Character building for both!

A whole term has passed now and I've not been blogging at all! I'm so aware of how much I can write about the last term and how much I could bore everyone so will attempt to give a picture of our past term and where we are now. Be prepared for a long one!!!! We've now home schooled for 18 months! I can't actually believe that it has been so long. A couple of folks recently have started asking how we went about home schooling because they are thinking about doing it too. When I reflect on our journey I am quite amazed at our path! If I am being entirely honest if I didn't feel called to do this for S I wouldn't be doing it still! We feel so strongly though that this is the right thing for him that that overides my selfish thoughts to jack it all in! As ever I'm not sure who is learning more! S is clearly learning academically but I feel like I myself have been on a huge journey particularly through this term of what my role here is and how much I need to learn. More on that later. So, this term... Following my op and recovery I am back to good health. S has mixed feelings about this as he knew that that also meant back to more formal home schooling than before. Having said that we have never really returned to quite as formal learning as we did pre op. The jury is still out on whether or not this is a good thing! Rather than describe everything I'll give an overview of our term. Academically we have worked through a stack of work. This term S has almost completed the entire "Year 5" math's workbook! S is naturally quite good with maths. The work is getting harder and so I need to be on the ball and a step ahead of him. He is beginning to see the real practicalities of what we are doing in maths which is good. I wish I'd understood that as early as him! Maths and English are the 2 subjects we try to do daily. I have laid off the pressure of spelling and writing this term as S finds both very stressful. We have continued to read and to work our way through a literacy workbook which in turn I am noticing his spelling begin to pick up and likewise when he makes the effort the little writing he has done has improved. English is going to be a tricky area and with S's various language difficulties I constantly worry that I am not doing things right with him. His memory difficulties really do not help with either maths or english as I can feel that I've taught a concept, mastered it and we can move on and then when we revisit it another time it can be as if we've never done it at all! S is really enjoying being read to. We have read through a lot of books together and he managed to read a whole book to me without paired reading which was fantastic. He tires quickly and I have become so aware of this this term. My sister (an English teacher) pointed out his tiredness and the mistakes that came with the tiredness so I'm taking the foot off the gas a bit and reading to him when he's done a bit. I still love it when he giggles his way through a story. To make a book come alive is such a treat - particularly when I know it is such a struggle for him to understand what we are reading. Lego has become a big part of our week. Through Lego "Build to Express" and other Lego Education we now have specific tasks to build and discuss together, then film and share with our home school friends over "Edmodo" - an educational social networking site. S loves this! It combines technology with lego - 2 of his favourite things. It can easily go off task so I need to stick with him but can see huge potential here! Other than that we have done lots more! We looked at food & nutrition and plants & life cycles in topic work and with his speech therapist he has studied China which he loved! We have also introduced "Inductive Bible Study" to our week. I think in truth I am more excited about this than S but have been so impressed at the material and the way that S can understand the Bible with really very little effort! The material we use has covered pronouns, context, questionning and all sorts of grammar concepts alongside real challenges of the big questions of life. Socially things have not been great! S would quite happily live in the house all day every day and not leave! As a family he is happy to go out but more and more he did begin to withdraw even from his siblings which was a concern. Thankfully this has improved over the past couple of weeks and I actually need to remember how tired he gets. The social isolation I find the hardest thing to deal with in home education. It has highlighted to me how different S and I are in our characters. Whilst I do need time to switch off and to be on my own I thrive by being busy and being with people. S thrives by being on his own! Not so compatible!! I think this term I have tended to overcompensate my need to be busy and be with people and have gone into overdrive which is not ideal either! The more the term has gone on the more I've been aware that the issues are more with me than with S! He's content, happy, secure and learning! What more could I want? He's beginning to want to learn how to deal with things he finds hard and is beginning to verbalise things that he finds difficult. We are beginning to be able to pre-empt frustrations and try to deal with them ahead of the reality. That is great! I need though to be a diligent teacher and mum and settle! I think ultimately though being with my children 24/7 is taking a toll and we haven't yet struck the correct balance of time out for me! I feel really quite guilty if I am not with family or being "productive" and doing some sort of task! I think both of us would benefit so much more if we could work out some way of having a semi regular time out from each other and then appreciate each other so much more. But, the reality is we live in a busy house, with busy lives, with an awful lot going on just now! My husband is very busy and I don't actually feel I want to pile any more onto him as I couldn't ask for a more supportive, loving husband! Everybody lives busy lives these days and the daily juggle of all that goes on is true for everyone - so I feel that my aim has to be to pray that this calling me become more second nature and to be more peaceful! In our own family life just now there are additional stresses going on and I am aware how much they are affecting me and when you are home educating a child it is very hard for that not to affect what goes on there. I am constantly helped by my home ed friends, who do things very differently from me and who are great at keeping me on track and helping me not to be beating myself with a stick about what I'm not doing and instead seeing what we are doing together. With a mix of kids at school though and kids at home it is very easy to worry that you are short changing your child! So that's our term. I hope I'm not overstepping the blogging purpose here but i want to be honest. For others starting the journey on home schooling I think it is important to see the highs and the lows. This term has been a struggle but life is a journey and we will move on! Next term S has asked to learn how a computer is built and made. When I told him I have no ideas he said, "Well mum, we can learn together!" Surely that is a response I could only have dreamt of this time last year! So, the books are ordered and have arrived and we're going to learn together and actually I'm quite excited! With the possible coming of spring/summer and the sunshine I'm optimistic and looking forward to another term! Thanks for sticking with me. It's been a big encouragement to have folks asking after the blog and to know that our Christian friends are praying for us means so much that a mere thank you does not come close to! I promise I will try to be more regular at blog updates!