The First Step of Our Homeschool Journey

We've started homeschooling our Little Guy, and I am discovering that it takes a serious change in view to school such a creative and bright child.  Most people who meet Little Guy are shocked by two things. The first thing they notice is that he's small for his age.  The kid is a victim of  maternal genetics.  The second thing they notice, after talking to him for a bit, is how quickly he picks up on things and how much knowledge he's already stored away in that head of his. 

The story of my life - Left behind, while he forges ahead

 

 

 

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The first step, I discovered, is letting go of my own notions of how his education should proceed.  Big Guy and I struggled with getting him to practice writing his letters.  Little Guy sat there with his pencil and paper and very passive aggressively refused to trace his alphabet.  He doodled, he sang, he made up stories starring his pencil and paper, but he WOULD NOT write his letters.  In response, we cajoled, we pleaded, we threatened, we yelled...  And then, we let it go.  I sighed, shrugged, and told him he could watch a TV show if he wrote five words down.  Any five words. 

And he did. 

It took less than two minutes.  Two hours of fighting over writing and in less than two minutes he wrote five words.  Big Guy and I looked at each other, shrugged, and let it go. Later on as we discussed the difficulties, we came tot he conclusion that we were approaching this the wrong way.  We had to keep in mind WHY we were homeschooling him.  We recognized that he would not handle the stereotypical school schedule well.  He'd rebel and then get in trouble.  We also didn't want him to HATE education, so we knew we'd have to do things differently than they would in a classroom. 

That's where we screwed up.  We approached the writing the way they do in school because that's the way we were taught.  We knew that wasn't going to work with him, and we tried it anyhow.  It worked exactly as we expected; he fought us.  So, we are re-evaluating.  Since he's still a young 'un, we're going to focus more on exposing him to things he'll learn about.  He CAN write, we just have to get him to do it.  Big Guy got him to write me a note while I was at work and left him alone to do it.  I came home to, "I miss you mommy."  We took advantage of Museum Day and took him to the Studebaker Museum and the Center for History. 

To be fair, that word can give lots of people trouble.

We're going to try things while we can and find something that works.  He's got a head start on his peer group; I want to keep him ahead and, more importantly, interested in learning. 

Post-Holiday Blues

I have homemade chili bubbling away in the crockpot and Little Guy is (hopefully) napping. It's still a bit nippy in the house because I have to keep the heat set at 65 to avoid a massive heat bill. But I also recognize that I am dealing with post-holiday crankiness.

Post-holiday crankiness happens to a lot of people. The coming down from the build up and excitement of the holidays leads to depression and unhappiness. I get cranky after the holidays. Luckily, I recognize it and try to offset the crankiness. But, the whole post-holiday crankiness bothers me. Because it bothers me, it tends to make me crankier. This makes for an unhappy dpwnward spiral. One thing I know I need to do, that will break the spiral, is get back into a routine.

My current routine has flown to the winds. It used to be: Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays were teaching days; Wednesdays were my "at-home days", used to get chores and the niggly bits out of the way; Fridays were my days with my mom. Weekends were reserved for Big Guy and our activities. Then, two things happened. Mom's car broke down and eliminated the Friday routine for the time being, and the holidays hit. This event nixed all other routines.

As Big Guy will attest to, I do not do well with change. It is an unfortunate and unpleasant side effect of the ADD, but there it is. A change in routine throws me off and affects me mentally and emotionally. Even worse, the ADD also makes it that much more difficult to get back on track. And if I'm not careful, my distraction can really upset the balance in the household. Big Guy and I are not fanatic cleaners, and Little Guy, for as much as I adore him, is a hurricane and a tornado combined.

What this means is that if I get distracted, nothing happens until I throw a fit because now the house is a complete mess. Big Guy and Little Guy watch me in complete and total amazement while I start slamming things around trying to get things cleaned up. I know the easiest thing to do would be to pick up gradually, but it never seems to happen.

It's times like this that I wish I hadn't married a guy whose cleanliness threshold was so much lower than mine. On the other hand, if Big Guy is the way he is and nothing happened around the house with Crazy Ex unless he did it, what must her house be like now?