Of Crusades and Leaves . . .

What long weekends are meant for - at least according to Joel.
(Joel and Caleb "down home" over the Labor Day weekend)

Once again 9pm Sunday night rolled around and I was doing homework - Joel's homework. Well, I actually wasn't doing it - more like highly encouraging and prodding him to get it done.

The kids had a four day weekend and still 9pm Sunday night found Joel doing an extensive "leaf project" that involved collecting, preserving, and cataloging 20 leaves of different varieties. Ironing leaves is not exactly how I planned to spend the remainder of my Sunday evening, and from the look on Joel's face it wasn't exactly how he planned to spend his Sunday evening either.

And not to just pick on Joel, Megan was just starting a research paper on the Crusades - a research paper that is due tomorrow morning and for which she has no tangible resources. Should be an interesting paper.

I know procrastinating has a lot to do with their predicaments, but it is also frustrating that large assignments are assigned over long weekends. I mean really, when is a boy supposed to play with his dog?

I guess home schooling the kids for 10 years has somewhat spoiled me. I have taught the same 8th grade science that Joel is now taking - I remember Megan and Levi doing the same leaf project. It was fun and they learned a lot. We collected leaves together and preserved them and cataloged them - all in one afternoon. It was an enjoyable experience, and it was done during school hours.

For the 10 years I taught the kids at home all of their school work was home work - but none of it was done late at night after church. School was done during school hours and family time was not disrupted.

Ah, the good old days.