There is only so much....

algebra that a girl's brain can take. And this girl's brain took all she could in 8th grade. Which was apparently during the medieval ages.

Sheesh. The last four, count them 1-2-3-4 otherwise known as 2x = 4 or 5x-6 = 4, hours of my life were  just spent pounding algebra into the brain of my oldest. Whose brain is a great deal more malleable than mine.

Unless of course malleability is determined by the functions of diligence to show your work and accuracy to neat handwriting and attention for detail to focus. There's a set for you, Mrs. Surles.

Anyhoo, I feel a bit giddy at having that part of my purgatorial day over and done. I've locked the boys out of the house until I can gather my thoughts again from the far reaches of the x, y, z graphing slope down which all my brains have slid into one mushy pile.

I am believing with the best of Positive Thinking (otherwise known as the function of Mom's New Curriculum Choice Deniability Clause) that today's angst and pounding are the direct result of changing his math curriculum. In truth, he has taken to it and I have not had to ask him one day yet to do his math. Instead, finding that he is getting up and getting to it on his own.

Yeah, self motivation. Here's the rub. The character traits that have always needed working on still need working on even when there is new and improved self-motivation. The hope being that the self-motivation variable will positively affect said other character traits. Maybe I need to think of today as a review lesson for the both of us. A day to identify the shortcomings quickly and before they become overbearing burdens to us both.

His tendency to overlook the decimals is not that different from mine to overlook the dusting. His penchant to do it in his head instead of writing it down is not that removed from my prayers on the go instead of on the knees.

I think he's learning. I know I am. Home education becomes more about the heart than the head on the best days.