100 Hours

Wondering what 100 hours could means?  Well, it is roughly the amount of time I have spent over the last month educating my kindergartener.

I've been asked by several people how the homeschooling is going, probably because I have yet to post anything about it.  We're on our 5th week of homeschool, and the fact that I am still alive is a good sign.  My blood pressure is probably better today than it was 5 weeks ago, but there is definitely room for improvement.  I have realized, though, that what is causing me the most stress is trying to find a balance with each of my boys, and giving each of them attention.  This is something that parents should figure out whether they are homeschooling or not.

First, I have to explain that I am not doing this totally on my own.  I guess I am taking the "easy" way, which actually is not easy at all, let me tell you.  Yes, there is the opportunity to create a schedule in a program online (ie. I can designate which days we will cover things like Science and History, while Math and Phonics are daily), yes the curriculum is given to me (yes, I said given, as in free, as in I did not pay for any of our books or materials except for some paper and crayons...I think public-schoolers have to pay more than I did---if you saw all of the books and supplies I was given, you'd fully appreciate that statement, or maybe you wouldn't appreciate it so much).  So, in that regard, going the online-public-school route is easy.  However, the commitment is where the challenge comes in.  I am accountable to someone.  Though I wish I had the luxury, yes I consider it a luxury, to run my homeschool the way I want to, I am not currently doing things that way.

Why?

This is dang hard.  So why am I doing it this way?  Well, to be honest I have no idea what the heck I am doing.  I don't know where to start, what to teach.  To some people, it might be one of those "duh, this is how you do it" type of things, and sometimes I get the impression that I am the only one who doesn't get it.  And so I have my handy little program k12.

I go back and forth, seriously almost daily, on whether or not I like the program and if it is the right fit for us.  Some parts I absolutely love.  Mainly the Phonics and Math sections.  Asher is excelling in those sections because they fit his level, and I feel that they are the most important thing he needs to learn right now.  The Art...hmmm.  When I saw "Fauvism" in one of the lessons, uh, yeah, um this is Kindergarten.  I didn't learn about Fauvism until college Humanities.  Science, we like for the most part.  We learned about the 5 senses for the first few weeks, and this week we learned about bones an muscles--basics, thank goodness, he's not ready to learn about his gastrocnemius or his talus.  We'll save that for first grade).  We also have Language Arts, History, Social Studies, and Music.  Like I said, this is Kindergarten.  I am kind of having my inner dilemma with this because I don't believe in dumping too much on a child at such a young age.  Challenge them, yes.  Help them reach their potential, of course.  Overwhelm them, absolutely not! In my opinion, education is not the act of filling their bucket for them.  It is taking them to the well and allowing them to fill as they are ready and capable.

A couple weeks ago, we were finally able to meet our teacher.  I could go on about the stress of not knowing right off the bat what was going on when we started a few weeks ago, but I am so grateful now to know that we have some guidance.  After meeting our teacher, everything was put into perspective.  Emphasis on Math, Phonics, and Language Arts.  Everything else, basically do it, but don't stress about it.  Teach the objectives for understanding and make it fun for the child.  It doesn't necessarily have to follow the lesson plan exactly in order to get the point across.  Our teacher has also reassured me that we're doing really well.  Whew!

I am beyond grateful to my friend Katie who has given me so much support through all of this.  She is amazing.  She has 4 boys (newborn- 2nd grade), and she is homeschooling 2 of them right now.  Our phone conversations are hilarious.  And she is so calm. Yeah, she's my hero.  Katie, you're incredible.  Thank you for giving me hope to keep going even though others might be wanting me to quit.

Above all, the most important thing here is Asher.  Does he love it, is he progressing, and luckily, the answer to both of those is YES!  This is difficult, but if he is learning and loving learning, and gaining confidence in his own abilities, then I am going to stick with it.  At least for this school year.  Who knows what may happen next year.