HOW’S HOMESCHOOLING GOING?
I’ve been asked the question, “How’s homeschooling going?” at least once a day. Those closest to me know that even though I have a background in the education world, homeschooling was never on my radar.
I saw this on Instagram last week and goodness gracious I needed to hear this. I have definitely experienced the very polarizing opinions of the homeschool community. That’s not to say that every opinion has been negative but there are very strong convictions on how homeschooling should or should not look and operate.
So here’s a little background on why we decided to homeschool for the second semester of school this year. To be completely frank, Jack was failed by the school he was in. There was a very big discrepancy between what the gradebook showed and the teacher communicated versus his actual academic level. He was really struggling in reading and when I questioned it I was told that his grades looked good, he’s just not a good test taker, etc., but I could see when we read with him at home that he was really struggling. When I requested meetings, I was told to wait till the next benchmark to see how he performed. When he performed low on the benchmarks he was put in an intervention group, but the intervention groups were never pulled out of class because the Interventionist had to sub in other classes. It was an extremely frustrating cycle.
So, how’s it going? Honestly, better than I expected it to go. There have been definite positives and lots of learning curves, but I can honestly say that there have been more positives.
What are the positives?
The one-on-one attention we are able to give him in reading and language arts has made a HUGE difference. He is seeing major progress and we are seeing a daily increase in his confidence.
We’ve been able to slow down or speed up as appropriate. There are some skills he knocks out of the park every time, so we are able to move through those a little faster. When there’s a concept that he has more difficulty with, we are able to slow down and spend extra time on it.
Jack thrives in a daily routine. Unintentionally, he has created his own morning routine with breakfast, daily chores and school work.
Because he was at a charter school and the district does not provide buses for charter schools, they did not have field trips. However, now that we are homeschooling, we can turn almost anything into a field trip. His favorites so far have been the shows that the Air Force Academy Planetarium puts on for free every Friday!
His relationship with Korben has changed alot over the last two months. When he was in regular school, he and Korben really only got to play together for a little bit in the evening and on the weekends. This typically lead to lots of arguing and frustration by both of them. However, something I’ve noticed over the past few weeks is that often if Jack is engaged in playing or building something in his room, Korben will wander in and start asking questions, interacting and eventually playing with him.
What learning curves have we experienced?
One of the biggest concerns everyone typically has about homeschooling is how the child will get socialization. I freely admit that I was one of the people who had those questions. To be honest, it’s not an easy path, especially when you have a VERY social child. I have had to be really intentional about finding things that he can be involved in throughout the week without breaking the bank. He plays soccer, we do lots of play dates with our Mom’s Group and our library offers several clubs throughout each month for homeschool families.
While Korben has enjoyed the extra play time with Jack, it’s also been a really big adjustment for him. Korben goes to a half day preschool on Tuesday and Thursday, but Monday/Wednesday/Friday was his time at home with mama by himself. Honestly, I cherished that time with just Korben and I because I had that same type of time with Jack and I’ll never get those sweet days back. Korben really struggled with jealousy over sharing me those first few weeks, but I think for the most part he has gotten used to our new normal.
Probably the biggest adjustment I’ve had to make is the lack of alone time. On Tuesday and Thursday while Korben was at preschool, I was able to have a few hours to myself to get whatever I needed to done OR to just come home and be. While I love being a mom, those few hours of uninterrupted alone time each week refueled me and I’ve mourned that time. My wonderful husband has been really amazing at helping me find some pockets of time to replace that because he recognizes that that break helps me to be a better mom the rest of the week.
If you have any questions about our experience or thoughts, I’d love to hear them! Feel free to leave comments and questions here.