That's not to say it's all smooth sailing around here - many days it is not. We have tears, we have tantrums. And that's just me!
But every now and then, I am able to sit back and observe the kids. And be very grateful that they are able to be at home. Because I fear if they were at school, the consequences would not be pretty. For them or their teachers.
Imagine the following scenarios (played out on a daily basis around here) in a school situation, rather than at home:
- Wombat Girl is supposed to be doing questions on trigonometry (Yr 9 work). You know - sin, cos and tan. She is supposed to just be writing the correct ratios of selected angles on her worksheet. She has decided instead to calculate the missing sides using Pythagorus' Theorem then using the solutions fully calculate sin, cos and tan for each angle, in each triangle, to 2 decimal places.
- Video Boy is supposed to be doing some trigonometry practice on Khan Academy. Instead he is under a blanket watching YouTube videos on the iPad. He has not taken his medication. I coax him out (gently) but am met with tears, shaking and muttering. It is nearly midday. He struggles to concentrate on each question, but after constant re-focussing from me, the medication kicking in he is able to finish three sets of 8 questions and then move onto answering questions from his physics textbook (which he types into Word) all by himself.
In either of these situations at school, the kids would not even be doing the work listed above - it is years above their age grade. They would be bored by the content. The teachers would not like them going off-track and doing more than required by the questions. They would not be as patient with "immature" behaviour. They would be reticent to use technology to overcome issues with writing. It would be a lose-lose situation. Their strengths would not be catered to sufficiently and their weaknesses would not be supported enough.
The kids are so lucky (and I keep reminding them!!) that they have me and my seemingly endless stores of patience, because if they were in regular classroom, they would be bored, frustrated, annoyed and depressed. Their teachers would be annoyed, frustrated, disappointed and irritated. This would not be a win-win situation.
As it turned out, the work (and then some) is completed. They are happy and proud of their accomplishments. They are doing work that stimulates them mentally. They have some "products" to show for their work. I haven't lost the plot with them and they haven't (totally) blown their cool either. We will go on to do more cool stuff in the afternoon. Life is good - even with tears.
Have you had moments lately that made you appreciate your decision to homeschool?
What is it about homeschooling that really works for your kids?
I think the biggest difference (apart from being able to give them work in any subject at their level) is the fact that their "teacher" loves them. It doesn't matter what they do, or how they sometimes make you want to tear your own hair out at the end of the day their is an unconditional love and from that love you can find patience to deal with just about anything. It won't matter how great a teacher could be they will never have that for any of the kids.
ReplyDeleteLovely to see you here Mrs Mc! And YES - love. Absolutely :-)
DeleteYesterday we spent the afternoon preparing for a party. The boys had a great assembly line going for filling the party bags. If they had been at school, I would have either done all the preparation myself, or tried to get them to help out even when tired after a day at school. I like them sharing in my everyday life and seeing what is involved in household organisation instead of just reaping the end benefits.
ReplyDeletePokemon boy has been refusing to do any of his maths this week. After trying to get out of him what is wrong, I spent most of the morning researching options on the internet (and getting a bit sidetracked by trying out Khan academy myself). He spent most of this time lying in my bed reading Emily Rodda books. If he were at school, there is no way he would have had such a rapid change of curriculum, or be allowed to have the whole morning 'off'.
Life learning and adapting to what works for our kids - great stuff!
DeleteExcellent student-teacher ratio. Unconditional love. More patience from the teacher. Flexibility. Jammies. Not having to raise your hand to go pee. Eating when you are hungry. Constant access to Legos. Working at your own pace and level. Going places when they aren't all clogged up with disinterested PS groups.
ReplyDeleteI could keep going. Forever.
Love your passion!
DeleteMy kids have been doing a school holiday program (which they have been loving)and it has been killing all of us to rush out in the morning to get there and it was only once a week ... bahaha No cooked breakfast on those days!
ReplyDeleteIt's rainy and cold this morning and I was very grateful not to have to get everyone out of their beds early and off into it :-) Mmm - love me a cooked breakfast!
DeleteLately, he seems to be growing so fast, I'm so grateful for all the time I get to spend with him now, before he's all grown up. I'm also sad for the years I sent him to school - I missed out, on him. Definitely happy to homeschool. And the fact that he's learning so much is a bonus for sure, not to mention all the learning I'm doing.
ReplyDeleteMy babies are growing up fast too. And I regret not being 'brave' enough to do this earlier too :-(
DeleteLove reading your days, you are always an inspiration to me{} Aside from academics, I have really come to appreciate in the last year (with our daughter now 'finished') that the biggest gift of homeschooling was relationships and time, time allowed us to form solid relationships and to enjoy them. and time for our children to be, to simply be themselves, to find who they are without outward constraints.
ReplyDeleteSo chuffed that I inspire someone!! I love spending time with my kids and I love that they can just "be". It's a gift :-)
DeleteI love it because we've just got back from a morning at the beach, all salty and sandy, while there, D asked me to play a game about possessive apostrophes. One of them is now chilling out in front of Backyard Science, one is studying a world map, for fun. This is too easy.
ReplyDeleteThey sound like some great days, Alyson! Possessive apostrophes still make me think...
DeleteMan what can I add to the already great list!
ReplyDeleteI am going to guess our school systems are about the same, with each class lasting around 40 minutes or so. I love that we can dive deep into whatever it might be that caught our attention without worrying some bell is about to go off for the next (boring) class. The girls can really get into their projects taking their time to think how they want them to turn out.
Then there are all those priceless conversations that on the outside don't look like learning.
Most importantly why I love homeschooling is it allows for the girls to find out who they are with confidence without being shamed. Sky did not like to write either, especially in cursive. Being at home she is able to express her point of view using the computer. She is learning how to problem solve her own scenarios.
They both are learning their strenghs as well as their weaknesses.
What great additions! I LOVE not having bells to contend with! And it seems there are brilliant conversations all over the place.
DeleteNothing worse than hearing that bell at the end of a tea/lunch break; and at work, we had a bell also to let us when we had only five minutes left of our break, and another one to let us know our break was over. The only bell I wanted to hear was the one at the end of the day!!!
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