Lets Get on the Same Page Little People!!!

First day of school!!! I am inspired, organized, energized, excited, and animated. Just like any elementary teacher should be. I call my two little students to the living room for our first subject: Bible!! As I stand there with my big smile and bright eyes my two "angels" come dragging into the living room. Their shoulders slumped, their lips turned downward, and their eyes just barely visible slits. They drop on the couch like a couple of blobs of goop. I think to myself, "Keep it together, Christina. Your excitement is contagious!" I declare exuberantly, "Stand to your feet and let's sing." And in my best teacher singing voice I start...I've got joy down in my heart. Deep deep down in my heart." I'm smiley, doing motions, singing loudly...and there my kids still sit sprawled on the couch looking at me like I've lost my mind and like they would rather see me hit by a bus than standing there doing my Broadway act for them. I finish the song feeling more ridiculous by the second. I have this momentary fantasy of climbing back in my bed, turning on the TV and telling the kids to catch the next school bus that drives by. But I shake it off and start pleading with the Lord for mercy and wisdom. Three hours, five subjects, and a dozen spankings later we finished our first day of home school. We eat lunch, I put on a movie for the kids, and I crawl back in bed.
Two hours later I have enough motivation built back up to return a call to a good friend who had called me during school. She has had a lot of home school experience - so I tell her about my day and she tells me something wonderful.....that this is NORMAL!! Ahhh, nothing she could have said would have been more encouraging! She explains that when kids go off to school that it is something new...a new teacher, new kids, new class, but when you home school they are in the same house they have been in all summer with the same mom they have had all summer. All summer they have had no schedule and no school work. They have more or less done what they wanted when they wanted to. So although as a mom we are thrilled with a new beginning...our kids are not necessarily feeling the same way. Our goal is to persevere...lay down the law so to speak! And know that they will get used to it, and in a couple of weeks or maybe less if we're lucky we won't be fighting tooth and nail...but there will be harmony and learning and discovery and wonder!! Yes! That is what we will have! Until then I am praying for greater creativity, out of the box thinking, discipline to be a consistent disciplinarian, and a ton of patience!!