Home Sweet Home-School

I started homeschooling AJ today. He started at Independent School in the fall as a first grader. All summer long I kept talking to him about going to the "big school." He said he'd rather not. I assured him again and again that it would be fine. I met with his teacher soon after school started to make sure he was doing fine and was placed in the right grade. She said he was doing great, learning lots, and making friends. The teachers and kids just loved him.

So what went wrong? He continued to not want to go. He started to become obsessed about the time. Whenever we went somewhere, he'd ask "What time is it?" "What time will we be home?" He'd ask this over and over. The seven hours away from home every schoolday seemed to be taking a toll. In addition, AJ's anxiety about going to school increased. On every school night at bedtime, his stomach was knotted up. Same thing on the way to school. He wouldn't cry or get angry, but would sadly sit in his seat clutching his stomach with a dismayed look on his face. By the time he got out of the car and got in line, he was smiling and talking to the other kids. I began to see that he was coping. Coping very well. Just like he has coped with all the other situations into which he has been thrown. But I don't want him to cope. I want him to thrive. I could see that his feelings of security were wrapped up in being at home. So I began to make arrangements to homeschool him.

AJ is actually very fun to teach. He is internally motivated to do a careful job with his work. The main challenge is getting him going in an activity. Once engaged, he wants to do the job well. We had a good first week. We were at co-op on Monday and at home on Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. On my work day, Thursday, AJ went to Grandma's and then to Sue's. As much as he loves both Grandma and Sue, he still wanted to be at home on Thursday. It's going to take a while to get this ship turned around and to re-establish that he is safe, even away from home.