Let me preface this entire post with the fact that I am fully aware of my PRIVILEGE.  I had the ability (due to time, money, resources, etc.) to homeschool my son this last year.  The pandemic threw everyone under the bus, but some of us could duck and cover, others got run over by both sets of tires and then flung unceremoniously into the ditch. My family was/is lucky and I know that my experience is nothing like what many other families faced this year. We were ALL just doing the best we could with the resources and information we had. All that said, here’s how the last year of school went down in our house.

When the kids were first home from school (those two weeks where there was NO instruction being provided) I quickly and somewhat easily set up a routine for them.  I pulled together a haphazard curriculum that allowed me to essentially teach the same topics and assign work at their appropriate grade levels to go along with it.  Their math curriculum was already completely online and available for free, so I picked up right where they left off and kept trucking forward.  I don’t know if that immediate move to a routine was more for me or for them, but it worked.  It kept EVERYONE on a schedule.  It gave us all a purpose, even when we didn’t know our heads from our tails in any other aspect of our lives.

Once the school had set up their remote learning plan, we of course logged in and participated in everything we were supposed to do.  But let me tell you, it was an uphill battle from the start with my son.  My daughter seemed to be okay, and she could (for the most part) handle the logging in, paying attention, submitting assignments, etc on her own.  My then *almost* 7 year old was a disaster — which is not unexpected from a child that age, but it was TORTURE.  For me, and for him.  He didn’t want to sit and stare at a screen.  He wanted to touch ALL the buttons, ALL the time.  He wanted to play with all the settings.  ALL the time.  He couldn’t log in by himself, definitely couldn’t access the homework or submit it himself.  It was a full time job for me just to sit with him and make sure he was paying attention, getting logged in, and submitting his work.  And for what?  At that time they were only covering math and reading….barely. 

We tried it for about 3 or 4 weeks if memory serves me correctly, at which point I informed his teachers that we would no longer be logging in for lessons.  I would provide the instruction and submit the work they assigned (which was minimal) and we could do other check-ins if they wanted to see him on occasion.  No one knew what they were doing, and the year ended up being graded on a pass/fail scale, so clearly this option would suffice.  How could he not “pass” first grade when it’s pass/fail?  

And this my friends, was the beginning of my homeschool adventure. What we did during the Spring of 2020 worked — once we stopped trying any and all things zoom.  We made it through the school year and I gave him the summer OFF.  Towards the end of summer we did make another attempt at “zoom school” just to see if he had matured a little bit.  To see if maybe, just maybe the distance learning could work for him.  Big. Fat. Fail.  He was only signed up for a coding class which SHOULD have been fun and mostly games for him.  It was still terrible.

Again, in the fall, in a hopeful effort to avoid ACTUALLY home schooling him, I registered him for his second grade year with the local elementary school.  Fingers crossed and hoping that seeing his friends on the screen and having an amazing teacher would help.  It did not.  Again, we tried for a couple of weeks, but it was the same nonsense as the end of first grade.  I tried to find out if we could again skip the zoom sessions and just provide the completed work (again, more attempts for me to not “officially” homeschool him), but that ended up being more hassle than it was worth.  In the end, I withdrew him from public school and began the real journey into homes chooling.  And it was awesome.  He learned a lot.  I learned a lot.  It was definitely an experience, and truthfully, I’m not even sure who learned more!

Home schooling WAS my back up plan for him for the 2020/2021 school year.  And indeed I had actually spent a large portion of the summer planning out our curriculum.  It wasn’t that hard, and again, let’s be honest, it was second grade.  My theory was if he’s keeping up with math and reading enough different types of texts, he’s probably going to be just fine.  In fact, I probably went overboard.  We settled into a similar routine from the Spring and I was amazed at how (mostly) cooperative he was.  He really *believed* that all the things I had him doing were required — I was making it up as I went along, but he was serious about his work.  

Now, it wasn’t all sunshine and roses for sure.  There were days where he fought me tooth and nail.  Like, knock down drag out fits on the floor screaming and whining and pounding on doors and walls (him, not me in case you were wondering).  BUT for the most part, it was good.  And, apologies to those of you who survived the virtual year with a 5-8 year old, he probably learned more than most kids this year.  So much more in fact, I’m guessing he’ll be bored and get into lots of trouble next year while the teachers spend their time catching everyone else up.  Sigh.  That said, he’ll need some catching up on how to behave in a classroom and how to interact with his peers, so there will certainly be important life lessons next year, even if the curriculum isn’t a challenge for him.  Someone please just remind me that I said this when it comes to parent teacher conferences in the fall and the teacher is discussing his behavior problems with me!

As much as I really did enjoy homeschooling — and I think he did too — we are BOTH ready, willing, and eager for him to return to a traditional classroom setting.  He needs it for the social outlet, and I need it for my sanity.  Again, I realize my privilege here.  However, I have poured a LOT of time and energy into this endeavor and it happened JUST when I had started to glimpse the freedom of having kids in school full time.  We all experienced different losses over the last year, and this was one of mine.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy to have been able to do it.  I’m grateful for the lessons learned (for him and me), but I am also 100% sure that I do not want to homeschool forever. 

Our family’s pre-Covid plan was actually to do a bit of traveling during the 2021-2022 school year, with me homeschooling the kids along the way.  If nothing else, this experience has taught me that it’s possible.  This experience has given me valuable information for if and when we decide traveling would be an option again.  Maybe after a little bit of normalcy, a regular school year, and a little brain break for me, I’ll be ready to tackle the idea again…..with a lot more insight than I ever knew I wanted 😉