Third Grade Is Kicking My Ass

When I shared this on my Instagram Story recently, you all thought I was joking. Well, here we are! Here is my truth: this school year, only a month in, has been draining. Caleb is in 3rd grade and Joshua in 2nd. If this is any indication of the years to come, then I know it will only get harder.
While the boys still attend the same school, Caleb is in the intermediate building now, which houses third through sixth. So a lot more responsibility is thrown upon him here. He has his own locker, he has multiple subject classes, as opposed to sitting in one room for everything when he was in elementary, and he is in an advanced math course.
Let’s start with that Math course! The homework alone takes so much time in the evenings. Moreover, the way they are teaching them math is way different from how I learned. In essence, it is like I am learning all over again. While I think they are doing more steps than necessary to solve the problem, I don’t want to confuse him with my thought processes. So once we complete the math worksheets, he is also required to complete work on a school assigned math website for a minimum of 15 minutes. After the math is out of the way, he then has English Language Arts, or ELA, and is required to read a book for 20 minutes every night. (This is the book he will be required to do a book report on soon. Which means I have to read it too. How else will I know if what he’s reporting is right?) There is a test or quiz EVERY week, so then we have to squeeze in study time. Now onto Joshua. His second-grade workload is not as demanding, and he can pretty much help himself. I do however still like to check his work and make sure I am giving him the same attention. No child left behind LOL!
It just seems like between them coming home at 4 and going to bed at 8, I have to squeeze so much into those four hours, it’s overwhelming. Get all the homework done, cook/get dinner served, try to let them have some downtime in there as well. So maybe if we get done early, we’ll watch a movie on Netflix or something, so it’s not ALL work ALL the time. I mean they are kids!
Shout-out to the Moms who have to do all of this after coming home from their 9-5. I am grateful that I am able to be here daily to support and encourage them. This parenting thing is wonderful, but no one said it was going to be easy. I hope you all are finding your rhythm this school year! What kind of problems have you encountered thus far?