In reaction to me feeling stressed out a homeschool mom proposed this to me today:
1. I pull my kids out of all homeschool fall activities now, including me backing out of every homeschool related obligation I have committed to.
2. I immediately enroll them into public school. "The schools in your town are great you know." Well, that is what the stats and ranking lists say...
3. I get a babysitter, this month, and go to the Bahamas for a week, and drink a different cocktail every night and get drunk on them.
4. Spend this whole year relaxing and getting myself rejuvinated.
5. Let my kids see what public school is really like and let them be miserable.
6. Pull my kids out of school for next year and have them cooperate with homeschool lessons more enthusiastically and no longer take me or homeschooling for granted.
I got a good laugh out of her ideas, but there was a little voice saying it's not such a bad idea.
Her reasoning was I've put in years and years of mothering and homeschooling and I'm due a break, and this would hopefully bring my kids around to realizing how good they have had it.
She and some other friends of mine who started off with their kids in school then withdrew them for various reasons being unhappy with public education and private schools too, have a different situation. Their kids are grateful for the chance to homeschool and are more cooperative about doing lessons and not complaining. They don't want to go back to school and buckle down and get their work done without much nagging and definately without bribery.
My younger son is the one who still has the "grass is always greener on the other side" syndrome and thinks public school must be like party time all day with nothing but fun going on.
Well, this post may sound pretty negative, but to keep it real honestly there are many more good times with homeschooling than bad. It's just that right at this moment I'm feeling too much pressure from too many angles and not enough cooperation from my kids. I guess I'm at a low point today.
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4 comments:
The nice thing about your blog is that it is your blog and you can sound negative here now and then.
My two cents: (More than the 1 mill I gave on FB, LOL!) Now is not a good time to make such a decision because you are at the low point.
Is there a happy medium here? Could you give up some of the commitments and not all? Just enough to balance things out?
And maybe you could have a cocktail without going to the Bahamas--although they certainly sound nice!
You didn't ask for this advice, of course, and so I won't be the least offended if you don't take it. Whatever you decide, it will get better when you get your energy up and stop feeling so overwhelmed. Bahamas or no Bahamas.
I heard a girl on a Christian radio station talk about how she was tired of being homeschooled. She and her mother were in a disagreement about it. The counselor's advice was to try it and see how it works out. The girl said she wanted to have a social life. I noticed that when I am trying to teach my children something new and I become frustrated, they pick up on my mood and it all goes down from there. Children know when we moms are having a bad day or a long streak of bad days.
Pick up any of Dr. Leman's books on childrearing - For a quick read and quick attitude adjustment "Have a New Kid by Friday". For more of the adolescent issues "Adolesence isn't Terminal".
Get a date night immediately. I am not kidding. Focus on your marriage - make that a priority - and I might add even above the homeschooling! Long range goals should include a stable and happy marriage - which in turn make us individually happy (and better able to parent as a result)
And I may sound off the wall - but drop anything that gets in the way of the core subjects. You have seen what is needed to continue to college. And that appears to be the long range goal from your previous posts. The other classes, field trips can be wonderful - BUT only when the core is completed. IF you set this as the required work each day, and nothing else happens until it is done - I can bet it will be done. Clearly have what is expected to be done each week by Sunday night. Have it in writing so there is no squabbling about the expectations.
And BTW, don't let ANYONE (or yourself) make you feel bad or guilty or etc., for making the core Homeschool subjects a priority.
actually, it's nice to hear some advice that WASN'T "why are you doing academics, anyhow? you should unschool, etc"
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