We are a homeschooling family, so education is a big one for me. It's important for my children to have a good foundation in their education so they can be successful in whatever they want to do in life. But educating children has many challenges, especially if the child has something called ADHD.
Gamer has ADHD and we certainly have our ups and downs with his education. Almost two years ago, we made the decision to homeschool our kids, part of that was because Gamer and Pixie both were bored out of their minds in class. They weren't being challenged enough and the school district we had just moved to has separate campuses for Gifted and Talented students, which is where my kids needed to be. But we missed the deadline to get into those campuses and so they were put into a regular school where they were expected to wait for the rest of the class to catch up to the lesson. That might work well for some kids, but it didn't work for ours. So, we let them finish the semester with their class and withdrew them at Christmas. I was nervous and a little intimidated by taking that step, but I faced it head on, knowing that I was doing what was best for Gamer and Pixie.
Fast forward to today. We've tried a few things that didn't work with us, had to switch gears a few times, and still figuring all this out. We used to use online curriculum, it was nice and all on one website, I just had to log the kids on their computer and let them go. But lately, Gamer has been getting a little distracted by things on the computer. So now we're doing all of our school work off the computer, which means more work for me.
Something that has been a lifesaver in our homeschooling journey has been finding a great co-op. Every semester, the kids get to take classes with their friends and they absolutely love it! They're taking classes in literature and performing arts and sciences. It really helps to round out our lessons for the year! And it helps the kids form and build some really great friendships with the kids at co-op.
So far, homeschooling has been great for us. I have been able to help my kids where they needed it and let them move ahead at their own pace. We've had fun going to the museum on "field trips" while most other kids are in school and have the place almost all to ourselves! We get to sleep in during the week and not have to worry about being tardy! We're not morning people. We get to focus on building a love of learning in our children instead of stressing how important a test at the end of year is. And most importantly, we get to be there for our children, we get to take part in one of the most important aspects of their lives. I never thought I would be happy as a stay at home mom. Now I can't imagine life any other way!
~*~Freckled Fairy~*~
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