I was with some of my homeschool friends last night and was reminded that we all have good moments and not so good moments of homeschooling. I remembered that we all struggle with various aspects of our journey. We have fun and we wouldn’t change our lifestyles. We get to teach our children the ABC’s and 123′s of school and life. We deal with people who are supportive, those who are tolerant, and those who kindly insult our way of life under the guise of mild curiosity or self disparaging comments. We learn to take things with a grain of salt, lots of grace, and a smidgen of flexibility. And when everyone else’s homeschool is perfect but ours is falling apart, we find that just being with friends that walk our walk can change our perspective and make a little rainbow of peace come out of the storm clouds.
To show how perfect our homeschool is and perhaps encourage others along the journey, I want to list some of our highs and lows of this past school year. When I first started thinking of this list, I couldn’t come up with the good. Our year ended rocky and I (we) just wanted to be done, but God showed me some things we could be proud of and look forward to for next year.
In no particular order here is my list:
- I had a 5th, third and kindergartner. Not too bad, but adding that third child was a task for me…
- Because my 3rd grader could barely read, she was very dependent on me – taking time from reading with my K-5er.
- Addie wanted to do school constantly – she’s 4
- There was/is a toddler in the house.
- J was bored with math. On the hunt for something more challenging I found Life of Fred. LOVE IT! He’s challenged and learning (though I think he’s doubtful of this)
- G could barely read in 3rd grade. And we just weren’t getting math. UGH! I’m not sure who was more frustrated – me or her.
- Plugged through reading and reviewed phonics. Within the final month of school, reading FINALLY kicked in. The light switch was turned on. We’re still slow on reading, but things are sounding SO MUCH better!
Changed math with G to Developmental Mathematics and she really liked that. Again, still struggled, but in the last month of school that reading light bulb also became a math light bulb. “Mommy, look! If I do this and then do this, then I get the right answer!” HUG!!!- T is still working through the reading book, so we’re a little behind. Some fault of mine, but the demands of 3rd grade overtook demands of K-5.
- History? What’s that?
Where are all the pencils? I just bought 20 of them!- Hello? Erasers? I love my Baby O, but I don’t think erasers are good for the digestive tract.
- What a great worksheet I found! Too bad there’s no ink in the printer.
- “Mom, I need you.”
- “Mom, I need you.”
- “Mom, I need you.”
- “Mom, I need you.”
- “Mom, I need you.”
- Why are there pages torn out of this book? This is not a workbook!
- What did you learn from our field trip? “I don’t know.”
- What does s-c-h-e-d-u-l-e spell? I have no idea.
- The library made approximately $60 (give or take a little) from my family this year.
- Books do NOT belong in the toilet! Especially library books!
- We finally have a cleaning system that works for our family! It’s a conglomeration of several ideas. Yep. This is homeschooling, b/c boy, is school messy!
- The CAT test for G and J was acceptable for one and disappointing for the other. Glad it’s only a state requirement and really means nothing.
- We made new friends and became closer friends with old friends.
- J played basketball and G played soccer. God gave them wonderful talents and I loved watching them grow in ability and confidence.
- G wrote songs that made me cry. I know they glorified God.
- J has a wonderful ability to create games. He’s working on them and we’re trying to find a way to make them possible for all to use.
- T has a speech impediment, but he’s worked hard and as long as he talks slowly, he can be understood so much better.
- T can do perfectly formed push-ups. He’s 6. He loves to do diamond push-ups.
- Addie loves doing school. I look forward to seeing what the new school year will be like with her “doing” K-4.
I look forward to beginning our new school year. (yes, I know summer has just begun). There’s so much potential and I know God will use my kids in some great way – even if it impacts only one person.
Please be encouraged by this crazy list of ups and downs. Listening to my friends, I know I’m not the only person who is crazy from homeschooling. It’s nice to know.
What were some of your ups and downs? Let me know!
