If there’s one thing that can wear me down, it’s when my kids aren’t into what we are doing. They whine.

“But I don’t want to do math.”

And complain.

“This is so borrrringgg!“

They ask repetitive questions.

“How much longer?“

And sometimes, just sometimes, I wish that they were more… responsive. More… upbeat.

More… programmable.

Know what I mean?  Wouldn’t it just be amazing to announce that it’s math time and hear, “Yay! I love multiplication!”

Or to pull out the library books on Ancient Greece, and hear, “Oh this is SO INTERESTING!”

And be constantly pestered by the likes of, “Can we just read one more chapter? Please?”

Or at the very least, what about “Yes Mother dear, we enjoy our studies.  Please teach us some more?”

Ahem. I may have embellished just a tad on that last one.

Yes, may I look at the 10 year old blond robot there, the one with the Lego accessories? Oh, thank you!

But our kids aren’t robots, any more than we are Stepford Wives. (This is where I admit that I spent over half an hour on YouTube, trying to find a suitable video to post here to help make my point!)  Stepford Wives are submissive, sexy, smiling, obedient robots without  independent thoughts beyond how to please their men. I don’t know about you, but I live in the real world, and I’m not like that. Not much anyway, and my kids? Not even close. They didn’t even come with an instruction manual!

So how do we survive those days when I have to bind and gag  sit with the children to ensure they have pencils in their hands and workbooks on their laps?

Patience and grace. God gave it to you, and you have to extend that same grace to them. Sometimes grace is sacrifice.

Consistency and discipline. Even a regular routine, one that has the same general order each day but not necessarily built on  a massive planner sheet with colored sticky notes (you know the one I’m talking about) makes a huge difference. By discipline I don’t mean regular beatings or harsh treatment of any kind. I mean logical consequences for not doing what they are supposed to be doing. For example: Homework before activities. For my bigger kids, this sometimes meant taking a math book to Missionettes and doing homework in the hallway for the first half of their meetings!

Rewards and fun. It doesn’t need to be anything over the top, but adults don’t work for nothing and kids shouldn’t have to either. There needs to be a reason besides the fact that they are students, which is obvious. Getting done early (or maybe on time but with a good attitude) could bring something special, like a bike ride. Our daughter J used to get done before lunch and hop on her bike to take carrots to a horse that lived about 2 miles away. It was her special thing she was only allowed to do if she got done early enough, because she had swimming in the early afternoons and didn’t have the chance later on. It was incentive enough for her!

Love and prayer. Kids will love as they’ve been loved. If you aren’t showing AND TELLING them how much you love them, they will be much less apt to extend love to others. When we’re not sure of something in our own lives, it’s really hard to live it out when we step outside the family home. Show them you love them by quality time, which is time over and above homeschooling. Figure out your childrens’ love languages and make a point to speak them as often as possible. And pray. A lot. Surround your kids with prayer, that their hearts, their decisions, and their direction would be along the path the Lord wants.

What more could we ask?

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