Someone asked me today if I was going to continue homeschooling next year. This isn't an unexpected question, since this is our first year of homeschooling.
My answer was of course Yes. But it was a hard yes to give. There are some days when I realize how easy it would be to shuffle the kids off to school and have almost seven hours alone with just me and Emma (my 2 year old). It would be so easy to keep the house half-way organized, and deal with her running all over the house, and all of the additional issues with her Diabetes that we are now dealing with. It would be so much easier to get a nap each day, which I feel like I need right now since I feel like I have a newborn with all of the waking up we have to do at night. It would be so much easier to know that math and grammer would be covered each day and science and history would be completed.
But I know that this is better for the kids. Michael would not be doing well in the over-crowded 1st grade classrooms at our local elementary school. He would be having problems with his hand strength and his sensory issues. Its not that he isn't having those issues at home - he is; but I am able to help him deal with it in a way that I couldn't in his classroom. And Samantha is able to move ahead in her math unlike she would be doing in the public school. And she is participating in a fantastic art class and a drama club; opportunities that she wouldn't have in her public school.
There are days that I'm really excited about what we are doing. And there are days that I have trouble even getting off the couch; which means the kids don't do everything they should be doing. And that is especially hard for a "box checker" like me. I am starting to know that its ok if we don't finish Samantha's math during the year (keeping her going over the summer will keep it fresh for her). I know that Michael is fine with Math because we have already finished a one year curriculum and have started the second one. And he knows more grammar than many 1st graders and is moving along nicely with narration and memorization. I think the thing that is probably bugging me the most is the "180 requirement". The state doesn't check it but I know. We started 2 weeks before public schools started in hopes of finishing a bit before they do. Between an unplanned week in Disney World, and almost 2 weeks of no lessons recently with Emma's recent hospitalization, our 180 days now goes beyond the public school schedule. The kids won't understand that. It was hard enough starting while their friends were still out playing during the day - I can't imagine trying to get them to focus when they are out of school. And there are still three field trips - one local, one semi-local and one long-distance that I need to plan; one of them recently derailed by Emma's situation.
So, today is one of those days that is making it tough for me to "see it through" with Homeschooling. I have to keep telling me that its the right thing because right now, public school is REALLY feeling like the easy thing. | 