I mentioned in my first post that we’ve considered putting The Tornado in school, at least until we get through the murkiness of phonics and early math. Each time I think about it, I have a fear. It’s a nightmare, actually, and it plagues my mind even when I think I have this schooling thing figured out.
The nightmare begins rather harmlessly.
We enroll her into the local public school and sign her up for the bus. She loves it the first day. And the first few weeks go by without a hitch. But then her attitude seems to change. She wants to stay home. She doesn’t like the bus and she doesn’t like her teacher. She doesn’t give me any concrete reasons and I canlk it up to her missing spending all day with Mom and the many outings we took when she was home. Normal “new-to-school” jitters. We call to discuss this with The Tornado’s teacher. And that is when it all goes to hell.
“I don’t want to go to school.”
“This was the worst day ever.”
I’m not having fun.”
These become everyday statements and I know something else is going on. She won’t sleep. She fights me about homework. And she seems to have lost her love of learning. And that is when we receive the notes from her teacher telling us the she has become withdrawn….
It goes on from there erupting into observations and evaluations at best. Or maybe at best my daughter develops school anxiety. At worse, she loses that passion that I see in her and despite our attempts to unschool her, there are pieces of her missing- ripped away by the system that love forgot .
It happens. More than you think. In fact, children seem to be hating school more now than every before and much of it can be attributed to poor teaching methods.
So of course, while I worry that she is missing out on the experience of school, I go back to the issues that worry me the most about them: overcrowding and the over-medication of students, over-testing and too much competition with no focus on self-worth.
I worry that my daughter will not acclimate into school culture- the culture of be quiet and be still- because she is just not that kind of child.
She is bright and sharp as a whip. She catches on to things quickly and once she has figured out how to do something, she would much rather move on to the next thing. She is an exploratory learner and would rather learn on her own schedule and doesn’t take well to by-the-book tactics.
I want her to have the world as her classroom. Even if that means I have to tackle the things I don’t necessarily like.
I am glad that this post helped. I think constantly questioning and reevaluating is what makes us good parents and it is what will allow our children to succeed in life. You know your son best and know what is best for him, so don’t worry! You have it covered.
Thanks for visiting and I hope you return.
Oh, my goodness, you just described my son. I find myself often in conflict because I debate if homeschooling is best for him. He is very laid back( his words, not mine) and tends to want to blast through every subject so he can “relax”. I just feel like his education will be filled with these big gapping holes where knowledge should be…lol!!
I’m very glad I read this because it bring back some clarity for me in regards to homeschooling my son. Thanks.
Shelly, thanks so much for commenting. If you even think that you want to homeschool, I say start now. Worst case scenario is that you realize it’s not for you and you put him in school. You haven’t missed out on anything because he is only three. I started with The Tornado when she was 2.5 so I was able to try different techniques, programs, free sites etc. We had fun and I learned so much about the way she learns. Please keep me updated.
I am battling whether to put my son in school or if I should homeschool. He is very intelligent and like your daughter catches on quickly. He is 3 and we are trying to make the decision soon so we know if we need to put him in pre-school or in momma’s school. We shall see 🙂