Luckily I have had some homeschooling experience with Gemma and Bryce in the past, so we weren't left in the dark there. I must say though, that juggling 3 is a bit of a different story. Gemma and Bryce are old enough to get on with their work on their own, but as Murphy would have it, there comes a time - every morning - that all 3 want my attention at exactly the same time. I would definitely say that I am not the most patient home schooling mom, and when those moments happen, the handle flies off the door.
The first few weeks were quite rough, as we tried to have all 3 children in one room, but this came with some serious disadvantages.
I feel it’s my duty to share something here. I hate, hate, hate to admit….but I can clearly see now that I have, in the past, been 1 of “THOSE” parents. A parent that could never believe every teacher that would send a letter home in red pen, saying how disruptive my child was. “Not MY child, he’s an angel.” I’ve told Bryce I’m sharing this story, so I’m in the clear there. However, if any of his teachers are reading this, I am very sheepishly apologising.
I have come to see my children in a slightly different light. I think Bryce always means well (lol), and he is very intelligent (I have to be very careful with my words here :-) ), but my gosh, the boy gets distracted so easily. He continually needs to fidget with something, and if I don’t sit with him he will do 2 lines of work in an entire morning. I can see why his teachers find him distracting to the rest of the class. I think they are secretly quite happy that he won’t be returning to school this year.
I banished Bryce to his room one morning after I was fed up, and the pictures below show how we found him. He was, at least doing his homework, and he had some company with him.
Life in Bloemfontein is always on the go, with hardly a moment to help the children with their homework. We have been able to use this opportunity to help them in areas they struggle.
We found a system that seems to work for now. Gemma works in her room, and asks Michael if she needs help. I sit with Bryce, making sure he sticks to the schedule, and Thabo plays all morning. He knows he has to do 30 minutes of work before he can have any sort of screen time, so after lunch he does some of his homework. He is extremely imaginative, and can spend hours on his own. He enjoys playing lego, and I’m afraid he may be contributing to deforestation, as he draws and draws and draws. We do try and recycle paper as much as we possibly can.
So, overall, the schooling is going well - I think we’ve ironed out all the issues, and I have come to believe that routine, routine, routine, I think is even more important than location, location, location.