I am Matthew, and I am ten years old. I have received public education from age one until now. This year, my parents decided to homeschool me. At first, I was not sure about homeschooling, and was worried about not having many friends. Now, I really enjoy homeschooling. I see many friends each week through various activities. I would like to share my feelings through the transition from public school to home school.
I loved school. The teachers were very nice, the lessons were very fun, I got to play with my friends every day, and I got to use new technology.
My academics were exceptional among my peers. In math, I was selected to write math contests. In science, I got the highest mark in a large project. In English, my reading was good, but my writing and grammar were just average. My mom noticed this, and made me write weekly essays that my sister would edit. My sister was extremely frustrated with my writing abilities, and gave up on me. My mom ransacked Google for grammar booklets, and soon found one that suited me. I started working through the third grade grammar booklets to learn how to write sentences.
Since my academics were fairly good, I felt that homeschool would be easy, and that I would have lots of free time. I did not fear anything until I read an article on the Robinson curriculum website. This article said that if I did not understand something, I would have to think it out by myself until I got it. My parents were not allowed to help me. After this, I felt that homeschooling would not be easy, but that it would be a little challenging. I did not even know if I would like homeschooling, but I was willing to try it. My dad promised that if my mom and I went crazy, I would go back to school.
I started homeschooling this September. It was a rough start for me.
The first math diagnostic test amazed me. I did not expect the test to be so hard. At school, I was taught division for numbers up to two digits, but this test had division questions for three-digit numbers! These questions were harder than the math contest, and I felt like crying. In fact, at the end, I actually did cry. “What if I don’t make it?” I thought. Anyways, after writing the test, I checked my answers and I handed it to my mom. I got six questions wrong, and if I made another mistake, I would have failed!
My first science class also surprised me. I felt like the lecture on rock formation was supposed to be for high school students. It was so detailed that I was stupefied. Also, I had to take notes. At school, we would take notes, but there was not much information to write down. For homeschooling, you must take notes if you want to remember anything that you learned. Speaking to the wall was another strategy that I learned in the ABC course by Gary North. This is a good strategy to remember class material. You have to take a chunk of your notes, and explain it to the wall three times. You do this for all your notes. To be honest, I only lecture to the wall one time, but it has been very helpful.
Another part that scared the wits out of me was the prospect of writing two essays each week, one for History and one for English. This was very hard to keep up, but I persevered.
In the first month, I started school at 8:00am, and worked all the way until 5:00pm. I felt like crying almost every day. I thought I would have a painful year.
In the second month, I started getting used to the work. And then, something amazing happened. I began to feel that I actually learned something, and that the work was very fulfilling. Also, I became quicker at my lessons, and had a lot of free time.
Because of homeschooling, I have time for catechism and daily devotions. Every morning when I wake up, I do my daily devotions, and every Tuesday my pastor comes to my home to catechize me.
I also have time for a lot of time for many activities, including piano, swimming, tennis, biking, sledding, reading, and walking my dog. I attend Funday Club, and started learning to program with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.
Moreover, I enjoy spending lots of time with my mom. I also enjoy the delicious afternoon tea, which is only taken away if I get less than a 90% in my math lessons. Now, I almost always get more than 95% in math!
Homeschooling is the best!
I loved school. The teachers were very nice, the lessons were very fun, I got to play with my friends every day, and I got to use new technology.
My academics were exceptional among my peers. In math, I was selected to write math contests. In science, I got the highest mark in a large project. In English, my reading was good, but my writing and grammar were just average. My mom noticed this, and made me write weekly essays that my sister would edit. My sister was extremely frustrated with my writing abilities, and gave up on me. My mom ransacked Google for grammar booklets, and soon found one that suited me. I started working through the third grade grammar booklets to learn how to write sentences.
Since my academics were fairly good, I felt that homeschool would be easy, and that I would have lots of free time. I did not fear anything until I read an article on the Robinson curriculum website. This article said that if I did not understand something, I would have to think it out by myself until I got it. My parents were not allowed to help me. After this, I felt that homeschooling would not be easy, but that it would be a little challenging. I did not even know if I would like homeschooling, but I was willing to try it. My dad promised that if my mom and I went crazy, I would go back to school.
I started homeschooling this September. It was a rough start for me.
The first math diagnostic test amazed me. I did not expect the test to be so hard. At school, I was taught division for numbers up to two digits, but this test had division questions for three-digit numbers! These questions were harder than the math contest, and I felt like crying. In fact, at the end, I actually did cry. “What if I don’t make it?” I thought. Anyways, after writing the test, I checked my answers and I handed it to my mom. I got six questions wrong, and if I made another mistake, I would have failed!
My first science class also surprised me. I felt like the lecture on rock formation was supposed to be for high school students. It was so detailed that I was stupefied. Also, I had to take notes. At school, we would take notes, but there was not much information to write down. For homeschooling, you must take notes if you want to remember anything that you learned. Speaking to the wall was another strategy that I learned in the ABC course by Gary North. This is a good strategy to remember class material. You have to take a chunk of your notes, and explain it to the wall three times. You do this for all your notes. To be honest, I only lecture to the wall one time, but it has been very helpful.
Another part that scared the wits out of me was the prospect of writing two essays each week, one for History and one for English. This was very hard to keep up, but I persevered.
In the first month, I started school at 8:00am, and worked all the way until 5:00pm. I felt like crying almost every day. I thought I would have a painful year.
In the second month, I started getting used to the work. And then, something amazing happened. I began to feel that I actually learned something, and that the work was very fulfilling. Also, I became quicker at my lessons, and had a lot of free time.
Because of homeschooling, I have time for catechism and daily devotions. Every morning when I wake up, I do my daily devotions, and every Tuesday my pastor comes to my home to catechize me.
I also have time for a lot of time for many activities, including piano, swimming, tennis, biking, sledding, reading, and walking my dog. I attend Funday Club, and started learning to program with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.
Moreover, I enjoy spending lots of time with my mom. I also enjoy the delicious afternoon tea, which is only taken away if I get less than a 90% in my math lessons. Now, I almost always get more than 95% in math!
Homeschooling is the best!