The Peanut Patch

• Aug. 20, 2006 - We Did It

We had our first day of school on Monday, and it did not go well. Okay, so it went well in that Michael absorbed the information I could give him faster than I could teach it, nearly... but it didn't go well, because the 1 1/2 hours max that I expected to spend on homeschooling turned into almost 2 1/2 hours of school time, we went through 3 1/2 days worth of lessons, and for the rest of the day, he kept asking me when we were going to have school next. That's a good thing. I know that... but with a not-quite-two year old at home, and a house full of chores that had to be done (laundry & kitchen duty), I had to attend to other matters besides teaching. (and for the record, my house in not immaculate... which is why there wasn't much wiggle room in the do-my-chores department... if I didn't do laundry or dishes, we would be naked & hungry.)

I was pulling my hair out; I called my sister for advice (she works with kindergarteners in the PS system). I used her as my sounding board, and she gave awesome advice, very unbiased, showing me the pros & cons of doing it both ways. I got off the phone without an answer, but with clarity in my thoughts.

When my husband got home, we sat down & talked for a long time about how the day had gone. Neither David nor myself have ever been strictly "you must homeschool" or "you must public school" - we have had a hard time deciding what to do, because we see the drawbacks & benefits of doing both. After hashing it out for about an hour, we realized that if we didn't let Michael start PS kindergarten on the 16th, and then homeschooling continued to not work for us, we would have lost a year. Michael is a very tall, very intelligent child for his age, and he is already an anamoly with his peers. Doing something that could hold him back a year would make him more of one, if we did enroll him in kindergarten next fall.

We didn't have much time to decide, because the first day of school loomed near. So we did it: we let him go to kindergarten. I was worried he would fight it, because he has been insistent that he wants to be homeschooled for the last few weeks. But when David & I sat him down to talk with him, Michael was overjoyed at the news. I guess homeschool wasn't all he expected it to be - I think he believed we would sit down together for hours on end, learning anything & everything, and the house & his sister would go by the wayside. That didn't happen, and I'm sure that disappointed him.

You know what? He loves kindergarten. He is excited about it, he doesn't even mind being up at the crack of dawn to catch the bus (which he insists on riding). His teacher is very nice. We liked her from the moment we met her, and she even called me at home to let me know Michael was doing fine, because she knows how worried I am about it (I made it clear that we had planned to homeschool, and this was a test run). Don't get me wrong - I am still torn, worried that I didn't listen to God, worried that I denied myself an answered prayer. David has comforted me by saying maybe God knew I had to try HSing first, before I realized Michael should be in kindergarten, which is why things turned out the way they have. I don't know what is right and what is wrong about the situation.

I do know that this is just a trial run. If something happens that we don't agree with, and it can't be reconciled, if Michael's attitude takes a nosedive & can't be straightened out, or if Michael becomes very miserable with school and truly wants to be homeschooled again, we will bring him home. In a heartbeat. My child's life if more important to me, his happiness, his education, than anything else. If something challenges that, there will be no questions to ask - he will be home with me again.

For now, I'm going to keep this blog up, since we do still have our little girl at home, and I am beginning to teach her all that she needs to know right now. And who knows - one day soon, I may have two students in my classroom again.