The trials of home educating

I knew when we started on our journey into home education there would be bad days, but the optimist in me thought they would be few and far between and I never imagined we would experience 5 in a row! Last week Chipman was on his 2nd week of a trial of no ADHD medication and I was in a really grumpy mood that I just couldn't shift. It was not a match made in heaven! Without his medication Chipman needed constant reminders to focus on his work and I have felt like a real nag, if I said once 'sit down' 'pick up your pen and write' or 'stop being an aeroplane' I said it a thousand times.

Being an aeroplane, train or gremlin have been ways for Chipman to express his frustrations but have unfortunately added to mine. On Tuesday we were working on simplifying ratios, not being in a particularly patient mood myself and numbers looking like a foreign language to me we stumbled on a problem solving the 6th question. I suggested to Chipman that we move onto the next question and talk to mathematically minded Dad when he got home about this particular question. He was having none of this as he said they had to be done in order. So whist I trawled the Internet, phoned various people and stressed out trying to find the answer Chipman spun around me being an aeroplane, noises and all. And just in case I was in any doubt as to what he was doing, the aeroplane engine noises and arms out to the side circling after all may not have been a big enough clue, he was periodically shouting he was in fact an aeroplane. Despite my pleas, which started out calm and turned into shouty quite quickly, Chipman's aeroplane was not going to land any time soon. In tears I decided that we had had enough maths for one day and called it quits, Chipman landed and got on with some geography.

The maths frustrations continued, the aeroplane made appearances, although Chipman's method of transport sometimes changed to a train as the week went on. And with the train as you may have guessed came noises, arms circling at his sides and the announcement that he was a train until Thursday. We had been stuck in the house for 4 solid days and think we were both starting to go a little stir crazy. So when the suggestion from a friend to go out for lunch came up we jumped at it. Having some time away from the house certainly helped, Friday was much calmer, although Chipman still needed to get around the house somehow so the aeroplane and train returned, I felt more able to deal with it just from a couple of hours away from the house.

I have learnt my lessons from last week, and there are quite a few. We need new strategies to help Chipman deal with his ADHD now that it is not being controlled by drugs and to get a fair assessment of how he is coping without them, we need time away from the house at least once a week and finally I am not blessed at being good with numbers so Dad is now the maths teacher. It was a trying week but reflecting back I can see my mistakes and I am hopefully going to learn from them.

Earthquakes at home and learning together

We did it! 5 morning's getting Beebie into school without any fuss and 3 nights of going to bed well! She is very happy with her bubble sword as a reward! As for Chipman and homeschool, all is going brilliantly. This week we looked at the effect of earthquakes on buildings with a hands on Lego experiment. It was great fun and both Chipman and Beebie enjoyed it. We have come to the end of our Japan topic and on Chipman's request are now moving onto Egypt. Again we will be lapbooking and will post photo's as we go.

This week there have been doubts. The main one of these for me is am I teaching him enough? From other blogs I have read I know I am not alone. I have been reassuring myself that no matter how much Chipman writes down on paper he is learning 24/7 and enjoying doing it. I have loved getting to know Chipman better and spending quality time with him during our learning. It is amazing to see his thirst for knowledge and how he will persevere. I am still being flexible and we are definitely learning as we go along together.

 Chipman has also enjoyed meeting up with his home educated friends at group and at the park. It's great to see him making new friends and also good support for me. I would recommend to anyone home educating or considering it to join a group, you can find lists of these groups on Education Otherwise. It has lots of information about home educating and is worth a visit. 

I am feeling so at home with being a stay at home mum and am very thankful to God for giving me this opportunity and peace in my heart. My prayer this week will be for calm in our home and hearts that want to listen to God and to each other.