Hilary and I were once again thwarted in our plans for a trip to the beach. Last time it was nasty bacteria. This time, nasty weather. So we went with Plan B and headed to my new favorite park. Again.
Tucker (4) Hezekiah (6)
As you can see, the children weren't too disappointed!
But what I want to talk about today is a comment I received recently from a long time reader. What I want to focus on was her statement, "Your homeschool seems so perfect". And I know she knows it isn't really perfect. Life never is. But perhaps it seems that way on my blog?
I laughed out loud when I read that sentence (not at you, Amy, at the thought of our homeschool being perfect). My children would laugh at that too. If they didn't cry first. Remember, the blog covers approximately 1% of our life...not the other 99%. If I blog about awesome project or accomplishment, that's because its out of the ordinary, not because it happens every day... I am planning to do some specific posts on homeschooling, but life is so hectic right now with little Apollo. My blogging time is limited to his whims...so today, I will focus on our homeschool failures. Not because I want to focus on our weaknesses, but because I think we could all use a dose of reality.
Mordecai, 7
Mordecai will be eight in two weeks and can't read. Part of it is him not being "ready" part of it is he has more trouble learning than my other children. And part of it is, I haven't worked with him consistently over a long period of time. And part of the reason I haven't worked with consistently is at least 50% of the time when asked to do school work he goes into a rage. He screams. He kicks. He throws things. No one can concentrate because of the disruption he causes and I can't teach because he's too loud. That's reality. The other part of the reason I haven't worked with him enough is I don't have the mental/physical energy to go through that every day. Its not perfect, but that's reality.
*and by the way, his doctor, who's known him from birth, keeps encouraging me to keep him home, insisting that school would make things worse, not better*
We started using Sequential Spelling last year...most of my children are atrocious spellers. This is the first time we attempted a spelling program. Then I got pregnant. And tired. And completely forgot we were doing Sequential Spelling until I found the books on our shelf months later. And even then I didn't start the program back up with my children. So they are still atrocious at spelling. In part because I dropped the ball...that's reality.
Tucker, age four
My house is nearly always a mess during the school year. Every flat surface covered with papers. And scissors. And broken pencils. And books. And dirty socks. And who knows what else.
We've barely covered science. Ever. Our science has all come from trips to the beach. And our yard. And the sky. That may cover biology okay, but sure leaves physical science, chemistry and everything else lacking. Science book? Never used one. But we really should.
Sometimes I'm too tired to enforce daily school work. So it doesn't get done. I can never seem to make my children do exercises in a workbook that I think are "dumb". And I've been known to say, "that's stupid, just skip it".
Our house if often chaotic and loud. You've seen the Duggars? That's not us.
Enoch still regularly sneaks off to play instead of doing his schoolwork. And is proud that he has "never finished a math book".
I've caught some children cheating (that was dealt with harshly, and we instituted new measures to make cheating much more difficult). And I still don't get why a children would feel the need to "cheat" at homeschooling....
I've had children outright lie to me about doing their schoolwork.
We've started far more schoolbooks than we've finished.
And that's just to name a few.
Its true, our children have always done well on standardized testing. Don't ask me why. But our homeschool is far from perfect. I keep myself going with the knowledge that public/private education is also far from perfect.
And I hope to gain and keep my children's hearts and we spend our days together. And the truth is, I enjoy their company and learning along with them.
But our homeschool is not perfect. Hang in there homeschool Mamas...we're all in this together.
