Gratitude month: A Happy Place

Homeschooling has been difficult, this week. 

The twins are very demanding of my attention, and matched with short attention spans, sensory processing delays, and court ordered heavy psychological triggers,  it’s a full time deal. The early part of the week is always more difficult than the latter as the twins are still triggered up from the weekend and need emotional coregulation pretty much constantly.  Homeschooling with this dynamic is a challenge. 

Soren is pretty independent and manages his schoolwork quite well with receiving my full focus in 5-10 minute intermittent bursts. 

Sloane, on the other hand, has decided that her emotional needs have been put on a back burner for long enough and she’s simply not having it any more.  She’s been in an anxious state of frustrated tantrums today, and I am exhausted from being stretched and pulled so many directions for such sustained lengths of time.  

At the end of every day, Aaron says to me, “I know of no one who can do this. No one. And you’re doing it. It’s Herculean.”  

I don’t know the fate of Hercules, but I hope he gets a nap at some point.  I took at 5 minute time out in my school supply closet today to dictate this post. My classroom is definitely a happy place for me. Even when my children “hate school”, it’s a dedicated place of learning, and also a dedicated place for teaching. Of course both of those elements are fluid and happen anywhere and everywhere else in my home (as well as in the van as we practice match facts and alphabet sounds on our errands to take the older kids to all the things). But I love the classroom for its potential. A reminder to me of what I can do. I am a teacher and I am a learner.  My children can learn and they can teach as well. Today, they taught me that Hercules or not,  we’re going to set aside the workbooks in favor of being rocked and read to.

Today I’m thankful for a home classroom. 

And when my classroom is wears me down, I’m thankful I can close my eyes a minute and remember my other happy place: the beach. 

I’m longing to put toes in sand and breathe in stillness and warm, salty air. 

Ingenious I return back to the present, I’m grateful to look around at my house of learning and remember all of the lessons I’ve learned in this space, the lessons I’ve taught in this space, and the people I’ve shared these lessons with.