Marsha's Musings: First Day of School

As I write this post, it is actually Sunday. All my plans have been laid for the school year. I wonder in anticipation how the first day will go and subsquent days after. We are starting Lifepac Language Arts which will be much more demanding than what we have been doing. Will I have to endure weeping and nashing of teeth until my son understands that he needs to work a little harder than in years past?

I wonder, should I start him out slow...do Math and Language Arts for a few days and then as time goes begin adding the other subjects in rather than just begin with a bang?

I am feeling just a bit of anxiety about the first day of school and how it will go. He has some issues that affect his learning ability, yet, he also has that attitude of "Let's just get this done and over with as fast as we can so I can get on with what I want to do for the day." He doesn't like to be pushed to think and learn and put in the work required to do it, which is difficult for me as his teacher, because he must work harder than most kids to learn if he is going to achieve at all. I was like that when I was his age. Learning was difficult for me and I hated school. I was a late bloomer.

How would I have learned best? I was a lot like him when I was young. My love for learning never blossomed until I went to college. Could he also be a late bloomer? Yet, I can't just let him fiddle around for the next 5 years waiting for him to "bloom"! I need to teach him the value of self-discipline and that all things in life are not fun and games. I need to lay the foundation of learning for him so that when he does "bloom" he will have to tools necessary for learning.

Yes, it might be a little like trying to lead a mule that doesn't want to be led. I do all the pulling and tugging and feel like we make little progress at times, but every inch is progress and all those inches eventually will add up to an education.