It's OK to stop.
Just because I had planned to cover X lesson, or Y number of pages - doesn't mean that's best for Hayden and/or Corbin that day. We all have our good days and bad days even as adults. Sometimes, no matter how hard I try, I just can't concentrate. Other days, I can spend a whole afternoon researching a subject and absorbing every detail.
And guess what?
Our kids aren't any different.
Today was a perfect example of that. Hayden was hitting a wall with his attention span while working on his Language Arts book. He was fidgety, fussy, spacey, and his mind was just not in it. Immediately, I could feel my temper shortening and frustration setting in. I wanted him to get his work done in a timely fashion and I was tired of redirecting him.
Luckily, I took a deep breath, stepped outside of the situation (and my frustration) and thought about it for a minute. It wouldn't be the end of the world if he stopped today. In fact, he's 1 lesson away from completely the entire year's work of LA program. It's not like he hasn't put in the work! And I don't want our homeschool to be me nagging (or yelling!) and sucking the joy out of our learning.
Instead, I told him to close up the book - we're done with this for the day. Next thing I knew, he was sitting on the couch, immersed in a math iPad game for the next hour (he's still going). Obviously, his brain had other ideas on how it wanted to be used today.
One more thing I am learning to love about homeschooling. Learning doesn't happen just because you plan it, it happens when they're ready.
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