We went to Temple Square for FFD the other night. We really enjoyed it outside of nearly freezing to death.
Isn't this picture of the two headed daddy cute in a creepy kind of way?
Just trying to keep his girl warm.---
In other news --we're getting all geared up for homeschooling. Just one more full day of school for all of my kids. Then we've got Christmas vacay, then Jonah and Celeste will be home with me for mind-filling fun.
Now that we are just about ready for the whole ordeal, we're getting excited. Even me. We've got the "classroom" set up, the books all on their way, the schedule typed up, the lesson plan figured out, and all that jazz ready.
People are asking me why I'm homeschooling. I decided I'll give that explanation here. Despite my best efforts, I imagine it will get long. So this is just for those really curious people that have too much time on their hands.
The story starts long ago, but I'll just pick up where it gets more interesting.
Jonah has been having such a hard time in 4th grade at our school. They switch classes around between a few teachers and he hates that. None of the teachers he feels very comfortable with. The whole environment is very stressful for him. His teacher is sweet but just doesn't know how to handle him when he has a meltdown. Working with a bipolar child is challenging and she often just seems to not know what to do and throw her hands up in the air so to speak. A few times I've been at the school and witnessed her inability to help him properly or I've been called from home to try and somehow salvage a messy situation. In one particular instance when I was called to the school, I felt heartbroken for my little boy who just wasn't getting the love and care that he needed at school. I haven't been mad at the school and I understand they can't be expected to leave the 99 for my 1 special boy. I think they are giving it an ok effort under the circumstances, but it just isn't enough for him.
It finally hit me. The thing is, as a parent it is MY responsibility and duty to see to it that my child gets a good education. And I think that it is perfectly fine to delegate that responsibility to a school. There is nothing wrong with that. In many cases the school can do a great job. In fact I think the school and teachers are doing a great job with Eden and Becca. Especially Becca's teacher who I think is doing way way better than I could do for her!
However, if the school fails to give my child what they need then it isn't them who will be held accountable. It will be me. And when I realized this, I realized I needed to pull Jonah out.
So a couple of months ago after school, I sat all my kids down to have a talk. I told them I felt like I needed to homeschool. I asked them if they were interested in doing that. Jonah was thrilled and had this huge sigh of relief and almost cried as he thanked me. Celeste got super excited too and said she would LOVE that! Eden said she would rather stay at school. So I said that would be just fine with me. Becca was kind of indifferent. She's gone back and forth. But I felt like her teacher was doing so well with her, that I didn't want to interrupt a good thing.
Now here's the deal.
To be honest I am a bit nervous. I worry I wont be that great of a teacher. I worry it's going to be too much time and work and I will have no time for myself. I worry about my kids social life. I don't want them being all weirded out. The first worry, I'm just going to deal with. We'll see how that works out.
The second worry I've tried to work on by setting up time with peers. Jonah has a great friend I'm trying to get regular dates set up with to hang out. Celeste also has some good friends. I've set up a little ballet class that I'll be teaching for just her and her friends once a week. I've also set up regular play dates with a friend who she really likes. They'll still be doing scouts, dance, activity days and so forth. So I think that will all be fine for them. And maybe I'll occasionally take them to a rated R movie or something so they can stay on top of all the bad stuff they could be missing at public school. (Kidding there.)
I'm not sure how long we'll do this. For now I'm only planning to do it for 1 semester. As we start homeschooling, I'll get a better idea of how it will work for us and we'll take it from there. We may love it and do it forever. We may think it's ok. We may hate it. But either way I love my kids so much and feel like my concern for their welfare and desires to see them succeed will give me the motivation to make sure they get a good quality education. And if despite that all, I still fail to do a great job, then we can put them back in school in the Fall (Jonah will be out of the 4th grade issues at this school,) and we can move on. But I'm hoping it will be a success and we love it.
There you go.
16 comments:
Good for you for being willing to do what's best for your kids. I worried about the social thing for Meggie, too, but we have a huge group of beehives in the ward (12 beehives, 2 mia maids and 2 laurels....weird, eh?) that she has some great friends in. Also, we do some group things: art class, writing class, etc with some other homeschoolers in our ward. She's one of the older ones, so she gets to help with the littler kids and she likes that, too.
It's easy to get lazy though...this month has been really hard for us. I had so many responsibilities that it seemed like we had "school' in the car too often. But, we've made a resolution to do better after the holidays.
If we can get her into a high school that isn't TOO frightening, where she has a few friends who are good kids, we'll send her to high school. I'd hate for her to miss on the good social stuff about high school that I enjoyed.
Good luck with it. Knowing how dedicated you are with things, I'm sure you will do great! I use to teach guitar lessons to homeschooled kids for their elective credits and there were tons of activities and social programs out there for them I found out.
Also, your baby is adorable! I can't wait for my own
You aren't the only one that I know of who has turned to homeschooling to see if it was better for their kids. I definitely think, set up right, it can be a great tool and asset for kids. Good luck! I know you will do great! By the way, can't wait to meet little Charity!
You could always chat with my sister about it. She's done that also.
Good luck! I know that I'd go crazy trying to take on homeschooling along with everything else, but I admire you for trying. Hope all goes well and that it goes as well as you expect it to.
Amanda, good for you!!! Your going to be great. Just remember it doesn't have to be perfect, your gonna have days where you'll just need to do something fun without worrying about "education". You'll have great days, good days and days where you'll question but just remember why your doing it and they'll be learning no matter what. You have a little baby so remember to go easy on yourself. Realize that most of the time your schedule won't go exactly and that's ok. Somedays you wont' get everything you want done or scheduled but then you'll have days where you'll get so much done that they'll want to do more. It all evens out.
Get online and search for homeschooling groups in your area, there is usually so much going on for homeschoolers it will blow your mind. haha
There is a great LDS homeschool board that is very helpful and supportive. It's on LDFR.com look up discussions.
It's gonna be awesome and your gonna do great.
Sounds like you are doing just what you should. I did not know that your son was Bipolar. I will have to talk to you about Ryan as we suspect he has some struggles that way.
Good luck with it all, Amanda. You're a great Mom and I bet it will all work out just fine.
We look forward to seeing you guys later in the week.
I think its a great idea!!I soo wanna do homeschooling myself, I just cant bare loosing my children and there inocence to this terrble world. My cousin was telling me about a school district in mesa that was doing sex ed in 2nd grade!!!!Thats where i draw the line.Best of luck to u.
Great pictures! I love the one of Steve and Charity. SO cute.
You are my hero. Your kids are going to do great with homeschooling.
Nobody can argue with the fact that you are a really good Mom who knows what's best for your kids. More power to you Sista. Good luck.
Charity is so adorable, I can hardly wait to meet her in person.
It sounds as if you've given this tons of thought and it sounds like you've made the right decision for all of the right reasons. Good luck!
Merry Christmas Amanda and Steve! We enjoyed your Christmas card--it is hanging on our wall. Hopefully I'll get some New Year's cards out (We are doing our family pics during Christmas break in Boise). Good Luck with homeschool--everyone I know who is doing it likes it alot.
Good luck with everything! I'm sure you'll do great, and you're kids will do even better. Good for you! Merry Christmas!
Hi, this comment's unrelated to homeschooling, but just wanted to thank you for your enthusiastic praise on our YW blog. Hope you comment frequently, and let us know if there are things you want us to cover, or if you ever want to write a guest post. Good luck with your new calling!
I think you will do awesome with homeschooling. One of my cousins, homeschools one child and has the other in school. The older one has mild asburgers (spelling?) and just was not doing well in public school but thrives at home with mom. Good Luck and have FUN!
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