Comments on: Why homeschooling did and didn’t work for us

By: Tania

Tania — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 05:40:21 +0000

I was with you until that last bit. His comment is not necessarily about school. Its probably about extended interaction with other kids beyond the boundaries of your family and chosen friends. He could have learned that down at the local playground or at any other place where he spent time with other kids. I have a toddler who recently spent a week at a true, traditional daycare center (because I was at an out of town conference and took her with), instead of the usual nanny who comes to us and has only her all day. I saw a difference. She was talking back, having tantrums and so on. I don’t think it was the place per say. It was more the interactions with others her age, as they try to learn and test boundaries. We can both make any case we want with the data before us, but ultimately, whatever our reasons, we will do what we think best for our kids.

By: Starting homeschooling: the first weeks | most | least: motherhood in real-time

Fri, 07 Dec 2007 17:04:18 +0000

[...] 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 [...]

By: Jen

Jen — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 16:36:30 +0000

I very much wanted to homeschool my kids, but then as my eldest grew it became really obvious that for the good of our mother-daughter relationship our personalities just needed a break from each other, and that she would benefit so much from having other adults reinforcing my messages about behavior. (She’s a force of nature.) The first few weeks of school in Kindergarten and first grade were terrible and really made me question my decisions, but after all the transitional stress wore off she’s done really well and been much happier than she was at home.

Don’t beat yourself up about your decision. Sometimes, these things come down to a lot more than academics or educational philosophy. I still can and do teach her academics at home, it’s the personal interaction stuff we needed to get from school and that seems to be working. And like you said, if it doesn’t work in the future we can go back to homeschooling.

By: ella

ella — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 19:18:05 +0000

That’s what I’m trying to focus on – what works for us right now. I know that I can change things in the future if need be.

My house looks less like a bomb hit it these days but then I have never been too bothered about mess, at least not since I had children because it seemed like I was always fighting a losing battle with tidyness!

By: Kristen

Kristen — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 16:43:51 +0000

I think it is a tough decision no matter which way you end up going. Even though homeschooling is going well with David, my days are very busy and I am just beat by the end of it. Part of me would love to see him off with playmates, picking him up at the school yard, having a little more time with the girls, especially my oldest, Sofia, who seems to need a lot of special attention right now. It seems there are benefits and sacrifices in both situations and I think the only thing you can do is say what will work for us right now? I think what I’m doing is working now, but my house looks like a bomb hit it so perhaps not!