About 4 years ago I finally took the plunge and tried something crazy - I home schooled my three older kids. Ann was in 3rd grade, Lee was in 2nd, and Harrison was doing a simple Pre-K. It started out great. I had bought a big box curriculum called Sonlight. By Christmas, though, I was feeling so overwhelmed. The house was always a mess, the kids were always arguing, and I swore I'd never home school again. I literally went into a depression. On a very regular basis (a couple of times a week) I would hide in my room and bawl my eyes out. I really felt like the biggest failure. "How on Earth do people do this, and say that they love it???"
Well, that year finally came to an end, and the next year I sent them all back to public school. That following March, Charlie was born, and I knew I had made the right decision in putting the kids back in school. I loved the time alone with Charlie, the time to just focus on being his mommy.
The kids stayed in public school for two years, and they did great. Ann and Lee flourished academically, made lots of good friends, and Harrison learned to follow rules and be on a schedule, and also made a few good friends.
But the home school "seed" had been planted in my heart, and although I honestly hated our first attempt, I could never get the idea out of my head. I'd always be thinking about ways to do it differently, and I still loved to talk to people about their experiences with it. I had a great respect for those who did it, because I knew first hand how difficult it really was.
Last Summer I decided that this year I'd home school just Ann. She had just finished Elementary School, and I did not want her attending Middle School. She had already started puberty a year ago, and we'd had a roller coaster of a time with her, emotionally. I was learning that she needed space from her peers, and because she was doing well academically and was very responsible, I knew she could handle learning at home on her own.
The first semester went remarkably well. I'd heard about an online curriculum called Easy Peasy All in One Home schoool, and it sounded perfect for us. Ann started using that, and then switched to mostly doing Kahn Academy. Both were excellent, but Kahn was a better fit for her learning style, so she stuck with it. Those first few months were awesome. She was very independent, and we both loved it. I didn't have to push her, or remind her, or anything. And not only that, but our relationship made a change for the better, 100%. That one-on-one time was just what we needed, and she still occasionally got together with friends. Plus, I had a built-in babysitter for Charlie when I needed to run to the store or something. The arrangement really was rather perfect.
Then we moved. Karl lost his job at Shenvalee in November, and since we had been wanting to head Westward anyway, the timing just felt right. So in January we left Virginia and moved to Utah to look for a new job. That was 3 months ago.
When we got here, Ann decided she wanted to try public school again, really only so that she could make friends again in a new area. It has proven to be a mistake. We are back to emotional roller-coastering. She sees it every bit as much as we do, and we agree that home schooling will be best after this year.
I'm not sure yet if or when I will home school the boys. Lee is doing great in school, and making plenty of friends. He says he wants to home school when he starts middle school. Here, that starts in 7th grade, so he'd have another year in Elementary School to go. We'll probably do that.
Harrison hates school here. He hasn't made any friends, and gets in fights with one of the boys frequently. The poor boy has not adjusted to this move very well at all. I'm very seriously considering home schooling him next year. I need to really pray over that one. In some ways I think it would be good for him to learn how to communicate and work more effectively in a group, but maybe we need to work on other behaviors at home first. I don't know. He's a tough one to figure out sometimes. We'll see...
I'm pretty certain that when Charlie is school aged, we'll be home schooling him. He is already learning so much. He's just turned two a month ago, and he already knows the whole alphabet by sight, numbers 0-9 by sight (and can count to 12!), almost all colors, and several shapes (including rhombus!). He just loves to learn new stuff! I want to encourage that love of learning by letting him continue at his pace. I think public school would slow him down and hold him back.
I have some plans for how I want to home school differently in the future, but that will be another blog post.
