It goes without saying that this new school year is unlike any other. Quarantine has created a confusing academic atmosphere in schools and even in homes. To avoid potential health risks and to hopefully provide a calmer learning environment many families have chosen to home school. Some parents were already considering home schooling. Some have never even heard of home schooling. Some parents might have never even considered home schooling for their family. However you came to be teaching your kiddos at home this year, welcome to the journey, it is such a joy.
You get to see them work through a challenge, comprehend something new, and succeed!
You get to share what you know with your kids and you get to help them explore as well.
You get to go on adventures and conquer quests together.
The learning possibilities are endless.
With all of this joy and fun though, there is also frustration. To pretend there is no frustration will only add more to it. The best way to
handle it is to put it out in the open. Acknowledge the frustration. Talk about it with others who are like minded. Then you will realize, you are not the only one feeling like this. The beginning of this school year may well be wrapped in frustration. I for one do feel frustration. Your reasons may be different than mine, but the feeling is the same.
Frustration with the need to change things
Frustration with trying to adjust to unplanned changes
Frustration with trying to learn new curriculum
Frustration in learning your teaching style and their learning style
Frustration with trying to meet your child’s social needs
Frustration with the non stop door bell during lessons because there are other kids staying home
Despite the hardships, despite the confusion, I for one am very much looking forward to the new year. I look forward to the new books and I look forward to the new concepts my kids get to dig into this year. I am excited for our planned group time activities and I am excited that the neighbors two doors down are homeschooling this year too. I am excited to see how my kiddos grow this year and that I get to do all this with them excites me even more.
I truly hope you are excited too. Say hi to your frustrations, breath and let them be. Dwell in the joy and the fun to come.
Enjoy the journey.
Greetings! My name is Joy and I am currently a stay at home mom who is homeschooling her three kids in South Carolina. I love learning and I love sharing the love of learning with others so getting to home school my kids and watch the “ah-ha” moments when they understand something is unbelievably rewarding. I have been homeschooling since my twins were preschool age so we’ve been doing this for 9 years now. I am also a military spouse, so we have the added joys and some of the complications that come with it. As a family, we stay busy with our scouting groups, American Heritage Girls and TrailLife, and we do many camping and hiking trips with them. When I have downtime, I am typically reading books I have sitting around the house, on YouTube/websites getting more information on different home school programs, or working on plans for home school. I look forward to being able to share our experiences with everyone and help encourage all homeschooling families.