Panic

The first day of homeschooling is over.

My husband George is still out of town, I’m still working full-time on-site in my corporate headquarters office, and Jacob was home alone all day being “schooled.” I know that there are many who would challenge me on this. How can leaving a teenager home alone be called “schooling”?

I left Jacob with a handwritten list of assignments and checkboxes that he was to cross off when he was done. Naturally I would check to see that he actually completed the assignments. But with all the discipline already in place at home, I really didn’t doubt that he would try his best to complete all the tasks.

Even so, guilt gnawed at me that I had to leave him alone.

These are the assignments I gave Jacob:

□ Read Global History - Unit 6, ch. 2, section 3, pp. 724-728. On p. 734, answer ques. 16, 17, & 18.
□ Answer questions #1 - 3 in the Global History textbook on p. 746
□ Do 1/3 of the CBS (Community Bible Study) questions
□ Read 5 pages in Ukrainian
□ Read ch. 3 of Lords of the Earth
□ Write a short summary (about one page, but no less than 200 words) of Part I of Lords of the Earth
□ Write sentences using the words you defined for chapters 1 -3 in Lords of the Earth
□ Workout - 20 min.
□ Play piano - 30 min.
□ Read Isaiah 53 out loud at least three times with feeling until you feel comfortable reading it to an audience

At the end of the day, after eight hours at the office, after supper and driving to the high school for Jacob to empty out his locker, and after visiting the local library with the kids, and after devotions, I just felt like collapsing! But I still had Jacob’s work to correct. And by then, it was almost 10 PM! I was worn out.

I looked at Jacob’s work, corrected the sentences he wrote for the vocabulary words, checked the answers to the Global History questions (I have no answer key; I had to look at the text myself to find the answers). It was SO much time that I panicked! After all, I’d agreed to keep working full-time for the next month. And I still don’t have high-speed Internet hookup at home, which I need to start working from home at least some of the time. On top of that, George is still gone for two more weeks, so I don’t have moral support. The girls have their own needs, too, so I have to give, give, give of myself. It was such a relief to me that Alexandra offered to help cook supper with me when I got home from work. We quickly cooked up some Pad Thai for the first time ever. Praise God the girls like to cook and that they continue to want to learn more.

Jacob kept working on his vocabulary words and sentences even as I corrected his other assignments in the late evening. I was impressed that he kept working until 10:30 PM, returning quickly with corrections to the definitions of the words or writing new sentences for vocabulary words he’d misused or did not understand well enough to use in a sentence at all. I am so thankful that he’s motivated and that he wants to do well. I don’t have to intimidate, scold, or punish. No, he does the work on his own. Thank you, Lord, for that!