I am the mom of five kids, ages 1 to 9. Currently, our three daughters (ages 5, 7, and 9) are in Christian schools. Our two youngest are rambunctious boys, ages 1 and 2.
Our 7 year old is a straight A student but hates school and is losing her love of learning. They are using the Abeka curriculum in their school and spending hours a day sitting in their desks doing "seatwork". I am assuming that Abeka requires a lot of worksheets and she is plain bored since most of the work is old news to her. Their solution has been to place her in a small room with Switched on Schoolhouse which she also now dislikes saying it is too hard.
So... we are seriously considering homeschooling her starting in January. I read The Well Trained Mind over the summer and it struck a chord with me. This is how I want our children educated. There is no way to achieve a classical education with the schools in our rural area. In fact, the term "classical education" is a foreign term even to most of hte local homeschoolers.
My thought is to follow the curriculum established by WTM. But, my quandary is that I am anticipating the other girls to be homeschooled starting in Sept. If I start SOTW in Jan. then I will need to repeat it again in the fall to keep the girls on the same schedule. On the other hand, what structure should I use for this one child if I am not using SOTW?
I am also concerned about having one child at home while her sisters are in school. How does that work? Are there feelings of jealousy? FWIW, all of the girls want to be home but for various reasons, I am keeping the other two in school.
What would you do given the situation? I hate to admit it but I am somewhat using the six months with our 7 yo as a "trial period" to see if I am up to challenge of homeschooling.