Its no secret that homeschool had been a huge struggle here at the Vernoy home. This was not my plan. I never EVER considered homeschooling. Then COVID hit and I felt backed into a corner. I really felt like my only viable option this year was to homeschool. I could go through a list of WHY we decided to choose this route but I think I’ll save that post for another day. Today I want to share some our failures and some of our successes. There have been several positives that have come from homeschooling. There has also been some pretty big hurdles for us. Lets start with the negative- get those out of the way. In the beginning of the year the big hurdle was accepting that “MOM is in fact our TEACHER”. It took about a month for this to settle in. Once we got into a routine the kids became more accepting of the homeschool program. If you asked them today if they want to continue to be homeschooled next year they would say emphatically YES. They have come to love all the flexibility that comes with learning at home. Another great aspect that I have noticed is- our kids get a long. They used to fight ALL the time. That has actually lessened quite a bit. They have become each others best buddy. This has made my heart leap. I love seeing them play and enjoy being together. Don’t get me wrong they still have sibling fights – its just not as bad or as frequent as when they went to public school. Another BIG positive is that we have been able to incorporate the Bible into almost every lesson. We have been learning from Master Books and its been a great curriculum. Every subject starts and ends with God- even math! We also start our day with just Bible. Our science and history lessons take every concept and puts into a Biblical context. I love it! Often I’m learning right along with the kids.
Okay so some of our setbacks….
I am trying to manage our home, homeschool kids, and I’m working 2 jobs from home. I’m losing it- to be quite frank. There is little reprieve. Im going from sun up to sun down a million miles an hour. So this also likely puts me on edge- and many days I feel like I don’t have the patience I really need to focus on our homeschooling needs. Both of our children seem to have some “special needs” too. Our son had some speech delays early on which set him back. I feel he is actually doing really well despite the fact that things aren’t what they were -in past years. Our daughter has been the one who has really stretched us. She can’t seem to focus for more then 1 or 2 minutes . Some days she’s literally hanging upside down on the chair while I’m trying to teach her. I’m pretty sure that if we had her tested she would have a couple of learning disabilities or at least one. My husband suffered through school (and still does) with some learning disabilities. I also had some trouble when I was younger. So we are hyper sensitive to their needs. It was hard to really see that our daughter had special needs until we started homeschooling. We have been working on about 50 site words since we started school in August. Today she could maybe identify 10. Its been super frustrating. We have tried several ways of learning them- orally, written, games, songs, etc. I did recently add a skittle incentive. So for every word she gets right she gets a skittle (after lunch). That has actually been working very well and she seems to have been picking up momentum on learning these. She also has recently started to enjoy reading books. This has not always been the case. I have a reading app (Epic) on my tablet and the kids choose books to read while I do school work with the other child. So when I’m working with my son my daughter is reading on Epic. We also have many books on our shelves that she likes me to read. So this newfound energy for reading has encouraged me that she will TAKE OFF- its just a matter of time. I have to give her some grace because she was half-way through Kindergarten when they sent her home for the year and the at-home learning just wasn’t helping her grow educationally. I know from past experience that, that last semester of Kindergarten is often when stuff starts to click. I find myself in tears every other day sometimes everyday. Homeschooling is no joke. Its the hardest job I’ve ever had. I often second guess my decision and hope I’m not messing my kids up even more. I guess this is where we as mom’s need to extend a little more grace to ourselves. God can do what I can not. I will do what he’s placed in front of me- to the best of my ability and I will rest in the fact that God will fill those gaps and finish the work he began.
“But he said to me, : “My Grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses so that Christ’s POWER may rest on me.” 2 Corinthians 12:9
“And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:19
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