Any Homeschooling Moms

Hi everyone, are there any homeschooling moms out there? I am facing a major dilemma now and any advice would be welcomed. I started homeschooling my DS (6th grade) and DD (2nd grade) in August of this year. They were in public school. I have enjoyed schooling them. I am a former teacher myself and loved the fact that I would be doing something that I enjoyed, especially with my kids. Now, I fear that I may not be able to devote the time to them when the twins arrive next week. I am considering, sadly, putting them back in school on Monday, at least for the rest of the semester and restart homeschooling next school year. They are devasted of course. Your thoughts?

 

Here is the great thing about homeschooling, you set the schedule. I won't lie, you will probably be functioning on auto mode for the next couple of months and when you come out of this crazy daze that is call post twin birth, you will wonder what the heck happened the last few months. If you need to, take those couple of months off. You can easily make them up come summer. If you feel you must continue some educational learning, I would think there are a few things that your 6th grader might be able to do on his own even if it is just a math page a day or reading biographies of his favorite people. Then get him to help your 2nd grader with anything she might need help with.

If nothing else, you can start teaching life skills as you are going to need their help. Heck having 2 kids that age at home with twin infants might be a life saver for you. The older can hold one while you tend to the other when needed and the younger can entertain them while you are getting things done around the house.

 

My boys are only 4.5, I don't have any other kids, and I haven't started official homeschooling yet so I don't how worthy my advice will be . However, like PP said, I would keep them home (especially since they seem to want to be with you) and do what you can. They can do some stuff on their own, maybe you can devote an hour when DH comes home at night, do a little when the babies are napping. They should be a big help to you!!! How nice to have the flexibility to set your own schedule. If they go back to public school, you will need to deal with getting them up, dressed, out the door, getting them back home, deal with homework at night, etc. That takes a lot of time too on top of trying to do it with newborn twins. Not to mention the germs they will bring home with newborns in the house.

JMHO !!

Good luck whatever you decide!

Mendy

 

Wow! This is what I've been missing out on... a support group. So glad I came across it! :woohoo:

I am so isolated here and I really should change that, but with this twin pregnancy, I haven't made the effort to meet other homeschool moms.

You both make perfect sense. They can be great helpers and they already have been. I also did not consider the extra work I would be putting on myself to get them ready everyday and help them with homework. Did you know that 6th graders have tons of homework and massive projects? I would be setting myself up for some major stress. Not to mention I would have a 2 year old to contend with along with the twins...and I'll be breastfeeding.

I am just now noticing this subforum (once my post was moved) and will utilize it more often. This is great!!!

 

I think most parents dealing with PS don't realize that their kids spend as much time doing homework once they have already been at school for 8 hours, than my kids spend on an entire school day. Unless we are having a :headbang: kind of day DD is done school by 2 and that's with a long break between her morning work and her afternoon work (she does reading assignments while the rest are in quiet time).

 

When I was pregnant with my twins everyone asked if I was going to put the older kids into PS. It actually seemed like it would be more of a headache. All the schedules, homework, more laundry (school clothes and play clothes), etc. And quite honestly, while education is very important, I'm homeschooling for a lot of other reasons, too. I'm raising responsible, capable adults. Getting to experience caring for twin babies is a lot of real-world education! Just think how much better off they'll be when it comes time for them to have families of their own! And plenty of "schooling" can happen while doing all this. There's some basic biology, time management, etc. But you can also do verbal spelling, story telling, reciting math facts, while rocking babies. Let them help you write thank you notes, and get in their handwriting practice and some language arts. Can they calculate how many diapers you'll go through in a year, or what that's going to cost? The first little while, school won't probably look much like what you're used to. But it can still be educational, and be a great time for your family, as well.

 

I have to 2nd everything that's been written. What a GREAT opportunity for your kids! They will learn so much! I don't have anything new to add so I'll just say "ditto".

 

I just came across this post and I'm curious what you decided to do and how it's working for you.

 

Our twins are only 2 y.o. but I recently bought the Robinson Curriculum v.2.2 CDs on Ebay for $100. It's supposed to be a self-teaching curriculum for grades 1-12, according to their Web site. They recommend a math program (Saxon Math) to use with it, but I haven't gotten that yet. Anyway, I like the reasoning behind it (see the Web site), and figured that for $100, even if I pick up just a few tips, it's a pretty good deal.

 

YAY for this forum!! It wasn't here [that I know of] when I had our twins just a short 18months ago =) I had 2 elementary aged that first year and 3 this past year. Juggling is a nice word to describe it, but what really preserved our sanity was having the lesson plans all done before they were born and the big kids being able to know what to do and be in control of when it got done--I handed them their lesson plan for the week [or month] and they marked stuff off as it got done. And they were only 2nd and 3rd graders, but we worked that summer on it, took a few months off and did a lot of reading, games, flash cards, ''life skills'', etc. This year I also went with Teaching Textbooks Math for my oldest--no more grading for me, which really was bogging me down and is a genuine lifesaver. We do science and history together, so one-on-one isn't needed for that.
Really, it CAN be done, and support as well as planning is KEY. I have a wonderful homeschool support group close by also and they helped with meals at first too.