Are the Tears Necessary?

This is what I don't understand. My lovely daughter complains bitterly about every assignment I put in front of her. She does them grudgingly and acts like she hates all of it.

My mother called the other day while I was in the shower and asked Mi'ita how school was going. Does she tell my mother that she hates it? No. She tells my mother that everything is good, with enough sincerity to convince her.

On top of that, she has woken me up every day this week and wanted to start school immediately. This morning, with her friend spending the night (with the understanding that school will continue as usual and her friend had to join us--it's still officially summer vacation for the rest of the world and we need to take advantage of that), they woke up at 5 AM wanting to start! I had to send them back to bed until they woke up again at 7:30. Again, they had to start immediately, and immediately started the complaints.

I have to think that Mi'ita's complaining is just part of her personality and she really doesn't hate it. This actually frees me up a bit. I don't enjoy her complaining at all, but now I know that I can blithely ignore it and not take it as a criticism of my teaching, the curriculum, or the texts. I can insist that she do my assignments until she can come up with a better plan herself.

The beauty of homeschooling is that you can tailor your child's education to her interests, skills, and abilities. I've been trying to do that this week, responding to her complaints. Now I know that won't work--she's just a complainer. I can still tailor her curriculum, but I have to be less sensitive and more forceful. Of course she could come up with her own plan that meets my minimum requirements. I do hope that she takes control of her education at some point.

We seem to have developed a schedule that is working, though. First thing in the morning we start (around 7ish), take a breakfast break and then a "recess" break, then done by lunchtime. Whatever we get done by noon seems to be all we're going to get done for the day. PE dog walk is in the afternoon.

In case you're wondering, dog walks won't be her only PE time. She is also going to be starting ballet in a couple weeks, and the local homeschool group has a swim time at the pool that we'll horn in on as soon as it starts up. She'll start up guitar lessons in a couple weeks, too, for music. I'm still figuring out how to add in art. Library is Monday afternoons.

Now how do I get her to stop complaining short of flinging her off the nearest cliff? (That would be bad, I know, and her daddy would be frightfully angry with me.) Other people's homeschooled children are perfectly behaved, I think, and the rest of the world sends their kids to school to torment their teachers.