I’m finding this back to school thing is pretty chill for us
right now in the homeschool department.
That’s a blessing since, even as a certified teacher, I had doubts about
my capabilities as a teacher to my own kids when we decided to start this
journey. However, I’m finding at this
stage it’s only as hard as I make it.
Basically, if I don’t get in the way of everything, it’s usually smooth
sailing.
We never completely implemented the modified summer schedule,
which means we’ve never quit going to school for at least four days a week this
summer. There is no big gear up for the
school year; we’re already living it.
The biggest change for us will be that all those off-for-summer children
will evacuate our beloved libraries and we will have them back until next
summer (that sounds so awful and elitist, and I don’t care because the day in
June when I walked into the library and there were 400 hundred people there and
the twins, who were both suffering major social anxiety at the time, lost their
crap for the world to see and hear, I cursed summer break forever.)
I anticipate our biggest challenge at this point being
balancing my extros with intros. It’s
obviously early to know for sure how the kids are going to land on the
extrovert/introvert chart, but there are definite trends right now. Wren and Asher(at least most of the time Asher)
will greet the world with open arms, talk to strangers, and just generally draw
energy from other people. Sammy and
Eowyn, not so much. Sammy is fine once
you get him to where he’s going. Sunday
School? Totally awesome once you get him
there, but he will tell you the whole way he doesn’t want to go. Same with AWANAS, the park, the library,
anywhere that is not our house. And once
he is finished being social, he’s finished.
He’s not rude about it, but he will just kind of find his own space and
hang out. That works for him. Eowyn, well, she is still in the middle of
all out social anxiety, and it is hard.
We’ve seen improvement over a period of weeks, but then last weekend she
lost her mind because a kid she didn’t know walked near her. I had to leave the library with her flailing
so the other kids could hang with Dennis and finish what they were doing. It’s frustrating. I’m not sure where this comes from, but it
makes planning for outings difficult.
My goal is to have the outings and events for the week
planned in advance, and then try to do it.
Sammy and Eowyn will have to manage, and hopefully have fun, while we
make new friends and try new things.
Wren and Asher will have to be content with some at-home de-stress time,
time their other siblings desperately need.
We’ll see. In every
test I was ever given at all the jobs I had, I landed right in the middle of
extrovert and introvert. I’m talking
dead center. I am either all about
socializing and drawing energy from others or I don’t want another human being
within five feet of my personal space. It
really depends on the day you see me.
So, I empathize with all the kids.
Relationships are fun and hard and quiet is nice, but so is a big
playdate with lots of people. We’ll make
it work. And if not I’ll just build a
perimeter and go hide until we have to try again.
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