Adventures in Home Schooling...

We started doing Kieren's schooling at home after Christmas break, if you haven't read "Things I Said I'd Never Do", that will explain why we made that choice.  So last Monday was the first day and I'm not going to sugar coat this people, it's hard as shit.  Instead of "I hate school" and various stories about bullying, not getting enough time to eat and so on, it's directed at me because I'm the teacher now.  "I hate school, I don't want to do school at home", "I just want to play!", "Ughhhhhhhhh".  Then there's trying to keep Zoe entertained while also allowing her to learn the art of entertaining herself.  Before you say "I told you so" just remember I knew it was going to be hard as shit going into it.  I am not the worlds most patient person and although I have a college degree, it was not in teaching.  However I love Kieren deeply and wanted to see him receive the one on one teaching I knew he needed in order to catch up to his grade level in reading, or have adequate time to eat his lunch, or short breaks when his brain is just going to sleep and needs to be refreshed with air or zone out building lego's.  I KNEW there would be days when I would say through tears "I can't do this", days that he would get angry or bored or frustrated...OK, basically most days, but hey...this is life.  Today I gave him a little speech about how if we don't go to school and learn how to read (among other things) we won't be able to get a job, to make money so we can have a place to live or food, and so on.  There are many days in my job that I get angry, frustrated or want to give up and walk away (as he is feeling now)...it's just that as an adult I've learned how to control those feelings and the urge to walk out when someone is rude to me.  I've learned the meaning of a strong work ethic and doing my job well, not just doing it so I can get home or on to the next activity.

This whole home schooling thing is definitely a learning process (mostly for me)...in how to adapt to Kieren's learning style, how to make it fun for him and interesting.  It's also an incredible opportunity to teach him about life.  Last week he asked me to teach him how to do laundry!  I said, hell yes boy (in my head of course), you will learn how and from now on you can do your own laundry!  When he gets frustrated while sounding out a word, he gets really angry and often cannot calm himself.  The only thing I can think of doing at the moment is having him go to his room where he can punch his pillow until he is calm.  He is extremely rude to me in his tone and I know for a fact he never did that to his teachers at Gatewood and that ticks me off!  So I'm doing my best to calm MYSELF and share how I feel when he talks to me that way.

I messaged Norm saying, "No one died and we're all done with lessons for now"...today, that is my accomplishment.  Baby steps.  I realize he is adjusting to a new way of doing things, just as I am.  There is a new schedule at home and different materials and that's gotta be rough.  I just keep trying to remember that because he is comfortable and feels safe with me, he get's attitude sometimes...while he wouldn't do that with a teacher at school.  It's only the second week and we're all doing the best we can.  Overall, I don't doubt our choice to do this and I don't doubt myself.  What better way to teach him how to persevere and learn patience when we get angry, than to model that myself?  I am thankful for friends I trust (Abigail and Stephen) who have experience in this area to give me encouragement, ideas and support and I'm also thankful for the plethora of resources out there, as well as CVA and those there who are helping us in this journey.

More to come...