I sometimes complain about and lament the fact I did not start homeschooling our children when they were younger. This would have allowed me to better learn how my children learn while the lessons were easier. However, I suspect this would not have really mattered because children have a nasty habit of growing up and changing along the way.
My middle son is not doing so well with self-directed studies, which kind of surprised me. Between him and his older brother, he is the more disciplined of the two. His older brother loves the alone time, but is more likely to drift and get distracted. My middle son needs a schedule and is more focused, but he also needs interaction. In fact, he is here in the room now talking to me about ballistics and the level of reality in virtual reality games. But I digress.
As I said, one son pretty much internalizes everything and can learn mostly through reading and watching. The other, needs to talk it out. Since I have been graced with a COVID/Economic opportunity to spend more time at home, I am increasingly becoming the other side of all those conversations.
More importantly, I am able to give him that more active learning he needs. He now usually does his math in the same room as me. We use Saxon/DIVE math so he is still mostly self-directed, however, by sitting behind in the same room with him, I can monitor for stall points and he can just turn around and ask me questions (or discuss VR game strategies) whenever he needs.
But not all classes are the same. Physical Science he still works well on his own. For Cover Story, he prefers to watch the videos and do the reading on his own, but then work more closely with me on the assignment.
History however is another problem. So I now have “The Book of the Ancient Romans” sitting on my desk because I am about to become a History Teacher.
But some traits remain. When he was nine months old, he started running; not walking! To this day he still needs to run and move. Thanks to friends, we may have finally found the perfect sport for him; Fencing. But that is another story…
