My husband and I made the decision long ago to homeschool Big Mac. It seemed for so many reasons to be the best decision for our family. The reasons we chose to homeschool remain true today, with the exception of perhaps one. I said before we really got rolling that homeschooling was for us because we’d really already been doing it. Teaching our kids at home. Like all parents do.
But.
But making the transition from teaching our children as infants, toddlers and preschoolers through their everyday experiences to educating a Kindergartener has not been what I thought it was going to be. Sure, it’s been better. More rewarding. Deeper.
But it’s also been a whole lot harder.
Not too long ago, I was doing Big Mac’s phonics and reading lesson with him (even though my husband normally does that part). The weather outside was frightful. Big Mac’s attitude about doing his copywork was not delightful. I looked up and saw a big yellow school bus drive by our house, and it hit me. A thought did, not the school bus. Thankfully.
Homeschooling is not what I thought it was going to be.
There are so many things in my life that I just fly by the seat of my pants with. Just go with the flow about. Don’t stress over. But as we’ve worked halfway now through Big Mac’s Kindergarten year, it’s become more than clear that it takes lots more planning, energy and concerted effort to teach our son the way we want to.
The unschooling approach has always intrigued me, but it isn’t for us. I researched curriculums and chose to go through lessons with Big Mac methodically. There are letter teams to memorize, circles and lines beginning at different times on the clock to teach for penmanship, battles of the will to fight, lesson plans to prepare and study and the list goes on.
There may be no cure for laziness, but homeschooling sure helps!
Don’t get me wrong. We plan to continue teaching our children both informally and formally at home. As far as being connected with our children, longing to be the ones with the greatest influences in their lives while they are young, desiring to have a very active role in their education, homeschooling is exactly what I thought it would be. It also takes a lot more work, at least I am finding that for me it does, to do it well.
“It’s just Kindergarten,” I reminded myself. And that’s totally true! There is so much Big Mac already knew before we even started. The last thing I wanted to do was to make Kindergarten a high pressure year for him or to get too bogged down with making sure we did things exactly right. I wanted to have fun, continue to encourage his love of learning and enjoy time together. And we’re doing all of those things.
But teaching a child to read isn’t as simple as just helping them learn to sound things out. There are short vowels sounds to memorize and the ever exciting magic e which turns other vowels into long ones.
We’re finding our groove, though. We’d better! With many more students and years of schooling ahead of us, we can’t get too hung up on Kindergarten! It just took me longer to find a rhythm than I thought it would with homeschooling. Finding time to work with Big Mac on his studies wasn’t as simple as just doing it while I find the other kids something to do. It has been hard to find a schedule that works, though we finally did. For example, I work with Big Mac every night on his math after his siblings are asleep. His need for less sleep, even as a small baby, has in the past been a challenge. Now it’s a blessing, as he is still raring to go after bathtime. In fact, our math lessons (we use, and love, Singapore Math, if you’re interested!) in the evenings are some of our most productive school times. Breaking learning up throughout the day actually works much better for Big Mac, anyway.
But arriving at that schedule was hard. And I didn’t think it was going to be. Our children may have lots and lots to learn in school over the coming years…
…and now I realize that so do I!
