This is our 7th year homeschooling our boys, I had never imagined that we would be a homeschooling family.
My hubby asked if I wanted to homeschool our son at the time he was in grade 1. I said sure I’d try, but inside I was scared as hell. I didn’t want to be entirely responible for my son’s education. If things didn’t work out, I would be blamed.
I never imagined our family homeschooling. I loved school since I excelled in it and I enjoyed it. I was a shy, introverted child just like my oldest, M1, so when I saw that he was the same, I completely understood.
When he went to school for grade 1, full-time, I felt like we never had enough time with him. We woke up, shuffled him off to school in a hurry while I went to school myself. Once he was home, I’d cook dinner and we’d hang out and then it was bed time and we’d start all over again.
Every single day, I had to chase him down to get dressed, he lagged so much. He didn’t like being away from us but eventually mornings got better.
To ease his transition into school, I’d volunteer once a week during his junior and senior kindergarten class.
He was definitely my introvert and often kept to himself. He’d play with one other boy who was more extroverted. M1 doesn’t like to initiate conversation so waits for others to do so.
We also had some incidents with a bully but nothing major, another child had been leading him around and not allowing other boys to play with him.
The decision to homeschool was unexpected and we kind of just fell into it. I had not read a single thing about homeschooling. It was all my hubby’s idea.
We pulled him out and we just went the school at home route for the rest of the year, after pulling him out in April. I was pregnant with M2 at this point and home for the year. After that year, we loved homeschooling. I read everything I could about homeschooling, soaking it all in and realizing that I could do this, there were so many resources out there.
My son told me he wanted to be homeschooled forever and that when he gets to high school, we’ll need to build him a locker for all his school stuff.
So when M2 came along, who is now 5, we decided that he’d stay home too. Five is such a young age to be at school full-time, but we may consider letting him go to grade 1. He’s my social butterfly so things are a bit different with him.
We always took it one year at a time. If it went well this year we always evaluated the year and asked him what M1 wanted to do. He asked to be homeschooled so we’ve continued along on our path.
There wasn’t any one horrible event at school or any other reasons that lead us this way. We tried it and we loved it. We are able to spend a great amout of family time together and that’s what we’ve always wanted for our family.
There are good days and there are bad, but we’re determined to see it through…at least for another year.
Read my other posts as a part of this 31 day series: Teaching Boys.
I share educational printables and activities to help homeschoolers make learning science fun and engaging!
4 Comments
Thanks for sharing this – my little ones are only 13 months old and I’ve just started looking into Tot School as we don’t get free pre school places until they are 3. If it works out maybe I’ll home school them too!
Glad homeschooling is working well for you so far. I never saw myself as a homeschool mom, either… but I’ve been homeschooling my boys since my oldest was almost 2 years old. (I wanted to be sure I could handle it before he was the legal age to have to be in school.) So, long story short, we’ve now been homeschooling for 12 years. It has been a fantastic journey. Some years are harder than others… but we’re going to homeschool all the way through high school. In fact, we just started homeschooling my oldest in 9th grade this year!
Time flies. Hope you enjoy the journey with your boys!
Thanks for sharing this – my little ones are only 13 months old and I’ve just started looking into Tot School as we don’t get free pre school places until they are 3. If it works out maybe I’ll home school them too!
It’s so fun teaching the little ones as you watch their face light up as they learn something new. Enjoy!
Glad homeschooling is working well for you so far. I never saw myself as a homeschool mom, either… but I’ve been homeschooling my boys since my oldest was almost 2 years old. (I wanted to be sure I could handle it before he was the legal age to have to be in school.) So, long story short, we’ve now been homeschooling for 12 years. It has been a fantastic journey. Some years are harder than others… but we’re going to homeschool all the way through high school. In fact, we just started homeschooling my oldest in 9th grade this year!
Time flies. Hope you enjoy the journey with your boys!
We are having lots of fun, it’s amazing how time flies. They grow up so fast.