I know that I don’t write about homeschooling nearly as much as I talk about it, but yes, we homeschool and yes, it is some times really, really hard.
I have been homeschooling for 10 years, and I now have a teenage boy that started high school last fall. This is the son that made me a “homeschool mama” in the first place. He asks a thousand questions, he is easily bored, and often times, easily distracted. He was having a hard time grasping the idea that he was in the throes of high school, and admittedly, so was I.
We made some well laid out plans at the beginning of the year. Math, Science, History, English, and whatnot. Those plans flew out the window by mid September.
Great, now, I’m stuck with an uncooperative teenager that MUST accomplish some sort of schooling and he doesn’t want to do any of it!
Here is the rub. We have so many programs that we have access to and yet, NOTHING seemed to be grabbing Isaiah’s interests.
So I let it slide.
For weeks I let him piddle around, working on some stuff when he “felt the need”. I encouraged him to check into different things, some websites that I thought he might like. He reviewed a product or two for me. He read some of his biology book. He did some online math.
And I tried disparately to NOT tear out all of my hair.
Then I came across the fact that I needed to renew my membership to SchoolhouseTeachers.com and I told my son to logon and check it out.
Within an hour he had found a class that sounded interesting to him and I said sure, he could take that class, as long as he agreed to be diligent and complete the whole class.
Advent Film Group’s cofounder, George Escobar become Isaiah’s new best friend and teacher. Oh how I love Mr. Escobar for his knowledge in filmmaking! This is an area of interest for Isaiah that I never thought we would be able to access for him. But through Mr. Escobar’s teaching, talking, and sharing, Isaiah now has a much broader knowledge base of some thing that he has been talking about for years!
Isaiah was so interested in this class that the 33 lessons (or the equivalent to 33 weeks) was completed in less than a month. He would sit and absorb ALL of this information and then share the most interesting parts with me. Yes, win-win, Isaiah learned about the ins and outs of filmmaking, and so did I!
Now to explain why SchoolhouseTeachers.com is saving my sanity.
Because Isaiah found this elective course so cool, fun, and interesting, he decided to poke around a little bit more to see what he could see.
And as of right now, he was decided to take Classical Archeology which is a full credit towards his History.
And he has also choose to take American Folklore, which is a full credit towards his Language Arts.
So, as you can see, this year, our first year of high school is not a total bust. He is in turn getting to study things that interest him and I am getting some peace of mind that he is going to broaden his mind and complete his work as I hoped.
If you are looking for ways to encourage your reluctant learner, I offer to you the chance to visit SchoolhouseTeachers.com and see if 1 of the 220 classes that they offer would fill the void in your homeschool.
There are so many amazing classes that are offered and I am beyond pleased with the results of how well the classes work!
SchoolhouseTeachers.com is saving my sanity, well, at least for right now.
Blessings for your homeschool!
In his Grace.
Callie
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