My husband and I were down to the wire in deciding what to do. We needed to commit to a decision on school: would we take the hybrid option (half in-person and half remote)? Fully remote? Or would we officially homeschool? (Not just crisis learning, which is what happened this past spring).
I’ll be honest. I had many restless nights as I weighed our options. None of them felt quite right — and I know that we were far from alone in feeling that way. Little Miss loved school — but would she love staying six feet away from everyone, while everyone wore masks? She absolutely hated being on the computer during remote learning — could she handle five hours of screen time, even if remote learning would be different this time around?
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Why We Decided to Homeschool
Everyone has different circumstances when it comes to making a decision. For us, it came down to this: my husband and I are both home right now. As a freelance writer and editor, my hours and work schedule are pretty flexible. (And, at the time of this writing, my husband is currently out of work). When my youngest lost his spot at PreK, we officially made the decision to homeschool.
I thought I would feel a bit of relief at having a decision, but I didn’t, at least not right away. I knew homeschooling wouldn’t be quite normal — not as many field trips, not as many open museums to visit — and that it would be a huge adjustment for the whole family.
It also hit me particularly hard when I went to return Little Miss’s school Chromebook from the spring “crisis schooling.” I drove to the school, thinking about how we were supposed to be getting ready to return to public school. This year was supposed to be a big one for the whole family: both kids would be in school five days a week.
But now they’re not. At least not in the traditional sense. Now our learning is taking place at home, in our backyard, and in nature preserves.
How Homeschool is Going
We officially started homeschooling in the last week of August. I didn’t feel *totally* ready, but I had a curriculum picked out (Blossom & Root is our main one), and as with most things, I knew I would never be 100% ready.
We focused our lessons in the morning, starting with reading for Little Miss and letters and sounds for Buster. (Learning Dynamics/Four Weeks to Read has been great). After that, we moved on to hands-on activities. So many hands-on activities. For the most part, they were engaged. They loved anything to do with building things and crafts. The week flew by.
Then, one day, Little Miss said to me, “This is school?! Are you sure? It’s so different!”
We talked about the different things we’ve been doing and what we’ve been learning (she was particularly smitten with learning that we all started as “stardust.”) Somewhere in there, she realized that, okay, “Kafka Sunnyside Academy” with mom and dad might not be such a bad thing after all.
It made me breathe a sigh of relief, honestly. One of the biggest factors for us was: what version of school would she thrive in the most? Homeschool, for us, was the right call — even if I sometimes worry that I’m not doing enough as a teacher. Not every day is productive in terms of “schooling,” but we’re making it work. Plus, as I’ve said before, and I’ll say again: we’re all just doing the best we can, and that’s all that we can do, especially right now.
Now, please excuse me while we go catch some frogs and talk about how they swim.
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Liz, it sounds like you’ve made a very wise, considered, rational decision for your family. For me, I didn’t (and still don’t) want to feel backed into a homeschooling framework–if that makes sense. I’d have wanted to go about it just like you and your husband have with Little Miss and Buster: with our eyes wide open, armed with lots of good information, and a gradual, considered approach for what would be two vastly different learning situations (for two very different kids, with regard to learning styles, aptitudes, and so on!). For me, it would have been crisis homeschooling–and feels like now, now that we’ve started virtual learning (whereas in Spring, as you’d mentioned, it was more like crisis learning or, in some cases for us!, damage control . . . for us and our school district–not a knock to them–the kids received little to no instruction per se, just lots of paperwork for the youngest and a little bit more online with Quizizz, IXL, and a plethora of digital tools for the middle-schooler). In the end, as you said so well, we all do the best we can with the time that we have. Looking forward to continuing to read more about your homeschooling adventures!
Thanks for the kind words, Leigh! It’s such a tough place for everyone right now, and everyone is coming from such different circumstances in terms of deciding what to do. I hope you and your family are staying safe and healthy!