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Starting homeschooling: the first weeks
By ella | December 7, 2007
We have completed three weeks of homeschooling. They have worked pretty well so far.
We have hit on a system that suits us for now. I do formal work with Harry while William is at preschool every morning. This had been a problem time for us in the past as twenty-two month old Ben made teaching pretty difficult for us. So before we embarked on this venture again, I thought of as many ideas as I could for keeping Ben busy, interested and occupied. So each morning I get a different, exciting project or toy out for him to do or play with - one that he doesn’t normally have. Often he likes to sit at the table and do ’schoolwork’. And I send them outside at playtime to expend some energy.
Somehow I get all the housework done. I walk the dog while Matthew gives the children breakfast. I clear the dishwasher, wash up and put on laundry after breakfast while Harry starts work and the other children colour or demolish the house. I prepare lunch while the children are playing outside. I prepare supper and put away laundry after the school day is over. I shop on-line for groceries in the evenings and think about meals and school work for the following day. It doesn’t feel much different from when I wasn’t homeschooling although I certainly get more done during the day. When Harry was a baby I barely found the time to get dressed, let alone tidy up the kitchen or prepare something for Matthew and me to eat when he got home. If you’d have told me six years on that my days would be like they are I’d have laughed you out of the room with disbelief. But then that’s motherhood: we cope with whatever we seem to be given. Or try to, as best we can.
While Ben naps, I read with the older two or we do play-based learning. We have practiced being doctors, running a grocery shop and operating a cafe. We make food to sell, use real money to buy and sell and write down whatever needs writing down (according to our work, I have never had so many fevers, ailments and illnesses). It covers a lot of what they should be learning without them realising they’re learning. Sometimes we play board games. On days when I am struggling physically, I lie on the sofa while they do this and on really bad days (like this week when the pregnancy nausea seems to have returned with a vengeance), I nap while they sit with me and watch their BBC homeschool programmes and learn all about grammar and synthetic phonics. I open my eyes and find that they’ve learnt to read. That’s my kind of teaching! (Plus I finally feel like I’m getting something for my BBC television licence money.)
Every single day I am thankful not to be doing the long school run I had been doing which was making us all stressed. I have time for my cup of coffee in the morning and that makes all of us happier. If I’m resting in the afternoon I don’t have to rush everyone up (including me!). The pace of life is easier. We also get much more done; by the time I would have been back from the school run, Harry has already done a good amount of work and we have had a pleasant morning. Add to that the one-on-one teaching and he has covered a whole day’s work in a couple of hours.
The rest of the afternoon is spent socializing or going out on errands. Some days we are out all day but Harry is forging ahead with work his peers haven’t even started so although we do mostly ‘formal’ learning I don’t worry when we are learning in other ways.
So what are my concerns? Well, they are minor.
I will be interested to see how this all works when the new baby arrives. But then, when Harry was at school, I was more concerned with coping with the daily schedule than I am now.
Because the Local Education Authority are now officially aware of us homeschooling because Harry was de-registered from school, I have been expecting an unscheduled visit from the Education Welfare Officer but so far she has not made an appearance. Although I am under no obligation to report our progress to her except for furnishing her with details of how I plan to teach Harry, I have always kept fairly detailed records and copies of his work so I think that if she visits I will set her mind at rest by showing her his work and then ask, politely, to be left to get on with it.
I also finally fired the cleaner. I was firmly in agreement with geepeemum’s comment about not finding time to clean but in the end I couldn’t put up with Meriel anymore. So until I can find a good cleaning service, I am resigned to living in semi-squalor or at least spending a good part of my Sunday cleaning instead of spending time as a family.
The main casualty in these new arrangements is, as before, ‘me’ time. A bit of blog reading in the evenings, hurried on-line shopping for Christmas presents and the (very) occasional programme on television and the week is gone - again.
At least you know now why I haven’t posted in over a week - and it’s not because I don’t love you.
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Read More:
- Starting homeschooling
- Why homeschooling did and didn’t work for us
- Giving up homeschooling: starting school
- Homeschooling worries
- Unschooling by default
Categories: Homeschooling and School
It actually sounds like you’ve adjusted to this new way of life very well! And it sounds like Harry’s happier, too.
Good move, Ella!
Sounds terrific! We do most of our schoolwork in the morning too, because if I wait until the afternoon to teach it, David is too tired and has a hard time focusing. I think that’s just par for the course with little kids. Some days I feel like we get a lot done and then others, not so much. But when David sits down at night to read one of his early reader books to his little sister and they are cuddling up on the sofa together, I think we must be doing something right. I’m so glad things are going so well for you all!
Wow. I’m impressed! I won’t be complaining about how busy my days are anymore.
So glad you stopped by my blog! I’ve enjoyed visiting yours, particularly your description of your current homeschooling days. They are so busy, aren’t they? And they pass by in a blur, and maybe someday you’ll end up like me, wondering how the time passed so quickly, and missing those little people while enjoying the teens and adults they have become.
I wish blogging had been available when I was homeschooling mine so I’d have a written record of our days. Hope you keep at both the homeschooling and the blogging.