home school

One-hundred, and eighty days. Done. Our first year of homeschooling has come to a close. And we are still smiling. Of course, there were a few tears and aggravation sprinkled along the way, but we probably would have had that regardless. Bottom-line: He wants to continue, and so do I.

Here is:

What worked
What did not work
How I occupied the other kiddos
The Negatives
The Positives

What worked

Being relaxed: I’m what you would call a structured, driven, type-A kinda gal. But there is something about having a baby that throws plans out the window. And since that is what happened right as the school year started it helped me be more laid back about our school day. We were constantly changing our routine, because our routine was constantly changing. Also, we did pretty much the bare minimum of what was required, but we did it well. Our school day was at most 2 hours. This is partly because I didn’t want to spend any longer than that and partly because we were adjusting to a new rhythm of life for our family. And of course he was just in 2nd grade. I know that every year is going to get more challenging from here on.

Starting early in the year: We started in July, but it was only two days a week. We did this because I was due to have a baby in August and I wanted to give myself a maternity leave. But it was awesome! And I think we’ll do it again this year. It gave us a lot of flexibility to go and do things that we wanted to do. And living in South Carolina, the summer is so stinkin’ hot and humid, that I would rather have more days off in the spring and fall.

Having a set start time: It took a little while, but eventually he understood that 8:00 meant sitting down to start. There was no argument, it was just what happened.

Using timers when needed: Half of his subjects he did on his own in workbooks. Some days he was completely focused and knocked these out with no problem. Other times, I would have to urge him to stay focused. And then there were the times that I didn’t think he was ever going to finish and I was about to lose my mind (REALLY?? 30 minutes for 6 math problems?? Are you serious?!?!). And it was at these times I busted out the timer. I don’t know why it is, but if there is a timer, he is super motivated (and this goes for anything from cleaning his room to getting dressed). I don’t like to use timers all the time though, because it does tend to stress him.

Curriculum: I did not choose to use one specific curriculum. We used a hodgepodge. Half of it I loved, a quarter of it I scrapped, and a quarter we struggled through and will switch next year. But this is the beauty of homeschool, I can tailor it to fit his learning style (which is actually different than I originally thought).

What Did Not Work

Squeezing two days into one: We tried this several times. As life adjusted to the new baby, I wanted to get back to running, swimming, and taking my cycle class at the YMCA. The running I could do at home on the treadmill, the swimming I could do in the evening, but the cycle class just couldn’t budge. And I am seriously addicted to this class (not just the exercise, but the people are amazing). So we would “double up” on Mondays so that we didn’t have to do any school on Tuesdays. Sounds like a great idea, right? Wrong!! It usually ending with me feeling aggravated and him feeling frustrated.

Doing school in the afternoon: Since doubling school on Monday didn’t work, I thought we would try to fit it in during the afternoon. I know this works for lots of families, but not me. I am just mentally done with kids in the afternoon. That is the time of day I want for all of us to have down time, and then for them to go run around outside, or goof-off indoors if the weather is bad. My solution was to make Tuesday a “half day.” On these days he only had workbook learning to do, which he could do without me (and I would check and correct errors the next day).

Curriculum: As I mentioned earlier, there are several subjects we will be changing next year.

How I occupied the other kiddos

The 4 year old: At the start of the year, when he had just turned 4, this was difficult. I had some workbooks for him to do, but I was not always available to help him with them because of needing to work with my older son, or having to take care of the baby. Having him play with puzzles and blocks worked much better. As the year went on, and he wanted to do “big kid” stuff like his brother, he became more into coloring in coloring books. And then towards the end of the year, he began participating in the lessons. He still struggles with his letters, but he can tell you what a preposition and pronoun is!

The baby: At first, she just slept and that was glorious. By the middle of the year, she was entertained in the exersaucer. Toward the end of the year, she was crawling and getting into everything. I’m a big fan of having babies of this age play in the pack-n-play. She is in the living room, so she can still see us, but she is contained. This may only last for 30 minutes, but that is precious time!

The Negatives

I have had to sacrifice a lot of alone time. My mornings that I used to spend at the gym, are now spent with all 3 kiddos. My afternoons that I once spent resting, writing, reading, etc. while my children napped are now interrupted every 10 minutes because my older 2 kids don’t nap. And even though we all have designated spots for “down time” they find me. They always find me.

Another negative is that him and his brother are always around each other. And even though they love each other dearly, I feel that they get tired of each other. Because of this, I am strongly considering joining a co-op next year. Some time apart would be beneficial.

The Positives

Our lives have such a calm rhythm right now. We don’t have to rush out of the house to get to school. I don’t have to wake the baby in the afternoon to pick him up from school. If there is something we would rather do than school, we have the flexibility to do so (within reason). I’m able to challenge him in certain subjects and work with him where he is weak. Last year, he came home almost every afternoon feeling discouraged and saying that he had a bad day. He has had moments of feeling frustrated this past year, but they were few and far between.

The choice to homeschool was a scary one, but I do not have any regrets. One year, one semester, one month at a time. I have no idea what we will be doing years from now, but I do know that I already bought the curriculum for next year!

It’s official, I have decided and have begun to homeschool my oldest child. This decision took me about two years to make and was not taken lightly. I must confess though, the final plunge did happen abruptly. That’s just how I operate. I can over analyze something beyond what is necessary and once I get sick of thinking about it, I just react. I want to share with you my process in making the decision and maybe encourage (or discourage) some of you that are in the process as well.

My history with the concept of homeschooling starts off very negative. I didn’t understand it. Why would anyone, as a parent or child, want to do this? I thought that it was parents over-sheltering their children. And children that didn’t act “normal” socially. Then I met my husband and found out he was home schooled. Now some may say he doesn’t act “normal” but no one would say he’s socially awkward. He is an absolute blast to be around, makes others feel welcomed and comfortable, and has a hilarious sense of humor. So my perception of what a “homeschooler” looked and acted like started to change.

When we were living in Chicago I began to consider it as option because I was not comfortable with the school system there, and we didn’t want to pay for a private education. At this point I started looking into different curriculums and felt excited about the possibility of teaching my son. This ended up being a non-issue however, since we moved to South Carolina right at the start of his Kindergarten year, and the school system here is much more to my liking.

Kindergarten was a good year for my son. The little elementary school near us is small and intimate and was not overwhelming to my son or myself. The school work was not challenging, but that was alright with me because, you know, it’s just kindergarten. First grade I started to feel more frustrated. The work was still not challenging, which meant he was bored, which meant behavior problems. And even when he was trying to be good, the rest of the class was acting up. It got to the point that nearly everyday when I picked him up and asked how his day was he would respond with, “Bad, I got in trouble” or “Bad, Tommy got in trouble” or “Bad, the whole class got in trouble and couldn’t go to recess.” He couldn’t even focus on learning because he was so concerned with getting in trouble. And this whole idea of taking away recess as a punishment really burns me. They are 6 and 7 year olds. If they are acting out, they probably need more recess time, not less.

Homeschooling is incredibly common in the area we now live. I have friends who have been homeschooling for several years. They have been a great resource for me and an encouragement. It’s great to see their children developing into such fantastic people, and that makes the process a bit less intimidating.

What prompted me to finally make the decision was a blog that I came across while looking into ways to discipline with logical consequences. It’s a fantastic blog (notconsumed) written by a single mom of 4 who homeschools. It was such an encouragement and so motivating. The next week I started purchasing the curriculum I am now using.

The final part of this process was giving myself the freedom to stop. I may only do this until winter break. Or maybe for the year. Or maybe for elementary school. Or maybe through middle school. And I may not homeschool my second son. It may not be right for him. Or maybe, just maybe I’ll homeschool all of them (with the help of co-ops) through high school.

Everyone who homeschools their children have their reasons. And whatever their reasons are, then that is right for them and their children. I believe that The Lord has made us parents to our children for a reason, and He gives us the wisdom (if we ask for it) to know the best way to parent.

That being said, these were not my reasons for homeschooling.

Religious: I did not feel the need to homeschool because of religious reasons. Living in the “Bible Belt” his school is actually quite conservative and there is definitely a strong Christian influence. In fact, there was no homework given on Wednesday nights because it’s traditionally a “church night.” Actually, if you are atheist our school would probably be offensive to you. But as a Christian, this was not our issue.

Bad School Environment: I did not decide to homeschool because he was in a bad school environment. There was no bullying. There was no being made fun of. In fact, all these kids are so incredibly sweet and kind. The reason they were always getting into trouble was because they liked each other too much and acted like it was party time every day.

My reasons to homeschool were more of what we would gain.

Character Building: When we are home and my seven year old acts ugly to his brother, I don’t give him a mark on the board or take away recess. We talk about the importance of being kind to others and try to understand better how to love and forgive. When he is acting prideful of himself for doing a good job with reading, I don’t give him a lollipop for doing a good job. We talk about how it’s good to be smart, but that’s not what gives us value in life and that arrogance is not acceptible.

Challenging Education: My son is not gifted, but he is incredibly bright. And school has not thus far been challenging for him. Now we are able to move at whatever pace he is able to go. There is a balance between pushing too hard, and not pushing hard enough. It’s a constant tension that I feel, but I think it’s worth it.

Ability to do More Activities: At this point we are able to get all of the curriculum done in 4 days a week and we are done before noon. I know in years to come the work load will increase, but for now this provides more opportunities to do other things. Piano lessons, art lessons, swim lessons, volunteer opportunities, etc. And we still have more time as a family. Which leads me to my final reason…

Less Stressful Home Life: If I am dealing with too much stress and get overwhelmed, then the whole family suffers. At first I thought I was crazy (as did some other people) that I would consider home schooling with a newborn. But truly, the thought of trying to get the baby up and fed and get my son to school before 8am makes me want to have a panic attack. This way, his schooling works around the family schedule.

Now to be fair about making this decision, I have some things working in my favor. My son is eager to learn, which makes teaching him so much fun. I love seeing his mind work and the expression on his face when he grasps something new. Also, I am naturally a very organized person. Being organized is oddly exhilarating to me. So I have no problem with getting through each day’s work load and keeping track of what we need to do next. And third, I have a very supportive husband who is completely on board and helpful. In fact he’s much better at grammar that I could ever hope to be, and without his proofreading of this post you may be concerned for the outcome of my children.

Homeschooling is absolutely not for everyone, and not for every season of life. I, however, am absolutely excited to begin this new journey with my children!

End of Year Homeschool Review