We did start school on the Monday after Dave went back to work, the 21st, I guess it was. I had made up a school "schedule" which I knew we would never follow exactly, but hoped to use as a framework for our days. It had a balance of group activities, independent work, focused time with mom, and physical activity. We were to read poetry and do crafts and do science experiments and, and, and.
And, well, reality hit. Bereket lasted about 30 minutes our first day, and declared himself "done" school. I let him wander away to play. Thomas followed shortly. Faith considered it patently unfair that they weren't being made to do more school, and there were tears as we discussed the difference between 1st grade and 4th grade. I decided over the next few days to go to strictly a rotational basis, letting two play and calling one away to work with me. This worked marginally better, but even still, the two who were playing often needed my intervention, and the one at the table was left crying "But it's MY school time!" I felt like I rushed around putting out fires, and frankly, not much learning at all was taking place!
When all 4 of us are in tears every single day, something has to give.
And so, this year, at least for the next few months, might look different than our typical homeschooling routine. I have decided that I absolutely must prioritize relationships first, behavior second, and academics a distant third. There is nothing to learn this year that is more important than learning how to live peacefully as a family of 5. I will be focussing on phonics for Thomas, math and LA for Faith, and English and family skills for Bereket. Lots of reading out loud, playing games, playing outside, doing chores, etc. I will squeeze in some focussed work with Faith and Thomas most days, and Bereket is very excited about his new Rod & Staff workbooks (colors, shapes, numbers). So we will still "do school" but I'm not going to worry about how many chapters of science we cover or whether we learn all the Kings of England. lol
I have had a few of you ask if we have considered putting some/all of the kids in public school this year. We won't be, for a few reasons, which I'm not going to outline here. Just as every problem encountered in "regular school" isn't best solved by homeschooling, public school isn't necessarily the best solution to every homeschooling problem. In our case especially, I think what we need most is time, and that's one thing homeschooling gives us lots of.
