I won’t lie.
The first day of homeschool was weird.
It was weird not having to be anywhere at any set time. It was weird not rushing to make breakfast and hurrying to get dressed. It was weird not dropping my son off at school and going into work. It was weird doing school in our pajamas for the first few hours.
It was weird, but we loved it.
We are definitely still adjusting to our new normal. We are still figuring out what works and what doesn’t work. I was fortunate enough to be able to take a few days off work before resigning to “practice” homeschool with my son. We discovered he needs a soft start. We can’t jump right into work, especially his intensive reading intervention. He enjoys math, so he starts the day with 15-20 minutes of Reflex Math. Reflex Math is a math fluency program I saw huge success with when I was working in the school system.
After his math computer time, we started his reading intervention. We are currently using the Barton reading system, which we love. Reading is a huge struggle with him. He desperately wants to read, but gets frustrated when he tries so hard and isn’t successful. Unfortunately, we had a tiny melt down about 20 minutes into our session. The lesson required him to manipulate sounds by deleting a certain sound and replacing it with another. It was difficult and he broke down when he was unable to do it successfully.
I hate to admit it, but I got frustrated to. It is difficult watching your child try so hard and still struggle.
We talked. We hugged. We took a break. We hugged some more. We got right back to work.
The rest of the day went better than expected. I’m learning that it is okay to not stick to a schedule. It is okay to take breaks and it is okay to adjust as we go.
After lunch we headed to Tanner’s first homeschool event: a bowling league! I joined a ton of Facebook groups when I decided to homeschool and came across a bowling league just for homeschoolers. It was a bit overwhelming, as there were close to 100 kids in attendance. Tanner had a great time though and he’s looking forward to meeting new kids.
All in all, it was a great first day. We are both hopeful and excited for what the future holds.
