The novelty has worn off

Only two weeks of doing workboxes for school, and I think the novelty is wearing off. Gone are the "yay"s and "this is so awesome"s, now replaced with "I don't want to do this [activity]" and "but I want to do what he/she is doing!". Sigh. They are complaining because they have to do actual schoolwork and that the boxes aren't all fun and games. I have really been trying to make them fun (over half the boxes are "fun" activities) and I haven't even repeated any activities yet! The complaining is mostly about doing their workbook pages which is very annoying because Katelyn especially used to beg me to do "papers". Now because of all Zach's complaining, she thinks "it's boring" too. Another sigh. Things just aren't working out like I thought they would (sorry, now I am complaining) but for crying out loud, I did alot of work to get this set up and spend alot of time planning for the boxes. It was working so well at first and now that I am actually getting into the groove of filling boxes and finding activities, they are losing interest. It's also harder than I thought to manage them both working at the same time. I have to work with Katelyn on most her boxes, but if I am not with Zach, he gets distracted and doesn't stay on task. I am constantly going from one to the other, even on so-called independent boxes. Then to make matters worse, we've had quite a few activities that have either been too hard or too easy and that throws us off.

Okay, so they are not the only ones complaining...

I know it's going to take a while to get into this and once the kids realize this is how we do things now, maybe they will do better. I just wish they'd see that this IS more fun than just me giving them lessons all day and then handing them a stack of worksheets. I thought the boxes would break things up- do a paper, play a game, draw a picture, do a paper, do a puzzle, etc. Zach especially just hasn't been into doing anything lately, even things I know he likes to do. Maybe it is just the time of the year. They are all excited about Christmas and and maybe they just don't have the focus for school. I don't know. I am only doing school through next week and then we are taking the rest of December off. I have a ton of stuff to do anyway. Maybe we all just need a break.