School has started up again around these parts and my children couldn't be more enthused {insert sarcasm}. My little one keeps telling me I am a boring teacher and my son keeps telling me he doesn't need school anymore. My daughter simply can't be bothered with school because her head is so far up in the clouds imagining wonderful places she would rather be than in our classroom.

I'm at a crossroads I think in this homeschool journey. While I think I am in the right place and I think my children should be home. Their actions and reactions are telling me something completely different. I attempt to plan fun activities throughout the week and they constantly get shifted to the next week or the evening or the weekend. These 'fun' activities are moved because my children can't focus during school hours and we are schooling all day long. It's getting exhausting and as my kids keep telling me "not fun".

I don't know what to do to motivate my children to get through their daily work. My husband and I sat them all down over the holiday break and had a serious chat with these three non-paying attention little poppets. We set up new rules and posted these on each of their desks. My husband told them all if they don't shape up they will not have the privilege of staying home next year with me.

I am constantly reminding the children that this is a real school and they need to stop talking whenever they feel like it. The very second one of them has an issue, they completely stop working and "wait" for me to come and assist them. I have said no less than 12,000 times to just continue to the end and save your questions until that time. I seriously do not know how to make this point stick in their little brains. If they are stuck, they stop. Completely. They stop and start talking with their siblings or get up from their seats and look for something other than school to do. And it is annoying me to the point where I don't want to teach them any longer.

Today was particularly daunting, as Tuesdays normally are. I wake the children early to get them dressed and fed so the school day can begin. We need to be finished by lunch in order to get to violin lessons. It is a busy day. The children know what to do each day, they each have a syllabus in front of them telling them exactly what to do on each day of the week by subject. Yet, they can't seem to get through their work in a timely manner.

I recognize that my children have their own free will and will act on their own accordingly and often in their own self-interest. I can motivate my kids to complete their school work, but when they are not doing their school work I can't simply say okay, that's your problem and the poor grade you earn is yours alone. What are the consequences of a poor grade? It just means more work for me in the evening because I would need to set aside more time for school. I'm so not happy with this because I do not want to be a teacher 12 hours a day.

School time has become the seventh circle of hell in this house, with me nagging my kids to do their assignments and fighting with them over each math problem. I feel like I threw up in a coffee cup and then microwaved it.