Here is another excerpt from a radio interview I had a few years back....
What are the challenges of homeschooling an only?
Not having the experiences of having more children. With a firstborn, he is a firstborn his whole life — which means that every first experience for him is a first for his parents also. I had no clue to what “average” or “normal” was. When he ended up reading fairly fluently before I even started him in “Kindergarten/1st grade” materials, I thought he might be a little advanced for his age, but I really didn’t know. Other parents, while not comparing their children, can still see that handwriting usually isn’t proficient for many years, so I could have left that battle alone for a few years instead of insisting on long practice periods he was not prepared for as a 6 & 7 year old. At least other parents start figuring these things out the more children they have. Waiting on handwriting to be at the same level as his reading comprehension could have saved us both some tears! So, it’s a challenge to know what’s normal or average and what’s not, when you only have one.
It’s also a challenge because the only gets ALL of our attention. Yes, the good times when they are discovering something for the first time, or when you see them struggling and you can slow down or go over something a bit more in depth to make sure they truly grasp the concepts you’re presenting. But also every little jot & tittle is noticed. My husband and I are both firstborns and we tend to be a bit perfectionistic, so we notice a LOT that should be better left ignored, or at best, we could at least wait on correcting. Choosing battles hasn’t always been our strong suit—we’ve tended to make every battle the war.
Donna Conner lives in Fort Worth, TX with her husband, Glenn, their son, Mike, Donna's mother, Charlotte, and their dog, Lucia. Donna and Glenn have been homeschooling their son since the beginning of his education. Mike completed his homeschooling in the fall of 2008. Donna is an artist and has always enjoyed writing. She wrote Homeschooling Only One in 2003, after discovering that there were many other families homeschooling only one child. Her website is devoted to those with only one student in their homeschool, with listings of online resources. You can visit her website at http://donnac.com and read her blog at: http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/DonnaC
copyright © 2008 Donna Conner ~~ All rights reserved. Content may not be reproduced in any form without written permission of author, except in the case of brief passages embodied in critical reviews and articles where the title and author are listed.
