Getting Off the Bus

The CHOIS homeschool  convention every June has been such an encouragement to me. It is the highlight of my year. The speakers that we have the privilege of listening to serve to remind me why we do what we do. I come away renewed and with fresh ideas.

I shared before that I struggled  with feeling that our schooling had to look just like public school. I was concerned that people would judge me if it didn't. I thought both boys should be doing the same hours of instruction...until I heard a workshop about homeschooled kids getting off the bus at different times of the day. Wait a minute! Homeschool? Bus? I wanted to know more.

The speaker of the workshop was my hero as she shared about schooling four boys. She explained how all of the kids got on the bus at the same time every morning. As the day wore on, however, the younger ones would begin getting antsy and she could no longer hold their attention; they "got off the bus".

I knew exactly what she meant! She let me know that this was okay! My youngest boy, when he was little, could not last very long. After attending that workshop I was able to change my tactics; instead of fighting with him, I said to myself, "Okay, Eli is getting off the bus." Some days he would last longer and I just learned to get as much out of him as I could.

Another trick I learned as the boys got older: we had to do math first!  Math was something on which all three of us had to concentrate . If we waited until our minds were tired and bogged down from our other subjects, there was a higher level of frustration. The boys had a harder time grasping the new concepts of the day. Easy fix; do math first.

The other thing that made life easy was knowing my boys. They are complete opposites on practically everything, especially their schedules. Eli performs best early in the morning. He loved setting his alarm and getting up about 7 a.m. to start on his work so he could be done early and have the rest of the day to do as he pleased. Chris, on the hand,  treasured his sleep. When he did get up, he took his sweet time getting ready for the day, doing his chores, and eating breakfast. He didn't mind doing school work all day long though so I didn't harp on him unless we needed to be done earlier for some reason. He knew what had to be done for the day. Many times he would still have work to do in the evening after sports practice.

I have learned that it is okay if the kids get off the bus early, even the older ones. In fact, there are times that I have to get off the busy early.  In those situations, we have a game day. I have a ton of board games, dice and card games that we can incorporate into the learning process.   Scrabble and Yahtzee are great! I have many spelling and history board games as well. There is nothing wrong with a fun day!

Homeschooling does not have to be a stressful situation. Learn to savor the freedom and the flexibility. The more you enjoy it, the happier your children will be!

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