The Longest Three Days

Let me just preface this post by saying that I am extremely tired, and even a bit grumpy. Hopefully I'll feel better about the value of these last 3 days after I and all the kids are more rested.

The Classical Conversations parent practicum is over. Whew! We really straggled out of there, LOL. Yesterday after lunch, Anna really, REALLY didn't want to go back to her class. I forced her into it though, because I had my training to go to in the afternoon, and I didn't see how I would be able to get anything out of it with her being so tired and crabby, and with me having absolutely nothing with which to amuse her. So she went, and she even fell asleep eventually, but then she had an accident, something that hasn't happened in months and months. I only had a spare pair of undies in her little bag, figuring at most, she'd dribble a little and just need a new pair, but certainly not a whole new outfit. The girls in charge put Anna in a dress-up apron that they tied and sort of wrapped around her, but it was tramatic for her. She said all last night and this morning that she did NOT want to go to her class again, so I packed her little backpack with books, crayons, and snacks, and she jsut stayed with me all day today. That worked much better, and she was good as gold the whole time, although she kept saying she was ready to go home. Me too, Anna. Me too.

When I dropped Jonathan off at his class this morning, his teacher surprised me by saying that he had been melting down in the afternoons. He had not mentioned a word about this to me, and in fact, when I asked him how things were going, he was always very enthusiastic about his class and all they were doing. I told the teacher that, and she was very relieved. She said she thought it was just fatigue, because he would be fine, then just lay his head down and start crying. They would take him out in the hall for a little while and settle him down, and then he would be fine again. There was no trigger or anything. Well, of course he was fatigued! Six hours a day of geography and drawing is really tiring for a 6 year old!

And of course Faith and Grace were so tired because neither of them were having long enough naps either. I had a hard time concentrating on my tutor training in the afternoons because I knew they were all melting down, ready to go home. It was very stressful! And getting through the evenings were just as bad! Now Grace has a huge canker sore on the side of her tongue, which I know is caused by stress and lack of sleep.

The thing about it is that the morning sessions were absolutely unneccessary. Learning about the classical model is great, and I'm all for more people educating their children that way, since I feel it is a good, rigorous method, but nothing that was said could not also be found by reading a book or checking a few internet sites. In fact, if the speaker would have just handed out a copy of her notes to everyone, we would have saved 9 hours of our lives. Which would have kept all of us, especially our kids, a whole lot fresher for the afternoon, which was where the essential tutor training took place. I wish they would do the tutor training in the morning, while the intro stuff was going on, and then people who wanted to ditch the afternoon and put their kids down for naps could do that. The tutor training was very useful and helpful.

I find it amusing that a group of homeschooling moms thought it was neccessary to require other homeschooling moms to come to a 3 day long seminar that is 7 hours long each day, where they could put their little kids in what is essentially day care, and their slightly older kids in what is essentially school. I wonder if those in charge even noticed how the hallways were filled with moms trying to soothe toddlers this whole afternoon? Did they wonder why? And if those moms were actually getting anything out of the afternoon? The kicker is that if you tutor, you have to go to these practicums every. single. year. And it doesn't sound like they change the morning intro stuff either from year to year. Argh! It's a good thing I'm already sold on the Classical Conversations idea, because if I was totally brand new to the concept and just going to the practicum, I think I would bail!