When my son was 8 it was our hardest year homeschooling and I promised myself for the good of our relationship I was not doing homeschool next year… thankfully I broke my promise and continued on. My son is 10 this year and it’s been so so much better and we’ve had a great year. I’m so thankful I didn’t give up during those tough years. (Not that you are I just remembered real fast age 8 lol)

When I feel not enough is getting done with our homeschool, I take a break from our normal to-do lists for a bit and instead do “victory lists “. We write down everything we a Accomplished that day as we do it. Much more satisfying than seeing any unchecked boxes at the end of the day.

I understand where you’re coming from on the socialization side! This is our first year to homeschool (grades 2 & 5). It’s been a huge blessing…but we’ve had to work very hard to continue our girls’ friendships. And I don’t know that we’re doing it well. Just last week my 2nd-grader came downstairs after bedtime crying because she missed her friends. So we had a playdate this weekend! I know very few backwards, shy homeschoolers…but when your kids so only their siblings, day in and day out, they do miss out on those relationships! Yes, my girls are better friends than they’ve ever been…but they need other friendships too. Yes, they have friends at church, but they only see them twice a week. They are used to being surrounded by friends all day long in public school, and this is quite a change for them. We’re muddling through it, one day at a time!

You can read my post about our decision to quit homeschooling at http://lisabrowndesign.blogspot.com/2014/12/from-homeschool-to-public-school.html

My youngest is 2.5 and I have him in a delightful Montessori school a few mornings a week. The grandparents help out some on the other mornings. Getting him out of the mix to get some serious school done with my 8 and 7 year olds makes me feel so much more productive.

My, now 4 yr. old, is the exact same temperment. Very challenging at every step of the day. He is in preschool 2 days and I feel like we try and cram everything into those times and too wish I could create a more flowing “learning all the time” atmosphere in our home. When he is home he gets very angry when we try to do school things. He does not want his own things to do, just wants my undivided attention. One new thing I decided to try is doing more hands on learning type experiences the mornings he is not at preschool like baking, sewing, field trips, going to story hour, craft projects, etc. and then doing more sit down school work once dad is home in the evening and able to either play with him or help with school work while I give him a little one on one time. And I would echo Anne’s sentiments about 3 being tough! But I will say that we have watched our challenging 3 yr. old become more even keeled the longer he is 4. Hang in there!

Thanks for posting this…I don’t feel like giving up, but feel stressed….this is our first year and my 6th grader started out rough then got into the groove and now has reverted back last week. He is taking way to much time to do his studies and its driving me nuts. I to just like Mia feel that if we don’t follow our “schedule” then he/they will fall behind. My 1st grader is loving homeschool, he gets started right away and gets things done. I don’t know if its because my 6th grader spent 5 yrs in public school or what…..