Daily life is not boring. We are beginning to delve into ancient Greece, and I’m so excited that I’ll be reading all the Greek myths to the boys. I don’t remember them myself — this is an education for me too.
As the boys are steadily gaining math skills, I’m brushing up on mine too. I hated math when I was young because the classes I took pushed me forward in the curriculum before I was ready. This is what’s brilliant about homeschooling — you can stick with something until your kid really understands it. Then you move on. Why isn’t that common sense?
The boys and I are learning Spanish and Chinese, and you know what? It’s fun! But we are going slow-slow so that each of us have time to memorize everything before moving on to the next lessons. There’s a certain somebody who memorizes everything so fast (geez), but he wants to wait for us, which is so nice of him.
Classical music (and all kinds of music) abound in this house, and I’m so lucky that it’s a backdrop to my chores and activities. Competitions are happening, preparation, theory tests.
Stress happens too. A new roof. Falling trees. A pet that needs surgery. Why does everything always happen at once? This is why I hope that lots of families will find The Everyday Homeschooler compelling enough to buy.
We are turning into a gaming family. The boys have all kinds of board games they play together as well as their digital games. Lately they have enjoyed Munchkin and Star Wars Risk. My eight-year-old loves to win, and he forced me into bankruptcy yesterday in the original monopoly game (the first time we played it). 
We are watching The Flash, and we love it. We can’t wait to see what will come next. My favorite documentary last week was First Face of America, which you should go watch right now at that link before they take it off the NOVA website.
Life may not be boring, but I can write about it only so much, or I’m going to bore you. I mean, how many times do you want to read that the eight-year-old beat me at Star Wars Monopoly? Or that the eleven-year-old played Mozart’s Fantasia for the thousandth time, or that I’m still a failure at cooking, but all the laundry gets done, and the dishes are washed three times a day. Oh, and I finished Gerald Durrell’s third book in the My Family and Other Animals series. (It was good!)
What I’m saying is that I may not be here very much, but I am here, living life with all its ups and downs. And I’d love it if more people e-mailed me, and I wish more people asked me questions and gave me ideas to write about on this blog. If you don’t want to, I understand. Because I know you’re over there living your life, which I hope is good and anything but boring too.
Mama of Letters 
I can relate! I have loved learning and relearning alongside my son. I understood Algebra for the first time because I taught it to him. Reading Greek mythology with him was a lot of fun. I’d love to hear more about how you’re learning Spanish. My daughter is currently serving a mission for our church in Peru and she’s learning Spanish. I know she will come home next year speaking it fluently. I have tried off and on to learn Spanish ever since 8th grade.
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Hi Camie — Yes, learning alongside our kids is the best part of homeschooling! We are using the curriculum Risas y Sonrisas for Spanish, which I’ll write about on the blog at some point. It’s for elementary school kids and comes with a lot of materials and activities, so it’s great for us. I’m not sure I would use it, if I were just trying to teach myself, but I probably wouldn’t have the motivation to learn it, if I were only teaching myself. I have heard a lot of adults like Mango and Duolingo, but I get bored just sitting at a computer screen. The varied activities of the curriculum are helping me too. 🙂
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We have used Duolingo. I’m glad you found something that works for you and your kids.
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I’m a letter writer with many pen pals and I prefer long chatty letters about diverse topics. I agree, it’s boring to read a long list of chores completed or the same commentary about the same books and movies. But, I have about 15 years of letter writing experience: this boringness is a choice! Nothing more, nothing less.
Letter writing is all about the details. A boring letter writer writes fluff. The book was good. The movie sucked, etc. An interesting letter writer manages to take the boring normalcies of life and give them depth. It’s not a trip to the dentist, it was getting wisdom teeth pulled with nitrous oxide and having the relaxing/distracting music die right before the last tooth got crunched. Very disconcerting, but not necessarily painful.
The beauty of humanity is that we’re constantly thinking and analyzing. We all have different opinions. Ask your son about playing that same song over and over again. Each time is unique for him–otherwise he wouldn’t keep playing it. If you care to listen, he can probably list 5 ways the last time differed from the times before.
The truth is, you simply don’t have the time to give your daily life the justice it deserves in written form. And that’s fine. I’m currently 9 months behind on writing letters because I don’t want to write superficial (boring) fluff. I recognize the brilliance, beauty, and uniqueness of a single day in my life and I want to do it justice on paper. And that is by far the most important aspect.
It is one thing to realize that there are simply not enough hours in the day to write about all the intricate fabulousness that happens every day. It is a far bigger problem to think that every day is too boring to even bother writing about.
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Hi Catherine, I agree with you and you say many wise things. I used to write very long letters to friends, especially when I lived out of the country, and if anyone wrote to me, I would love a rambling, detailed letter about their everyday life. At Christmas, I wrote a long letter to an old friend — my first real letter in a long time. I received a short e-mailed reply. Sigh. Most people don’t have time to write anymore, and they just want to e-mail short notes. But I do have one e-mail pal who writes lovely, long messages about everyday life, and I write to her in the same way. It’s such a pleasure.
As I said in the post, daily life is definitely not boring. I find it beautiful and inspiring. You are right in that I simply don’t have the time (and also freedom) to write about it in a way that I would like.
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