So Tuesday was a HARD day. I really was questioning if homeschooling was the wrong choice. Maybe he would benefit from going to regular school?!?! I took a deep breath and tried to remember everything I read. I read Danielle's Blog At Blissful and Domestic (GREAT BLOG) and I remember reading a post and she wrote about how difficult her first year was. I know that with the program I use (K12) I have a lot of support. However when I am home it's all me. My son gets very very distracted. He looses focus soo fast. He has been struggling with phonics. I found myself getting soo frustrated. Then I remembered, I am not the only one. I love reading and hearing about other moms experiences. The reason I started this blog was to share mine. In that moment of frustration remembering that other moms have felt the same way and got through it, felt so encouraging. I realized that the fact that Matthew does get so distracted, is probably the biggest benefit of Homeschool. I started to think that he could very well struggle in a classroom setting with all the other kids. At home I am able to work at a time that is best for him and also see the areas he needs extra help. I had him work on Noodleverse, an online phonics program, for some extra help. It was great and I think I am going to have him work on that daily. Yesterday was a much better day! I switched our day up and started the day with music class. He had so much Fun and I did too! It was nice to switch it up and I noticed it made a big difference in Matthew's attitude for school. I know that this journey will not always be easy. I know there might be plenty of those days of questioning myself. I do have to say that the majority of the days though, feel great! I love when we get through a School day and Matthew tells everyone he sees what he has learned. Although it's not always easy I also LOVE being his teacher!!!
We homeschool as well, and I'm so glad that you know that we all have those days. Remember that your baby is only 5. He may need frequent breaks. But it sounds like you worked it out just fine.
ReplyDeleteWhen I first started homeschooling my now 7th grader, it was very frustrating, especially phonics. After the first year I realized that things needed to change, so I adopted a very relaxed approach to homeschooling. It works great for our family. We pretty much go with the flow. If something isn't clicking right away, we stop and come back to it when that child is ready. We are homeschooling so we have no schedule to keep, or list of requirements to be met. My oldest is in 7th grade, and is in a K12 online school, I love it! But for my younger ones, the online school option wouldn't work for us right now since they are so young and love to play. Plus we're trying a different approach to reading that's working well for us.
Also remember phonics is kind of hard. When he learned to speak, he didn't learn sounds seperate from words and sentences. So this concept may seem strange to him. I have lots more thoughts on this but I can't put them all here.
Anyway, good job mom at switching things up and bringing fun back to learning. Your K12 videos are very inspiring.
LNG
Hi! I found your blog from the blog hop at "Blissful and Domestic." Please stop by my blog as well at http://www.joyfulhomeandlife.com (and even subscribe to the newsletter to be updated on new content, if you'd like). We blog about homeschooling, faith, decorating ideas, do it yourself ideas, recipes and more and you're welcome to visit. Please also like and share the Facebook page at http://facebook.com/joyfulhomeandlife and if you're on Twitter become a follower at http://twitter.com/joyfulhomenlife
ReplyDeleteThanks!