Contemplating Homeschooling

I have two children who are only a little over a year apart. From late 2007 through late 2010 I fantasized about sending my children to school. It was going to be the best thing ever. I would first spend a year at home regaining my sanity and then consider going back to work part or full time.

I like my profession. Becoming a parent also gave me a whole new perspective. Becoming a parent of children with speech issues gave me new insight. Getting back into the schools as an SLP would be wonderful. I itch to exercise my skills with children who need help (other than my own). I want to use my professional skills. I want interact with other adults. I want to make a difference in the lives of children.

And yet, a little over a year ago I found myself beginning to daydream about homeschooling. My children were outgrowing their toddlerhoods and entering into the preschool years. We were able to start doing some structured activities. Michael began learning his letters, letter-sound correspondences, and how to read practically by himself. It was all exciting and fun. And I was following some blogs of homeschooling parents. And so the occasional daydreaming began.

There are so many advantages. We would get to dictate our own schedule rather than having it dictated to us. We could visit family without worrying about missing school. I could customize content and pace of learning to each child individually. It is more efficient. We could accomplish in 2-4 hours a day what a school takes 7 hours to accomplish (not counting the homework time schools involve on top of school hours). My children could have stimulating, individualized education and still have time leftover to spend with family, pursue independent activities, play, and just be kids.

I feel like homeschooling could be a gift. It is a gift to the children. They get to learn at their level and pace with time leftover to spend with family and just be kids. It is a gift to our family. Instead of yanking everyone out of sleep and rushing out the door in the morning we can determine a schedule that works for us. Instead of picking kids up from school and doing homework until dinner, dinner, bath and bedtime we would have time for recreation, exercise, activities, and play. When we get invited to a special family event in Louisiana (ex. Easter Crawfish Boil/Birthday Party) we could go because we wouldn't have to be back at school on Monday.

On the other hand, it wouldn't all be roses. It is expensive. We'd need curriculum materials and we'd be giving up my salary indefinitely. I'd give up the opportunity to practice my profession. That's huge.

Another challenge... Hmm. How do I put this? It's an awful lot of together time. I love my children, but I know myself. I need a certain amount of "by myself" time in order to stay sane and happy. That's just who I am. I get that time right now during the two mornings a week the children are in preschool. If we went to full-time homeschooling I would need some way to get a minimum amount of time to myself, in my own home, to stay sane.

I also have to remind myself that in daydreams everything is perfect. The children are always perfectly behaved. Learning is easy, seamless, and fun. Lesson plans and materials magically present themselves to be used at just the right moment. Meaningful friendships and socialization for the children develop easily through some as yet to be determined activities/homeschooling groups. There are rainbows and unicorns. No one ever gets sick. You get the idea. I know that reality will be different.

And then I start browsing potential homeschooling curriculum materials. Oh, bliss. I love browsing curriculum materials. There are so many good options out there. I have already decided on some. You know, if I were to homeschool, I would use... Just theoretically.

I haven't made any decisions. Michael has one more year of preschool before he'd be starting kindergarten so I have time to decide. I'm thinking of getting some homeschool materials and trying them part-time in the meantime to get a feel for it. (Hello Rightstart Math Level A!... Hello Handwriting Without Tears preschool curriculum!)

Dysfunctional Stages of Adaptation (me)

Stimulus: Learn new information to integrate. (Current example: Michael has a mild tongue-tie.)

Response sequence:

• Panic, panic, panic! (Tongue-tie! Oh no, how terrible! It will ruin his life!)
• Self-recrimination. (How could I have possibly missed it, I'm an SLP? I'm the worst SLP ever. I'm the worst mama ever.)
• Online research. (ASHA: Tongue-tie is no big deal. Other sites: Tongue-tie is a big deal.)
• Additional panic. (It might be a huge deal. How will I ever decide? This is a huge decision...)
• Blog about it. Blog about it some more.
• Consult everyone who will listen for opinions (pediatrician, therapist A, therapist B, random family members, random casual acquaintances). Be swayed by the opinion of whoever is speaking at the moment.
• Begin to assimilate new information.
• Begin to calm the heck down.
• Gain some perspective.
• Realize that the initial sequence of reactions was, yet again, perhaps a bit over-the-top.
• Decide that the problem is probably not a problem.

The end.


Hmm...perhaps there is a better way?

The Weekly Review: Week 55

SLP Idea of the Week

Pat at Speaking of Speech had a brilliantly simple idea for motivating articulation drill. She lays her articulation cards out in a grid face up and hides a sticker under one of the cards. The children have to name the card before checking underneath to see if it is the one hiding the sticker. If you want to increase difficulty add a carrier phrase like, "Is it hiding under the _____?" Or ask them to make up a sentence about it. If you're really creative, you can match your carrier phrase to the speech target you're working on. For example, for final /k/ you could have the child use "look under the" as your carrier phrase. Whoever finds the sticker gets to keep it and then you simply hide another sticker and carry on.

Ava this Week

It has been over a month since Ava's birthday. She'll still occasionally remark, rather wistfully, "I'm going to have another birthday!" I have to gently remind her that birthdays are very special occasions and that it will be a long time before she has another one.

Weekly Michael

I was busy cleaning. I know. I don't say that often, but I'm still enjoying the new vacuum cleaner. When I flipped the switch and there was some wonderful silence for a moment Michael asked me if I wanted to play his game. I'll admit it. I hadn't been paying any attention to what he'd been up to while I was cleaning. He had drawn arrows on pieces of construction paper and taped them up in various sections of the house. You started at the beginning and looked in the direction the arrow was pointing to find the next arrow. He had set them up perfectly. The last arrow pointed to a drawer. In the drawer was a rolled up piece of paper held closed with a rubber band. He had drawn a puzzle on that piece of paper and when you reached the end of the hunt you had to solve the puzzle. I loved it. It was so creative and well executed. We had never done anything like it so I was curious where he got the idea. He told me he had seen Kipper do it on a television show.

Ava's and Michael's Weekly Home Therapy Notes

Ava's private therapist decided it was finally time to reintroduce /k/. I'm overjoyed (no, no, no). On the other hand, she's having some success this time so I suppose I shouldn't complain too much.

Michael's trying so hard. It is adorable and breaks my heart a little at the same time. He's really paying attention and trying to correct his /s/ and /f/ sounds. When we're practicing reading, he slows down with every S or F and concentrates on his pronunciation. I know he'll be glad later that his speech errors have been addressed, but I hate seeing him so self-conscious now.

Weekly Mini-Projects

I got both of these ideas from pinterest pins, but I saw them such a long time ago, that I no longer remember the sources. I apologize to the wonderful people who came up with the original ideas and thank you for the ideas.

We did a spice painting. I used a cup to trace six circles on a piece of white cardstock for each child. I then gave them some glue and a paintbrush and grabbed six spice bottles off the rack. One at a time they filled each circle with glue. We then opened a spice bottle and smelled (and sometimes tasted) the spice and sprinkled it on the glue. We got to explore the sight, taste, smell, and texture of a variety of spices and the end display was kind of pretty.

I needed spare keys for the second project and got a bunch of discards from the very helpful man at the key desk at the home improvement store. I chose 11 different keys and taped them onto a piece of paper and then photocopied it. Then I pulled the keys back off the original and the copy plus the keys resulted in a very nice key puzzle that the children really enjoyed.