Oh goodness. Where to start? I’m only writing this post tonight because if I announce my intentions for the coming school year, I feel like it will MAKE THEM SO. And I’ve had enough with the waffling and the cold feet and the fretting and the waffling.
Hold the drumroll for a sec and let’s back up to the beginning…
On May 18, I wrote a post called homeschooling. truthfully. I just read it again two minutes ago, and as a completely unbiased observer, I must say it’s a tad on the brilliant side. Too keep my humble reputation in tact, I’ll add that I must have had some divine help. I don’t really even remember writing it. (Did I??) Anyway, it chronicles all the reasons why homeschooling scares the pantaloons off me (none of this has changed since May).
On May 19, I wrote a post called happy homeschool rainbows. More brilliance (one last hurrah before The Brilliance took off 2+ months for summer vacation and shows no signs of ever coming back). All the dreamy, idealistic reasons to homeschool. I re-read that one a few minutes ago too and felt all fuzzy.
May 20 = homeschooling, part 3 (doubts and second thoughts) (aka, the end of the brilliance). Re-reading this one made my fuzzy feelings flee. I kind of forgot how awful that week ended up being. All the turmoil and angst.
May 24. Last post on homeschooling (I think). And be thankful I didn’t say much about the whole debacle in June or July because goodness. I spent a bulk of my time threatening Ava that, “If you can’t be nice to Nina, YOU ARE GOING BACK TO SCHOOL!”
So, what did we decide (as of 2 days ago)? Roll that drum…
Livi (10) is going to 5th grade at her public (magnet) school. She wants to be with her friends and experience a year of being Top Elementary Dog. Then, according to her, she wants to be homeschooled for the rest of her life.
Nina (5) is going to afternoon kindergarten (1:00-3:30) at the elementary school a mile from our house. Her teacher is a hundred kinds of awesome, and I’m excited for her year. “I only want to go to kindergarten though, Mommy. Then I want you to homeschool me the rest.”
And Ava (9)? Is staying home. With good ol’ Mrs. T./Mom as her teacher. If you love me at all (and/or know me and/or Ava even the tiniest bit), you’ll start praying RIGHTTHISMINUTE.
She is so excited. And me? I’m taking big, deep, really deep breaths.
I have no idea what I’m doing. I need simple this year. Easy. Not a whole lot of thought (at least not at first). I’m considering doing public school online. Anyone have any experience with it?
I welcome any/all words of wisdom/encouragement (I don’t even know what to do first! How do I even make this legal??). Expressions of concern are okay too–just know that I’ve agonized over this one, and I’m pretty sure God has nudged us in this particular direction (after making me sweat it out for two months).
I’ll be blogging along this new journey, and I can’t imagine it’s going to be pretty. Entertaining, yes, but not pretty. Stay tuned (if you dare).
[...] least one honest post about our homeschooling experience this year. And by honest, I mean [...]
[...] THANK YOU for all your support and encouragement concerning our big homeschooling decision. You people are a real [...]
Congratulations on making a very hard decision and what sounds like the best one for all concerned! I took each of my three sons out of school at different times, and it really worked out well. I did end up homeschooling them from middle school through high school, but there are 3 years between the first two and the second two. Anyway, I know if you’re like me, you feel like you never get to spend enough time with your middle child, so I predict that this will be a wonderful blessing for you both!
I am now homeschooling my daughter, and she just finished 4th grade, so I can make some suggestions based on what we did last year. We did the classical conversations foundations program, which is wonderful. There are several communities that meet in the Columbus area, and you can find them by going to classicalconversations.com. It involves a one morning a week meeting, and then homework to complete at home. I supplemented with Saxon Math (highly recommended), and Learning Language Arts through Literature, as well as reading Story of the World by Susan Wise Bauer. If you just want to ease into it, I used What Every 4th Grader needs to know by E.D. Hirsch with my first son, and that’s the only thing we did for the first few months. Of course, in his case, it was What Every 6th Grader needs to know. That was actually plenty to use to begin with. It’s a great series of books, and really does include everything they need to know in a given year.
I think you would love Beyond Five in a Row (found on Amazon), which is a book of unit studies using books you should be able to find in the library. Enjoy!
That’s super helpful, Jeanine! Thank you for sharing!!
I look forward to reading along. I have blogged a bit about homeschooling vs. public and we are putting our first in K this year. I am taking it one year at a time.
Thanks, Cheryl!
Me too! My oldest is going to a great private half day K5. Not sure what I am going to do about 1st grade. Praying our way through too!
I love that you’re doing what works for each girl and not expecting for them all to need the same thing at the same time. Look forward to reading updates!
Thanks, Jenn!
i think it’s so cool how prayerfully you’ve made this decision. plz keep us all informed this year about how it goes. i have enjoyed talking to my sister-in-law Jenny this past year while she homeschooled her kids for the first time (did you know that?) i would love to homeschool Levi someday. but i also know that it will be challenging at times. and require lots of discipline, of which i have little….hhhh…
Girl, I’m the Queen of Undisciplined. And no, I didn’t know about Jenny! How fun!