Having reached the end of the first day 'back to homeschool' after the Christmas holidays, I am feeling surprisingly relaxed. It occured to me that for some reason Mondays are usually our best day in terms of homeschooling. Perhaps it is the break after the weekend (or in this case, the Christmas break), perhaps it is the start of a fresh week, I'm not really completely sure of the reason why but most Mondays seem to go well.
The boys tend to stay focused and get all their planned school work done and I don't feel stressed (probably because they stay focused and get their work done).
In contrast, Tuesdays often seem to be the most difficult day of the week. One of my friends pointed out that it could be that expectations for a Tuesday are higher both in the workplace and in terms of school / homeschool - having eased back into the week on a Monday, perhaps we expect to be going full steam ahead by Tuesday?
One of the things I am most pleased about today, is another homeschooling friend whose child has similar problems to Josh in terms of sensory issues and ASD recognising that if they had been going back to school today, then life would have been SO much more stressful.
Thinking back to a couple of years ago when this would have been the first day back at school - I can recall all those horrible feelings. Knowing there would be difficult days ahead and not being able to do anything to help. Seeing Josh really stressed in the run up to returning to school. Going through all the social stories of trying to help him understand playground politics and yet knowing that he would still be left out or sent indoors for not knowing how to play nicely with other kids. Being called over by the teacher at the end of the school day to have all of the negatives about Joshua's behaviour listed to me - in front of Joshua! - I had honestly thought that teachers would have been the first to know about the basics of behaviour management and if they were going to be telling me things like that in front of Josh, it should have been finding a positive and mentioning it so that he learns that a bigger fuss is made of the positive stuff rather than the negatives.
Even if Tuesday does turn out to be difficult, I am going to remain glad that at least it is not going to be as difficult as that.
Aaah, glad to hear it went well, and without any of the stress. I will be watching your blog closely, in case home schooling is something I have to opt for in the future - I have to admit the thought scares me, but you just sound so calm about it that it sounds not so difficult after all!
ReplyDeletethanks for your comment Steph. It is a really long story how we got into homeschooling (which i may well blog about one day - but it is still brings back a lot of painful memories so i've held off doing it yet) but we were basically left with no choice but to homeschool as things were so bad for J at school. I have to admit i was terrified that we wouldn't know what to do or that the boys wouldn't be learning what they 'should' be but within a couple of weeks of starting, the results spoke for themselves: J a lot calmer, D had learned to read and understand maths too (neither of which he had managed to learn when at school). It is not necessarily the right thing for everyone or to do all of the time (i know D likes the idea of trying school again in future) but so far, for us, the benefits have far outweighed the disadvantages and the boy have had so many opportunities and experiences that they would otherwise not have had in school. Hope your girls settle into the new term quickly. xxx
DeleteI know what you mean about Tuesdays: a lot of my SAHM friends were euphoric yesterday when their kids went back to school and now the January blues have hit and they are missing them. For me I'm feeling calmer, especially as yesterday was awful with my son having a horrendous meltdown before school, of course he was fine once he got there xx
ReplyDeleteSorry to hear about the meltdown. hope things settle down quickly and that he won't be too anxious. xxx
DeleteI know what you mean about get stressed before school. Luke was like that on returning to school yesterday but the meltdowns when they got home was explosive
ReplyDeletesorry to hear that Wendy. Hope things settle down. xxx
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