I'm getting more and more frustrated as time goes by.
I'm not new to homeschooling, as I homeschooled at various times in the past. But I'm new to parenting a teenage boy, and I'm not doing a great job at figuring out his unique learning style and following through with it. I feel like I'm out of options because the public school completely failed him, but I don't feel like I'm necessarily doing a great job with him right now either. Which is a far cry from how I felt when I was first homeschooling Hannah, when she'd spend hours reading, and I could add some historical fiction to her pile of fantasy books and feel like she was covering the bases.
Hannah learns the way I do, so I found it easy to encourage her learning. Leah's brain just happens to coincide with the way schools are designed to teach, so she always did well in schools- and the year I had her at home, she learned well enough from the textbooks we had.
But I'm at a loss with this boy. I know how to fit bras and talk about options for dealing with menstrual flow, but what do I do with this child who's taller than I am and stomps around in shoes bigger than my own brother wears? He keeps losing male role models. First my father passed away when he was in 3rd grade. Now my ex husband is dying of cancer, in a hospice an hour's drive away. He's not Jack's biological father, but he's called him "Daddy" since he was old enough to talk and has no memory of his bio dad at all.
It's nice that we're not dealing with school schedules or piles of homework when we want to go visit Ben in hospice. It was nice to have the flexibility when we were in the throes of Bar Mitzvah preparation this fall.
But his Bar Mitzvah was a month and a half ago, and we're still not on any kind of a "good schedule." He's up all night and sleeps all day. When he is awake in the evenings, half the time he holes up in his room playing computer games and the other half we're watching TV as a family. What he's not doing is any of the online curriculum he's supposed to be doing. I just don't see how he's learning much of anything.
My own health has been fragile, and we discussed that fact before the school year began. The plan was to use the online curriculum so that the basics would be covered even if I was having a "bad day" or even a "bad week." He was supposed to do a minimum number of these on his own, without nagging, and then I'd add in fun stuff when I had the energy. The reality is that he's not doing the work without significan nagging on my part, and I simply have not had the energy to do so.
It drains too much of me to "play alarm clock" and get him up if he won't do it himself. Without the exterior threat of going to school (or the school officials calling CPS if he won't go) he's simply NOT getting up. And he's not learning. Not that he was learning anything in school last year either, but I'm at the end of my rope.
I can't figure out how his mind works or teach in ways that he learns. I'm fed up with his lack of cooperation. I just want to let somebody else take over this responsibility so that I don't have to- I have too much on my plate already and I do not know what to do with this adolescent.
Whatever happened to that sweet baby boy who nursed until he was 4? How can I connect with him again?
I'm not new to homeschooling, as I homeschooled at various times in the past. But I'm new to parenting a teenage boy, and I'm not doing a great job at figuring out his unique learning style and following through with it. I feel like I'm out of options because the public school completely failed him, but I don't feel like I'm necessarily doing a great job with him right now either. Which is a far cry from how I felt when I was first homeschooling Hannah, when she'd spend hours reading, and I could add some historical fiction to her pile of fantasy books and feel like she was covering the bases.
Hannah learns the way I do, so I found it easy to encourage her learning. Leah's brain just happens to coincide with the way schools are designed to teach, so she always did well in schools- and the year I had her at home, she learned well enough from the textbooks we had.
But I'm at a loss with this boy. I know how to fit bras and talk about options for dealing with menstrual flow, but what do I do with this child who's taller than I am and stomps around in shoes bigger than my own brother wears? He keeps losing male role models. First my father passed away when he was in 3rd grade. Now my ex husband is dying of cancer, in a hospice an hour's drive away. He's not Jack's biological father, but he's called him "Daddy" since he was old enough to talk and has no memory of his bio dad at all.
It's nice that we're not dealing with school schedules or piles of homework when we want to go visit Ben in hospice. It was nice to have the flexibility when we were in the throes of Bar Mitzvah preparation this fall.
But his Bar Mitzvah was a month and a half ago, and we're still not on any kind of a "good schedule." He's up all night and sleeps all day. When he is awake in the evenings, half the time he holes up in his room playing computer games and the other half we're watching TV as a family. What he's not doing is any of the online curriculum he's supposed to be doing. I just don't see how he's learning much of anything.
My own health has been fragile, and we discussed that fact before the school year began. The plan was to use the online curriculum so that the basics would be covered even if I was having a "bad day" or even a "bad week." He was supposed to do a minimum number of these on his own, without nagging, and then I'd add in fun stuff when I had the energy. The reality is that he's not doing the work without significan nagging on my part, and I simply have not had the energy to do so.
It drains too much of me to "play alarm clock" and get him up if he won't do it himself. Without the exterior threat of going to school (or the school officials calling CPS if he won't go) he's simply NOT getting up. And he's not learning. Not that he was learning anything in school last year either, but I'm at the end of my rope.
I can't figure out how his mind works or teach in ways that he learns. I'm fed up with his lack of cooperation. I just want to let somebody else take over this responsibility so that I don't have to- I have too much on my plate already and I do not know what to do with this adolescent.
Whatever happened to that sweet baby boy who nursed until he was 4? How can I connect with him again?