[lactationlady]

I have been contemplating homeschooling for over a year now. My ds will start kindergarten in the fall and we will send him for at least the first semester.

I think homeschool would be wonderful for my kids, but I am scared. Not that they wouldn't do well, but that *I* wouldn't do well.

Here are my main concerns:

-I am very disorganized
-I am a procrastinator
-I am running a part-time business from my home that requires me to either have people at my home with little notice or requires me to go out on a home visit within 24 hours (I am a lactation consultant with a small private practice). If ds is in public school it gives me more flexibility to see people (dd will go to MDO 2 days per week) but I will not do this at his expense.
-My dh is not totally on board (but I think he could be persuaded fairly easily).
-I have a 2.5yo dd who is very active and very curious (translation - I can't turn my back on her or she is pouring syrup on the floor or into my makeup or trying to pee on the doll-size potty or foraging for cookies in the pantry or...) What do you all who have younger children do. By the fall she will be almost 3 and maybe she will be a little "easier".
-I am not very creative

Help me overcome my fears.

 

[Openskyheart]

Hi Mellanie. Welcome to the homeschooling board!

I am a homeschooling mom of two: a son, age 10, and a daughter, age 8. We've been homeschooling for 3 school years now!

Deciding to take the plunge into homeschool seems scary, and risky for a lot of us. I know it did for me. In fact, I homeschooled my son for 1 semester of K, when I had a 3 year old at home too, but I chickened out, and sent him to school. Looking back, I can see that there was no need for me to have not trusted myself, but live and learn, right? If I had it to do over (hindsight being 20/20 and all that), I would not ever sent either of them to school.

I am also:

a) disorganized
b) a procrastinator

:LOL so I getcha there too. I'm here to tell you that homeschooling can be done, even by the disorganized procrastinator.

In fact, I have found that homeschooling is *easier* for me than having two in school was. Go figure! But it's true! Getting my kids out of the house in the morning, trying to find a missing shoe, and the permission slip that was due, oh and I have to run to the store and buy a cake mix to make a cake for the bake sale, oh and I have that Parent Club meeting at 2:00, and I have to get ds to read that book he was assigned - and *hates* - tonight, and get him to start that *%^$ book report - isn't that going to be fun (sigh), and where *is* that permission slip?

Get it? :LOL I can control how many commitments we are involved in. I have no fundraisers, or meetings, or permission slips, or any of that unless I choose to participate that way in our activities (well...not the permission slip, part, but you get the idea). And...no book reports! Yay! Unless someone wants to do one, of course.

For Kindergarten, there is no need to do anything formal at all, even if you plan on using curriculum in the future. A book you might like is:

Homeschooling: The Early Years by Linda Dobson

It has so many great ideas for inspiring learning at home, with things you already have, and a library card. In fact, it's a useful and fun book of ideas, even if you decide to not homeschool.

Start reading every book in your library about homeschooling, read the threads here, ask more questions here as they pop up, and see if you can really visualize yourself living the homeschooling life. You'll know.

Laura

 

[lactationlady]

Quote:

I have found that homeschooling is *easier* for me than having two in school was. Go figure! But it's true! Getting my kids out of the house in the morning, trying to find a missing shoe, and the permission slip that was due, oh and I have to run to the store and buy a cake mix to make a cake for the bake sale, oh and I have that Parent Club meeting at 2:00, and I have to get ds to read that book he was assigned - and *hates* - tonight, and get him to start that *%^$ book report - isn't that going to be fun (sigh), and where *is* that permission slip?

That makes perfect sense. I really have not been looking forward to being up and out of the house early every morning. I can really see *me* in what you wrote! LOL

Thanks so much for the book suggestion. I went on-line and reserved it at the library, along with The Well Trained Mind. I plan on doing alot of reading and researching this summer.

Thanks for your input and suggestions. It really helps hearing from someone else who is disorganized and a procrastinator. I was afraid I would hear "You really need to clean up your act before you can do this".

 

[USAmma]

I am still getting my feet wet with homeschooling, but so far it's been working out great. I too, am a busy mama. I have an active 4.5 yo, a very active 16 mo who likes to tear the house apart, and of course normal family stuff (housework). I have a very p/t typing service that I do for Nitara's therapist. Nitara has special medical needs that take a lot of effort, therapy, appointments. She also requires, on her bad days, lots of attention and holding. We just go wit the flow.

Even with all that, we did really well. I bought a boxed K set from Calvertschool.org. It had everything in it that I would need, although I did supplement a little. Like instead of reading the stories aloud from the Poems and Prose book, I went to the library and checked out picture books of the same stories.

About halfway through I got relaxed about the schedule the lession manual provided and set it aside, and started just working on subjects as we felt like it. Some days it was just math, some days "reading" was reading a book out loud intead of worksheets.

Some days we went to the science center to learn about the body rather than reading about it from a book. She picked up "centrifuge", "white blood cells," "red blood cells," and "platelets" (and what each of them does) from the science center!

She picked up all the names of the planets and their attributes with a brief break from Calvert School. She was interested in them and I just immersed her in it until she was satisfied, with books, a video from the library, and a visit to the planetarium.

By the end of the year I realized I no longer needed the boxed set. I have a better idea what her needs are right now, what her learning style is, and so forth. For example she learns very well if it can be set to music or a poem, or if I can involve emotion in some way (make it really exciting or funny or make up a cute story about it).

We rarely went all five days in the week. Typically it was 3-4. We rarely spent more than 30 minutes total for "school" in a day. Sometimes I did "school" when Nitara was napping. Sometimes dh enjoyed doing a lesson or two in the evening with her as dinner was being made.

Despite the lack of structure or a schedule, Abi has learned a great deal and we all enjoyed our introduction into homeschooling. Next year I am branching out a little and ordering all the subjects separately from different publishers, because now I know her learning style, skill level, and interests. I am using The Well-Trained Mind as my main guide, but also just asking for a show and tell from any homeschooling families I know locally. It's nice to be able to touch and leaf through their books.

Also remember that you have a lot of room to make mistakes. He's very young. Kids who are homeschooled will generally be ahead of their public schooled peers by the time they graduate, even those who don't do the structured schooling. So don't worry about it if it takes you a few mos. to figure out what works best for you or your ds. Don't worry if you decide after a month that a certain program is not working and you need to find something else. Kids learn. It's part of being a kid. Most learn very easily if you find the right method for their learning style.

Good luck mama!

Darshani

ETA: I had Abi in preschool for a few mos and it was hard! I had to get myself and her ready, the baby dressed, and we had to drive there in rush hour traffic. Then I had to walk her to her class and find 2 hours to kill before picking her up again. Oftentimes Nitara was in the middle of a nap and I had to scoop her up to go and pick up Abi. Now if we all want to have a lazy PJ morning we can.

 

[lactationlady]

Thanks Darshani (a little belated). It helps to know that I don't have to try to recreate scholl at home and that it doesn't take much time in these early years. I appreciate your taking the time to be so thorough in your response.

 

[Linda on the move]

I have 2 kids too. We've focused on things they can do together and both learn from. When my older one was 5 and my younger was 3, we did things like make playdough together (measuring, mixing colors, following directions, etc). and then they would play with it. We did lots of crafts, I read to them, we did hands on math, went interesting places, etc. Kids of different ages can learn from the same activities -- they understand them at their own level.

I'm not very creative either, so I find books that are good resources. (Our favorite resource book when they were that young was Sandbox Scientist).

I'm not naturally an organized person, but it drives me crazy. I use Flylady.net and I really like it, but many homeschoolers are unorganized and happy that way. You really don't have to be organized to homeschool, but if you want to more organized you might check out Flylady.