetry from, If  I were in charge of the World, which we own, when the library book is finally after all the renewals, due back.


Then  we move on to our actual literature story which right now is "Around the World in

80 DAys " by Jules Verne.  It's a good read and quite challenging. 
Our slower pace has made me feel calmer. 
So you will still see us at the zoo, at ice skating and all the fun places but we will just be a bit more absent from other people's homes as we reconnect in our home on our time.