Homeschool: The good, the bad and the ugly

As we come to a close for the school year there are lots of things I learned from doing homeschool.

THE GOOD: I loved the time I got with Trevor. We learned a lot of things together. I was able to use my skills as an English teacher to really help him improve in his writing. I loved how we were able to do a lot in a little amount of time. He wrote 17 essays in 3 months. We passed off scout requirements that went along with what we did in school. There were TONS of things I got online to enrich his schooling. We did art, music, US history, health, science, etc. If there was something he struggled with we kept working on it until he got it. He mastered things before we moved on to something new. He gained a lot of confidence in himself and his abilities and finally felt smart.

THE BAD: It was sometimes hard to keep a schedule. Lots of things would interrupt the school day (phone calls, Logan, days I babysat, an online job I did for a month). Lots of times Trevor finished his work so quickly for the day (what I planned to take 3 hours only took 2) and had lots of down time. The lesson planning took a lot of time so sometimes I felt overwhelmed with everything I needed to do and not enough time to do it. He missed his friends. I felt like I neglected Logan too much. I felt bad that we were all home and Colin was not.

THE UGLY: My house is ALWAYS messy. I tried to keep up with cleaning but it was hard. With school, lesson planning, grading, doing stuff with the kids, babysitting on occasion, etc. it was hard to have a good cleaning schedule.

All in all it was a great experience and I am so glad I chose to homeschool Trevor for a few months. Would I do it again? Absolutely, if I felt like my child needed to be home. Am I looking forward to all of my kids going to school next year? You bet. Logan will be in kindergarten and I'll get 2 and a half hours to myself every morning. Now I'll be able to have a clean house again.