Homeschool to Public school

We made the homeschool to public school switch this year and the boys just wrapped up their first semester. 

We chose to do this because I was stressed. The boys were always fighting and not really listening. They wanted to rush through their work to do other things.

It has been quite the adjustment. Gone are the days of sleeping in but still finishing school before 3 PM.

Will

Will (11 yo and 5th grade) is adjusting quite well. He loves his teachers! The very first week he signed up for student council and shortly after he was invited to join the Robotics team. His grades are fantastic (all As) but as expected he is mostly bored, academically. He’s having a blast being around kids ALL DAY, EVERY DAY. There have been a few “holes” in math but nothing we wouldn’t have eventually covered. 

As of right now William wants to stay in public school. 

Lucas

Lucas is doing well and happy most days. His teacher seems to have the right technique for helping him with his reading, but he is being held back on math, science and history, just because of where we chose to place him. He is mostly bored academically too. **SIGH**

Sure we could work on that when he gets home but after leaving the house at 7 AM and walking in the door at 3 PM, he is wiped out and that’s just not fair to an active 7 year old.

Lucas keeps flip-flopping on whether he wants o finish out his 1st grade year or come back home and jump back into the 2nd grade math, science and history work we had started on last year. Last week he wanted to come home, this week he wants to stay.

I’m just grateful we have the flexibility to do whatever we want, whenever we want. It’s just not easy to make the switch. Again.

Our schedule is the big problem

Bye-Bye flexibility. Our schedule is a nightmare now. Gone are the days of sleeping in when we stay up late for whatever reason. The boys are up between 6-6:30 and out the door by 7. They return home between 3-3:15.

Gone are the days of being home in the evenings. Our afternoons are now spent on homework when they just spent the last 8 hours away, IN SCHOOL. Gone are the days of all school work being done anywhere from noon-3 pm. I definitely miss that side of homeschooling.

Our evenings are now a race to get to TaeKwonDo and home again so we can eat and get to bed. IF we even make it to TKD. Our extracurriculars have suffered.

I didn’t even see Will until after 5 on Wednesdays and 6 on Thursdays, all during November, but he was having a blast with his robotics team so he loved every minute of it.

I know this is a silly thing to complain about because millions of families do it but it’s a HUGE reason we chose to homeschool. Flexibility. I gave all that up and now? I won’t be getting it back.

Do I regret sending them?

Yes. Now there IS MORE stress because there is little=NO time for a life outside of school or school events. Somehow we make do.

I feel like I FAILED as a homeschool mom and I that I should have been able to handle the stress of my kids fighting.