Every morning, right about the time my coffee kicks in, I foolishly believe that today will be the problem-free day in homeschool, that today he won’t tune out in the middle of a story or lesson, that we’ll be able to get through at least one subject without him insisting “It’s snack time!” (which he seems to think should occur every 15 minutes).

Every day I hope for him to show even an ounce of interest in the lessons I put together with coordinating hands-on projects, library books, complimentary websites and file folder centers. Just an ounce, mind you. I don’t expect him to get enthused — even if we are learning about subjects he said he was interested in — and I don’t expect him to bound out of bed eager to shun computer games or the PlayStation in favor of math, grammar and spelling. But some sign that he occasionally enjoys it, every so often at least, well, it would certainly improve my Mommy Morale.

So when I read about Time4Learning at Notes from A Homeschooling Mom, I couldn’t resist checking it out. And, as I sat clicking around on the site looking at the various lessons and activities, The Big-Eyed Boy hovered nearby. Within minutes, I’d been evicted from the computer as he “played school” on his own. He finished a language arts lesson and cruised on to another, and when it was done he couldn’t wait to do science. He even took a quiz and liked it! (And passed, too, I might add.)

In fact, he enjoyed it so much that I didn’t have to sit practically shackled to his side just to keep him on task. I did some laundry, checked on how he was doing, then caught up on a little reading myself. Meanwhile, he kept at it — and loved it! Whose kid is this? Mine?!

We’ll be incorporating Time4Learning in our school day from now on, no doubt about it. Now I’ll have to see about finding him a cheap computer of his own, or else I’ll never get to use mine during the day again.