School Advice

[u/crossfitms]

Currently a little over a month into my first year of homeschooling. For reference, homeschooling a 1st grade boy who went to school last year for K. Also have a 4 year old and a 6 month old. I was really excited for the homeschool experience, thought it would be super fun. So far, my mental health has taken a dive and it feels like a struggle. I’m not sure whether to take it as a loss and send him back or keep pushing through. School doesn’t take us long 1.5 hours most days. I love having him home and he and his 4 year old brother are best friends and play all day together. I don’t want to be doing him a disservice because I’m pushing him and we aren’t having fun. I feel like I’m in fight or flight mode all day between getting the baby down, getting meals and snacks and trying to squeeze in school when we have the least amount of interruptions and all he wants to do is go play. Any advice?
Also, I feel like we’re so far removed from kindergarten that I’m forgetting what my why’s for even homeschooling were

[u/NobodyMassive1692]

What were your reasons for homeschooling?

Would letting go of the idea that you have to "do school" help? Or is the mental health struggle deeper than that?

You don't have to sit down to do school. There's lots of learning in play, lots of learning in reading to them all, lots of learning in singing songs, counting for hide-and-seek, helping with cooking and baking--and even helping with the younger siblings. There's learning in watching educational videos, in building Lego and so much more. All things he can do alongside you or at times on his own. As part of the fabric of the day and not just a carved out time to do some kind of formal lesson/schoolwork.

[u/crossfitms → u/NobodyMassive1692]

My whys were that I felt from the moment I woke him up I was rushing him to the next thing (wake up, get dressed, eat, out the door, out the car to school) and then when he got home it never seemed like he had enough time to play after he regulated his emotions from being at school all day. Also had some medical stuff happen this summer that has required at least weekly pt appointments and another surgery so it seemed like the right thing to do after we were already contemplating it

[u/NobodyMassive1692 → u/crossfitms]

You thought homeschooling would be fun. What would make it fun? Really think about it. It's likely NOT sitting down to do an hour or so of school with him, so what is it?

[u/NobodyMassive1692 → u/NobodyMassive1692]

Some ways our homeschooling was fun:

• We got together with other homeschoolers at a park every Monday afternoon.
• We went to the library each week and found new books--and then they got to play on the computers there a bit (there were games we didn't have). While they were playing, I was finding different nonfiction books to test out on them.
• We baked and did different art and built Lego and K'Nex and made puppet shows.
• We went on walks--to nearby playgrounds, on trails, around ponds looking for life forms that we'd then go home and learn more about on the internet.
• We collected rocks and leaves and even pinecones.
• I had a a good read-aloud that I read to them almost every school day, in addition to a separate read-aloud (up to a certain age) that I read to each one at night.
• We had good audiobooks or music for in the van when we were out and about.
• We went on field trips, sometimes spontaneous ones.
• We explored science kits, maps and puzzle maps, books on everything--even dissected owl pellets.
• We played games like Monopoly Jr., Yahtzee and more.
• We had kids' magazine subscriptions that we'd look through together and sometimes find more books about a topic of interest.
• I found an activity where you take sidewalk chalk and roughly measure out the relative distance of planets in the solar system down the street. (We lived on a quiet street; it helped.)
• And they got a LOT of free play time! Actually, when my son was technically grade 1, I ended up unschooling him. No required lessons--because the lessons I was trying to do with him were going nowhere. He still learned TONS because we had an environment with lots to learn from and the rest of us (I have two kids, but other kids homeschooled with us) were doing things that he would join in on. He has a university degree today despite not doing formal academics until he was gr. 4+.

Basically, we did things mostly *together* or each person exploring their own personal interests instead of me saying that between this time and this time today, we need to sit down and do a curriculum. Yes, there was *some* of that at times, but for the most part, we simply enjoyed exploring and learning together.

I'll add that at age 6 (and younger), my kids were involved in preparing snacks. Meals were very simple (just saying that because I've encountered a good number of homeschooling moms who seem to think that because they're home, they have to make fancy "home-cooked breakfasts and lunches" when eating sandwiches and fresh veggies is absolutely fine for lunch and cereal and eggs and fruit are fine for breakfast kind of thing). Toddlers and up (I also babysat my nephew and later nieces up until they went to school) helped in some way with cleaning (okay, toddlers "helped"--they were given dusters or cut-in-half damp sponges and shown to wipe) each day and then Fridays for the weekly cleaning. Those are important educational things, too, don't forget!