Homeschooling and a large family

I know exactly "how" it happened, but I am still sometimes surprised to find myself as a mother to four boys and homeschooling. I am not perfect, and I have days where I feel completely inadequate. We are pursuing excellence; however, we have a long way to go. We are enjoying our homeschooling time now, even though we had a few bumpy days in August. I blame a hormone overloaded pregnant mom. I think now that I am more even keeled, we are sailing in smoother waters. I can't imagine life without my little boys. We had a "koolaid" party (we didn't have any tea) at the dining room table last week for lunch. We talked about manners, and we practiced our manners. Then, on Friday, we went to Mimi's Cafe for lunch. We talked about using our manners before we even entered the restaurant. We told the hostess how many we had (Mom was with us, too). They had to "set up the table" (which should have prepared me), but as we rounded the corner, I saw that they had pushed to tables together, and they spanned the entire dining room. My jawed dropped slightly. I thought about large families, but I didn't realize we were to the point of needing two tables. We managed through lunch with only four trips to the bathroom, and no spilled drinks, and no meltdowns, and no baby crying jags. I felt successful. I was proud of the boys.

We are also working on "conflict resolution". As I posted below, the boys have different ways of handling their sibling rivalry. Joshua threatens, Caleb whines and attacks, Luke fights and cries to Mama. There are also the standard tattle tales from each of them. The day after the incident below, I got an email newsletter titled "Teaching Children to be Peacemakers". Aha, I thought, an article for me. I read it, and we will be working through the principles presented in it. Wish me luck!

A fellow homeschooler posted this youtube video on our yahoo group. It makes me laugh, even if it is poking fun at homeschoolers. It was written by a homeschooling dad, so I guess he knows what it's like. He also has several other very funny videos on youtube if you look around. Enjoy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VM6uqj0_jQc&feature=player_embedded