My Newest Semi-Crunchy Adventure: Homeschooling my 6th Grader!

So after a crazy, whirlwind of chaos week I am officially a homeschooling mom! That is a sentence I never imagined myself saying, or even being excited about. But it’s true, and I’ll be homeschooling my 6th grader this year and I really am excited!

Okay, honestly I’m also waay overwhelmed.

This was totally unplanned. We are already 3 weeks into the school year- that is my daughter has been back in school for 3 weeks. As of yesterday, paper work is filed and we are done with public school.

Are you crazy?

Yes, probably.

Our plan for this year I’m sure was the same as most parents’ plans, to continue on at the same school she went to last year. Last year and the year before my daughter went to a blended learning school, which meant 3 days a week of school at home and 2 days a week of school in the building. This worked well for a while, but I was noticing my daughter become very bored and very uninterested in learning.

In theory, a blended school seemed like a great fit for my daughter. She is a gymnast and has a crazy schedule, so we needed a school with flexibility. This school definitely offered the flexibility we needed.

But our problem was that her school at home days were almost completely done online – Math, Language Arts, Science, Social Studies, all online. She was getting so burned out of being tied to her computer with endlessly boring videos, lessons, and quizzes. Something had to change.

Why change now after the school has already started?

Well, her public school was a K through 12 school. Even though she was at the same school this year, there was still a middle school transition, which meant different programs and curriculum. Since it was different than the elementary program, we were willing to give it a chance. Maybe middle school would be a change for the better.

However, after a few weeks of giving it a chance we realized that these fully online programs just weren’t working for her. It was different programs and curriculum, but not the difference we were hoping for. My daughter was still bored, unengaged, and dreaded her long days of school work at home.

The transition from a blended public school to homeschooling is still a huge leap.

At one point last school year, I looked into homeschooling laws and browsed a couple homeschooling blogs. It sounded like it could be much more fun and engaging than my daughter’s current school. But the idea of homeschooling is also very intimidating.

How could I be at all qualified to teach my kid? I’m a stay-at-home mom. My background is in early childhood education, which is a plus but I’m definitely not qualified to be a middle school teacher.

Where do we even start? There is so much information about what to do, learning styles, homeschooling methods, how to teach, and what to teach. It’s so overwhelming.

How does the work with a toddler? Like I can barely keep up with housework, and the minimum stay-at-home mom duties with my high energy 2-year-old. How would this even work?

Also, curriculum. Don’t even get me started. Curriculum is making me sleep deprived because there are so many choices. When I do sleep I dream of grammar workbooks and science lab kits.

So, here I am. A homeschooling mom. Freaking out just a little. Okay- a lot.

I do want to keep sharing with you guys what I learn and how we figure out this whole homeschooling thing. I have a curriculum list in the works that I’ll share in the next couple of days, and possibly a “What we’re doing to get started” kind of post.

Let me know your thoughts on this. Anyone else with experience homeschooling or maybe you’re considering making the switch? I’d love to here from you.

Peace and love!