What has been your hardest (or easiest) year of homeschooling so far?

[Rosy]

I'm just curious--it dawned on me yesterday that it's probably all uphill for us! With DS just starting first grade and not quite reading yet (and being my most intense kid), I'm thinking that this is probably the hardest it's going to be for us, and as they grow their needs won't be quite so urgent and immediate. :)

 

What about everyone else? I'd love to hear some other perspectives.

[qfbrenda]

Last year was our hardest so far. Our year had nothing to do with where my kids were in school. I had my 2 oldest reading well by then. But I had health issues and didn't feel good much of the time. It was so hard to pull myself together to get school done. We took way too much time off. Thankfully my boys love to read and they kept on learning in spite of me. And now we are back to being as consistent as possible.

 

Anyway... in my experience, an easy vs. hard homeschooling year involves much more than the stage your child is in. :)

[LisaKinVA]

Last year was my most difficult year.

 

I went back to work full time, and then during the course of the year, my mother unexpectedly had to go to Georgia to begin caring full time for my grandmother, leaving me with not one, but TWO full time jobs (one during the day, one from about 4pm-10pm). Talk about stress!

 

We had also just added Latin, and a whole new curriculum. My oldest was in the 3rd grade -- and I was stressing beyond belief.

 

Back to just one job, I now have a K, 1st and 4th. Things are going MUCH better, really helps to lose a 2nd FT job. :D

[swellmomma]

I think this year is going to be my hardest, ds is starting K so teaching him how to read, plus he has fine motor delays so building up his strength in that area in preparation of writing. Plus thie will be our first year really focussing on academics so it will be a change for the older kids. I think that of my 3 years, the first was the easiest, though it was not easy at all kwim. We didn't really do academics that year, focusing on behaviour modification and mental health etc. SO academically it was an eay year, but it was very taxing on me just the same. Last year I added new baby to the mix, so again academically easy but taxing. This year I am hoping for an academically challenging year with easy being the word to describe the rest of life (haha like that will happen)

[Guest Katia]

This year is the easiest. I only have one dd left at home and she is 11th grade. She self-studies, so all I had to do was make a schedule out for her to follow. I do need to drive her to some cc classes and her job, but that is easy-peasy.

 

Mostly, I sit here and surf while she does her school-work, lol!

 

The hardest year was not our first, or even second year of homeschooling. We were still trying to figure out what would work for us then. The hard part came when I finally had figured out what worked for each kiddo (I had 3), what our educational philosophy was, and then had to schedule it all out and still manage meals, cleaning, outside lessons, etc. Whew!

 

This is our 14th year homeschooling. Only one more to go after this and I'm done!

[Barb_]

Last year was our hardest so far. Our year had nothing to do with where my kids were in school. I had my 2 oldest reading well by then. But I had health issues and didn't feel good much of the time. It was so hard to pull myself together to get school done. We took way too much time off. Thankfully my boys love to read and they kept on learning in spite of me. And now we are back to being as consistent as possible.

 

Anyway... in my experience, an easy vs. hard homeschooling year involves much more than the stage your child is in. :)

 

:iagree: For me, it was all about what else was going on in my life...not necessarily about homeschooling. My toughest year was when my son was born (he was a pretty intense baby compared to the girls) and my husband lost his job the same week and had to move across the country.

 

Barb

[JudoMom]

Our first year was hard because that is the year ds6's arthritis started (at age 2). So oldest's K year included trying to learn while Mom was hold a crying toddler for hours a day. Add to that all of the doctor's visits and worry and it wasn't a good year (it took 2 years to finally get a dx and get him some relief from the pain). Oh, and dh still wasn't convinced hsing was the way to go, so I had the extra added pressure of not "failing" in his eyes.

 

I've never schooled without a toddler, so in that sense every year has been hard. I'm thinking from now on (the baby is nearing 3), every day will get a tiny bit easier in many regards.

 

Every year has been easier in a sense, too, because dh is now fully on board, I'm more confident in what works for us, and am a bit more flexible.

[hsmamainva]

While the last several years haven't been easy (my 6yo has special needs... and they're quite significant ... and they make it difficult to juggle everything), I would say that my hardest year was the 1st year! I had sooo many folks wondering why I was homeschooling and I didn't feel very confident! As time went on, I gained more experience and more confidence.

 

My best year was probably when my children were 11, 8, 3, and 1 -- I have very happy memories of that school year!! We were living in Maryland (in a house and community that I still miss, even though we've lived here for 3 1/2 years) and I had a little school room (something I don't have in this house) and it was just a really great year!

 

Now, my oldest is at the community college 2 days a week (she did the same last year, too) and our homeschool doesn't feel 'cozy', if that makes sense! I'm sure I'll feel it even more when she goes away to college next year!!

[Rosy]

It's neat to hear everyone's different perspectives! Thanks for sharing. :)

[Johanna]

This year, because i added my 3rd. So, its the hardest thus far. I imagine that in 2010,it will be my hardest, because I officially add my 4th! Hopefully,

though, my oldest will be more independent!

[RebeccaC]

When I started hsing my oldest son was brain deaf, mute, and had severe vision problems. Both my boys were dyslexic with fine motor, speech delays, ect.... Some of those LD issues were severe. I thought the years I spent in home therapy with them and teaching them to read were hard but they were a cake walk compared to following years.

 

The hardest years were June of 2001 - June of 2003. The difficulties of those years had less to do with hsing as it did with the levels of stress in our life and our marriage. In June of 2001 my dh's partner at work was seriously crushed in front of dh, from the waist down. My dh had to work hard to save his partners life.

 

They were off on a part of O'hare field where no one else was and it took rescue quite a while to get there. His partners is permanently disabled, in pain all the time, will never work again, and is wheel chair bound. Dh over the next couple of years had to testify in court so that his partner would get the compensation he and his family needed from the company.

 

Then 9/11 happened and dh knew quite a few of the workers on the American planes who died (dh works for American.) For more than a week after 9/11 AA and the FAA had all the workers stay in their lunch room with CNN playing non- stop, with no way to turn down the sound or turn off the monitor sets and with no work to take their minds off of what had happened. They just sat there. They asked management repeatedly to turn off the feed but management never did. Quite a few of my dh's co-workers began drinking hard and spent the day less than sober, after about 4 or 5 days they physically tore the TVs/monitors from the walls. CNN kept playing and replaying the crashes and these guys knew one of the pilots that died pretty well, he had been stationed at O'hare and they knew some of the cabin employees. It was torture watching CNN rebroadcast of the crashes for 8 hours nonstop and to only be able to leave the room for bathroom breaks. More than half the marriages of his co-workers failed that year, more than half of his co-workers went through bankruptcy, quite a few of the men had DUIs and other alcohol and drug problems.

 

Then about a year after my dh's partner was crushed and 6 months after 9/11 a guy he worked closely with was pinned to the side of the terminal by the huge machine they back the air planes off the gate with. This man died in my dh arms after asking specifically for my dh to talk with him and keep him alert as long as possible and to give Dh messages for his family, ect...... Dh saw this man being pinned but there was little any one could do because the noise from the jet engines precludes any kind of warning shouts. Dh suffered from nightmares for about two years from June of 91 to 93.

 

Then there was the economic fall out from 9/11 that hit our family really hard. We lost nearly 2/3rds of our income. American employees voluntarily gave the company a good chunk of their income so that AA would not go into bankruptcy. However many of the AA employees did go into banckruptcy or lost their homes, ect.....

 

All of this hit my dh pretty hard, we nearly lost our marriage, just about every thing we owned, and of course our savings was gone. My health tanked for many reasons and I was in intese chronic pain. School was done very lightly, most of my energy I put into my dh to help him and to save our marriage and there was not much left to hs with. It was tho, energy well spent our marriage is better now than it was before and my dh is stronger secure man that many men look up to. I get tons of compliments about him every time I show up at a scout meeting. Most importantly my sons are growing up with their father in the home. My oldest wants to be like his dad. What ever I did that year to save our marriage and help my dh no matter how humbling it was worth it.

 

I wrote all of this to say don't live in the future thinking all you have to do and teach and how hard it will be. What I have learned is live this day. Do you look over the year and think of all the meals you will cook, clothes you will wash, rooms you will clean, errands you will run, ect... if you look at it all at once it can become overwhelming. Hsing like life is a one step at a time activity. I don't know if you are a christian or not but what I am about to write has CC.........

 

 

 

Jesus said in Mt 6:34

So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

I have learned that this is good advice. I plan loosely for the future but I try not to look too far ahead. I live this day, this hour, this minute.... I have made it a rule of my life not to even gage how hard I think it will be before hand.

 

This year might be hard for you and it might not. Your children could surprise you at how well they adapt and this year might not be so hard after all. Will any of the worry you do now change this year? It might even turn out to be a waste of energy or on the darker side a self fulfilling prophecy that did not have to be. So I guess the long and short of this is don't borrow trouble by worrying about tomorrow, live today, live this afternoon, live this hour.... enjoy the moment or develop the habit of thinking it will get better..... and keep in the back of your mind that nothing worth doing is easy..... when finished the hard work is just a memory and the fruit of your labor is sweet.

[Laura K (NC)]

My oldest is 15 now, and I have to really struggle to keep focused during the day. I used to do a lot less with my kids, and now it's like a real job.

[Rosy]

Wow, Rebecca...what a powerful testimony. I am a Christian and the verse you shared really hits home. I don't know what else to say. Thanks. :)

[Michelle in MO]

Both of my older dd's were doing upper-level math (Alg. 1 and Geometry), so it was a real challenge for this non-mathy type mom to keep up with both of them. My dh was also diagnosed with an enlarged heart last fall; a year ago at this time we were both under tremendous stress due to the physical symptoms he was experiencing, plus the fear associated with his condition. He's since made an excellent recovery, but the whole experience made us realize our vulnerable economic position as a family. I have a college degree, but not a very marketable one. We are not homeschooling this year, and I'll be going back to graduate school to try to become an employable person.

 

Last year was very fulfilling in other ways; Omnibus II worked very well last year, as well as the writing tutorials with Cindy Marsch. This year our dd's are in a private school, and although it's better than the p.s., it's still not quite as good as homeschooling, IMO. I've missed it tremendously over the past few weeks, as everyone has been adjusting to a new schedule. But, it just doesn't seem right for our family at this time.

 

Each year is so very different. Everything "clicked" during our second year of homeschooling; the third year we added in the youngest, so that brought new challenges. Each year seems to take on its own character!

[Kari C in SC]

The end of 7th grade and going on through 8th grade with my ds. By far the hardest year and a half of my life. Homeschooling a know it all pre-teen/teen is no fun at all. My sanity was seriously teetering on falling away. I am happy to say, that ds is 19 now and outgrew his crazy self.