Gotta Start Somewhere
About Us
I’m a Mom of 3. I have 2 boys: C10 and L7; and a girl: L2.
Why are we homeschooling for a year?
My eldest has ADHD and I believe he may also have dysgraphia. Suffice it to say I had heard from his school a lot about how he wasn’t completing things on time, and I saw first hand his struggles with memorizing math, and with any kind of writing when helping him with his homework. Add to this my 7 year old son who was just miserable all school year. Always complaining about how much he hates school. I don’t know if part of it was seasonal affective disorder, but I got the impression that school was as soul sucking for my middle child as it was for me as a child.
I was inspired by family and friends who have and are homeschooling their kids to give it a shot for ourselves. I wanted to find a way for my kids to enjoy learning. I wanted to give them opportunities to learn more than what traditional schooling sets kids up to learn. I wanted my kids to have chances to find real passions in life and be able to pursue them. And I didn’t want traditional schooling to hinder their individual learning styles. But I didn’t (and still don’t) know if homeschool is the right path for all or some of us. So I talked to my sons and we agreed to give homeschooling a try for 1 year, after which we will assess if we would like to continue or not.
So here we are, a week into our homeschool experience, and I made the rookie mistake I swore I wouldn’t make... I turned our house into a friggin traditional school and tried to just pick up where they left off in public school. I know any seasoned homeschool parents reading this are shaking their heads and chuckling because apparently this is something a lot of homeschool parents do, even after they have convinced themselves they won’t.
So how did I find myself making this classic first time homeschooler mistake?
I was feeling pressure from my husband and myself if I’m being honest. I looked at the curricula I had purchased without thinking it through and felt a huge pressure to get it started. After all, the curriculum was laid out by weeks and days, letting me know I had 36 weeks to get the kids to complete it. If we didn’t start soon they would be so far behind. But behind who? If my initial goal was to approach learning based off of my children’s interests, then there was no catching up with anyone else in this regard.
It took 3 days of homeschooling, the first 2 of which went ok, but by day 3 my sons were miserable with the traditional schooling I was serving them, and I was too. Then it occurred to me that we really had not done nearly enough deschooling. And by “deschooling” I mean getting away from those traditional ways of learning. Just letting my kids learn through experiences. Get out of the house. Meet other homeschoolers, visit the library, watch documentaries and google anything we’re curious about, and so much more. The Homeschooling Mom does a great job of breaking down what deschooling is and all of the ways that you can deschool on her blog.
So come Monday, I aim to cool my homeschool jets big time, and make a plan with the kids for things that they would like to do, and learn, and experience in the upcoming weeks. We will make this a time of learning and discovering, without it feeling forced and painful (hopefully). I aim to still pull out books from the curricula and read them with the kids, for some co-optive learning as Julie Bogart would refer to it. But if we are going to give homeschooling a fighting chance, we need to get creative with how we are going to learn from here on out.
I’m a Mom of 3. I have 2 boys: C10 and L7; and a girl: L2.
Why are we homeschooling for a year?
My eldest has ADHD and I believe he may also have dysgraphia. Suffice it to say I had heard from his school a lot about how he wasn’t completing things on time, and I saw first hand his struggles with memorizing math, and with any kind of writing when helping him with his homework. Add to this my 7 year old son who was just miserable all school year. Always complaining about how much he hates school. I don’t know if part of it was seasonal affective disorder, but I got the impression that school was as soul sucking for my middle child as it was for me as a child.
I was inspired by family and friends who have and are homeschooling their kids to give it a shot for ourselves. I wanted to find a way for my kids to enjoy learning. I wanted to give them opportunities to learn more than what traditional schooling sets kids up to learn. I wanted my kids to have chances to find real passions in life and be able to pursue them. And I didn’t want traditional schooling to hinder their individual learning styles. But I didn’t (and still don’t) know if homeschool is the right path for all or some of us. So I talked to my sons and we agreed to give homeschooling a try for 1 year, after which we will assess if we would like to continue or not.
So here we are, a week into our homeschool experience, and I made the rookie mistake I swore I wouldn’t make... I turned our house into a friggin traditional school and tried to just pick up where they left off in public school. I know any seasoned homeschool parents reading this are shaking their heads and chuckling because apparently this is something a lot of homeschool parents do, even after they have convinced themselves they won’t.
So how did I find myself making this classic first time homeschooler mistake?
I was feeling pressure from my husband and myself if I’m being honest. I looked at the curricula I had purchased without thinking it through and felt a huge pressure to get it started. After all, the curriculum was laid out by weeks and days, letting me know I had 36 weeks to get the kids to complete it. If we didn’t start soon they would be so far behind. But behind who? If my initial goal was to approach learning based off of my children’s interests, then there was no catching up with anyone else in this regard.
It took 3 days of homeschooling, the first 2 of which went ok, but by day 3 my sons were miserable with the traditional schooling I was serving them, and I was too. Then it occurred to me that we really had not done nearly enough deschooling. And by “deschooling” I mean getting away from those traditional ways of learning. Just letting my kids learn through experiences. Get out of the house. Meet other homeschoolers, visit the library, watch documentaries and google anything we’re curious about, and so much more. The Homeschooling Mom does a great job of breaking down what deschooling is and all of the ways that you can deschool on her blog.
So come Monday, I aim to cool my homeschool jets big time, and make a plan with the kids for things that they would like to do, and learn, and experience in the upcoming weeks. We will make this a time of learning and discovering, without it feeling forced and painful (hopefully). I aim to still pull out books from the curricula and read them with the kids, for some co-optive learning as Julie Bogart would refer to it. But if we are going to give homeschooling a fighting chance, we need to get creative with how we are going to learn from here on out.
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