This will be our last year homeschooling.
UPDATE 5/1/16: This post was part of my over the top, never-been-this-bad yearly Homeschool Mom Meltdown. We will continue homeschooling. Things will change a little for next year but that part will not change. Just so ya know.
I have just about reached the end. The end of me, the end of what I feel I can do justice with for my boys, the end of patience. They have needs beyond what I am able to provide. D1 needs a lot more defined structure and scaffolding to enable him to succeed to the best of his abilities. And his abilities are many! I’m just not very good at the scaffolding and structure.
I am so over homeschooling.
Not that I didn’t– and don’t– love it. I do!
Homeschooling has been an amazing lifestyle and journey that I feel so privileged to have taken with 5 of my kids. I love homeschooling and homeschoolers. I am just very tired and feel that this season is nearly drawn to a close.
We began this homeschooling journey in February of 1998, unofficially, with a heavy “after-schooling” session each day when my daughter Paige got home from public school Kindergarten. We started with Follow Me! Listen and Do Activities, because the speech pathologist recommended it– and photocopied the entire book for us to do at home!
Not too long after beginning this, Paige asked me to teach her to read. I picked up a copy of Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons, and by lesson 32 she was reading. We pulled her out of school in April, and never looked back. We added my stepson that fall, and our youngest daughter the following year.
The girls homeschooled through 8th & 10th grades respectively, and then went on to public high school (our youngest daughter went to community college for 11th-12th and graduated high school there, with her AA degree.)
Eighteen years. Crazy right? And this year is possibly the craziest.
D1 is now 15 and a sophomore.
Autism rears its head frequently, and right beside him is its cohort, ADHD. Honestly, I can handle the Autism. I embrace his Autism. It’s what makes him, HIM: Creative, kooky, introspective and analytical, and ever-so-precise in his descriptions and explanations.
Yes, precise. That’s a good descriptor. “We got home at 12:53am Mom.” Precise. Even when he’s tattling on the fact that Dad let him and his younger brother stay at their older brother’s playing games– on a school night– while I was at work and didn’t know anything about it.
I love that kid. 😀
It’s the school stuff that kills me.
I push, he pushes back. Digs in his heels and does… nothing. Or barrels full steam ahead and still does… NOTHING. Or does lots of things but nothing that adds up to a complete assignment. His ADHD has him jumping from one thing to another constantly.
D2 is a motivated self-starter.
This is great when it comes to his classes, but he doesn’t always ask questions when he doesn’t understand something. Three weeks later I realize he’s been confused all along and is failing one of his online classes because of a simple mistake he keeps repeating.
Both are enrolled part-time in a parent partnership program through a local school district, taking most of their classes online. This is in preparation for them attending school next year, and to save Momma’s sanity this year because I really just want someone else to do this now. I am tired.
Someone else can take over for me at any time. I’d let you. I’d be good with that.
And so this is our last year homeschooling.
It is also my last year working late, missing family dinners, and climbing into bed with my hubby at 1am, destined only see one another awake for a brief 20 minutes in the wee hours of the morning as the sun comes up.
https://www.instagram.com/p/yWUgZZNtlM/
I will move to a day shift position when the boys are in school.
And even when they start regular high school, homeschooling will continue to be their foundation to build on.
Have you ever come to a place where you know that it’s time to stop something, even something that is very GOOD?
Creating Transcripts for Your Unique Child: Help Your Homeschool Graduate Stand Out from the Crowd (The HomeScholar’s Coffee Break Book series 3)Planning High School Courses: Charting the Course Toward High School Graduation (The HomeScholar’s Coffee Break Book series 1)
Your Goals This Year: A Year by Year Guide to Homeschooling High School (The HomeScholar’s Coffee Break Book series 16)
