Help and Prayers Re: Possibly Homeschooling

[tracierowe]

The other day my sweet, spirited 6 year old who attended a good public school kindergarten told me he hated school. This of course breaks my heart. Since I met homeschooling families who do more than become hermits, I have wished I had the patience and resolve to homeschool, but I realized that I am lacking in both areas. A couple days after my son told me he hated school, I started feeling like this possibility needed to be revisited. I decided if God was placing it on my heart as important, He would give me the tools necessary to make it happen, right?
Long story short... If you have any words of wisdom to offer, please share. If not, please pray for our family to make the right decision and if the right decision is to homeschool, please pray that somehow my patience a and resolve that I had pre-SAHM return as quickly as possible. (That's probably another thread for another place, but if you have suggestions for that, please share... I am constantly saying I used to be smart. Now, I can't remember to put clothes in the dryer. ).

[mamacat]

Keep in mind that homeschooling will not involve the same amount of time that he is in school all day.Esp at that age can get get it all done quickly even if using a curric and part of it all can be 6 yr old helping you with a few chores like could be his job once you have a load of clothes going to set a timer and femind you when it goes off

[Thia]

Yeah, my brain has "left the building" and to keep things running, I write lists and plans.
Praying.

[heartofjoy]

Homeschooling mothers are not more patient, kind, maternal, or fun than any other mothers. If you think homeschooling is important, you do it. When you slack off, you recognize it and work harder, just like you would in any other area of your life. No one is perfect, and you shouldn't expect yourself to be.

I have hardly any brain left. Lists are helpful. Don't compare yourself to other homeschoolers. Just because they teach latin, art, and robotics doesn't mean you are failing your kids if you stick with math and reading.

Just jump in and do it for a year. See what you think. You really can't mess them up in a year.

[FaithnPraise]

You haven't told me about this!

You should email Marla, I don't know if I've ever been privy to "her story" about how she came to homeschool but I know she'd be a great resource and could lend some prayers for you, too! Whenever I ask DH about homeschooling he answers with, "we really need to pick Marla and her DH's brains!"

[Can'tTurnLeft]

Read this. I'll be back later. http://www.homegrownlearners.com/hom...omeschool.html

[ValiantJoy07]

Originally Posted by Can'tTurnLeft

Read this. I'll be back later. http://www.homegrownlearners.com/hom...omeschool.html

Thank you for sharing that! That has to be one of the most encouraging things I have read in a while.

OP I struggle being a SAHM, it is what I always wanted to do - from a child I knew I wanted to be a Mom and stay home and raise them...I am now doing it nad it's hte hardest thing I have ever done- made harder I'm sure by varying factors I wasn't anticipating. I have really questioned and evaluated my desire to home school my kids. DH and I were home schooled in elementary and at points in the rest of our childhood. The biggest thing I have accepted is that it isn't for always, it is about what is best for each individual child from year to year. I'm not strapped in for the next 18 years or whatever.

It is a great and ideal fit for my oldest, so this year we're starting there. And the early years are awesome- they are so hungry to learn and book work should be so limited- it should be about experiencing the world and trying new things.

Really at any age, if a family has so much "book work" that they've become a hermit it's 1) because that's what they enjoy and desire or 2) because they have some thing off balance and the curriculum is too much on academics and not enough about the awesome enrichment opportunities that home schooling offers.

as you make these decisions.

[tracierowe]

Thank you all. . LJ, I haven't mentioned it to anyone except for two homeschooling moms who I hoped would help me make the decision easier. . I don't want to get anyone locally worked up about it either way before we decide if we are actually going to do it. I am feeling pretty overwhelmed lately, and the thought of homeschooling scares me. The thought of forcing Cooper to go 12 more years of school to something he hates also scares me. It's so hard. He is like a different kid at school. It's like he gets into a zone or something and he seems to thrive (his behavior was always spot on which is way more than I can say for home,) but at what cost?

[sweetpeas]

Praying God leads you in the way He wants you to go.

If patience is a requirement for homeschooling I'm in DEEP trouble because I most definitely do NOT have patience! I get LOTS of opportunities to practice that trait, but most of the time, I fail.

How much time we spend each day "doing school" varies day-to-day and season-to-season, it's more now that the big girls are bigger and we're doing preschool for Lina too. But definitely when Lexie and Ashlyn were Pre-K through 2nd grade, the time we spent "doing school" was similar to, or less than, what many of my friends' children spent doing homework. And if we had a bad day where one of the girls was just NOT handling it, we could set it aside and come back fresh teh next day. When kids are in school, they have to do stuff on the teacher's timetable, no matter how fried their brain is.

As far as behavior being better at school, part of that is that he knows you love him unconditionally, so he tests boundaries with you. But I also think, some kids, especially around that age, thrive on a routine/schedule, and knowing the rules. From the time Ashlyn was 4, she's wanted to know "what's happening next". To this day every night at bedtime she asks "what are we doing tomorrow", I don't always know, but giving her as much information as I can, helps her. When she was little I had a magnet board and homemade magnets with pictures of the things we normally did, and each morning we'd go over that board together, over time it changed to a written list (once she could read) and now, she just asks, and keeps it in her head, but still, that need to know what's expected and what to expect might be where his behavior deteriorates at home? I DEFINITELY see this with the 6 yr old who joins us for school 3-4 days per week. He needs very definite rules and structure, and then he's fine. When he first started coming over alot, I wasn't sure how it would work because I'm definitely more strict in some areas than his mom, there were days when I figured he'd be THRILLED to go home and get away from Miss LaRee who won't let me do ANYTHING, but he would beg to stay longer, and now he asks for some of those boundaries. An area that terrified me was that both him and his 3 yr old brother would ride WAY too close to (IMO), and even into, the road on their bikes. It TERRIFIED me, but their mom would just call them back and not seem concerned. When we hit a patch where I had them w/o her here for several days, I got out the sidewalk chalk and drew lines on the driveway and told them they were NOT to go over those lines. Now, if he's here and the rain has washed away the lines, he is quick to remind me to draw new lines, he likes and needs those concrete rules and boundaries. So, not sure how much of it is his personality and how much is his age, but I tend to see challenging behavior when he doesn't know what to expect. (and definitely they can figure out what the "rules" are with different people, even the 3 yr old, knows full well that he can get by with stuff if his mom's here, that he can't when I'm watching them).