The First Month . . .

For some background on why we chose to homeschool, visit my blog SuperMom Blues.

December 2012:
When we (okay -I) decided to homeschool Miss E it was one of the toughest decisions I'd ever had to make in my life. For one thing, I was going to be with my very high-strung daughter 24/7. For another, I would have to give up my free time. Also, I LIKED her teachers! In fact, her PE teacher was my husband's cousin, and her homeroom teacher was HIS wife - these were people I spent time with outside of school at family gatherings and reunions. I was afraid of hurting their feelings! My final thought was "how am I going to do this???"

I was actually quite surprised at the support I got from outside sources, however. Her teachers were 100% on board. They'd miss her, but they understood that this was probably best for her. Her final day of class was the day of their Christmas party. She was ecstatic to be homeschooled.

January 2013: Her excitement was so grand that she designed her own curriculum - she wanted astronomy, math (specifically multiplication), reading, and computer work. I agreed with all the above, but added journaling and history to the mix. Thus our homeschool was set. We made a few trips to Half Price Books and Mardel's, found lots of what we wanted. Miss E was so excited that she didn't want to wait. She wanted to begin on her birthday, January 5. Before either of her brothers would even return to school.

So, we did. On January 5, 2013 we sat at the kitchen table to do school. We didn't take any time to deschool, didn't even think about doing it any other way. I had planned on saving money for a full, more expensive curriculum later.

For the first week, things went well. The Astronomy book (based on Creationism) was a little more preachy than I liked, but Miss E enjoyed it. I had given her a math assessment to take, and she did so joyfully. We did her math at the table using homemade manipulatives. Astronomy was on the couch, as was reading. And then there was journaling . . .

Miss E hates to write. It's very difficult for her. You see, she has something called dysgraphia. This is a form of dyslexia that is translated into writing rather that reading. Same connection, different location. She can read just fine - beautifully, in fact - with no switching of letters or flipping of numbers. But the connection is lost somewhere between reading and writing. Along with the dysgraphia she has been diagnosed with ADD (attention deficit disorder) and ODD (oppositional defiance disorder). These three things together can mean an explosion when the right ingredients are mixed in just the right proportions. Journaling was the precise mix needed.

Needless to say, trying to get her to write in her journal was a nightmare.
I tried to make it fun by making it whatever she wanted to write about that day.
I tried to make it simple by telling her she could write as much or as little (even one sentence) as she liked.
I tried to bully her into it by threatening punishments for not doing.
I begged. I pleaded. I coerced. I bribed.
She melted down.

It was sometime during week 3 that I had an epiphany.
Maybe I was going about this thing wrong . . .
It was at this point that I learned about Sandra Dodd, John Holt, and something called Unschooling.

(To Be Continued . . .)