Last week, I headed to the dining room table to prepare for my daughter’s homeschooling work. Today, I thought, we would talk about reducing fractions, check on her spelling, and read about Paul Revere (did you know he had 16 children?). But upon passing her bedroom, I couldn’t ignore the disaster within. How does a room blow up into a giant mess within 24 hours?!
I sat on my daughter’s bed while she tidied up her room. It seems that every child I have goes through this stage: their bedroom floor contracts until there is no floor at all, just a mess of books, clothing, papers, Lego, and more than enough stuffed animals to populate the next ferry across the Puget Sound. So I made a deal: I will read aloud, and she will clean. I admit I didn’t want to, I’d have preferred to vacuum the rest of the house. But, I decided that reading aloud is better than skipping schoolwork completely today. Fractions could wait, slow schooling and all.
Soon enough we were fo…