I'm kind of broken here in a way. The pandemic kind of put everyone behind and home school kids really aren't an exception to that since many were affected by catching COVID.

I love having the privilege to home school my kids. It's never easy, though, and has come with more challenges than I could possibly imagine.

I'm a bit stuck here because my husband is going to start working again, and we're hoping he continues to get better with his illness and is able to keep a full-time job again. We need many prayers and such on this as it's been almost a year since he last had a full-time job. Only a few more months until he starts working again and it's bittersweet.

He's also enjoying the school he's at and he's wanting to send our oldest to the school he will be working. It will be nice that he'll be on campus somewhere if there is a big issue and he'll know what's going on at the school so it's a plus. I'm on board with testing it out, but I'm worried, too...keeping her focus is a struggle, getting her to finish her work is a struggle, helping her to understand material is a struggle, and boy - she's a pro-guesser. She will guess until she can't guess anymore...even though I can offer help and explain in many different ways to see what she picks up on the most. She still likes to guess and hope it's right if it gets her out of doing the work.

I am thinking her younger sister is a big distraction to her school work because she likes to play with big sister. Even if I give the little one something to do or I spend one-on-one time with her while the oldest does a few homework problems, my oldest still likes to call her over and whisper, "Go bring me this toy/that toy." or, "Let's play tag!" Anything to get out of work.

It's really no wonder that I'm getting gray hair that seriously sticks out gonk

As if sending her to a school outside of our home isn't hard enough...and not an easy decision, but my husband is thinking that she needs to be held back, too. I feel like...the worst failure. I want to fight it since it makes me feel like such a failure. It might be right, but I will see if the school has a placement test or some benchmark guidelines to figure out what grade is right for her. I hate for her to be a 2nd grader starting the 1st grade. She already looks much older than her age so this doesn't feel like it helps. Although, it might be better to start her in the right grade earlier rather than later on and then her keep getting behind...

I was never home schooled, but she reminds me of me so much. I had a hard time with math to start and was never that great at it going through school...I still have a hard time with higher level maths, but thankfully I got the basic stuff down. I remember guessing on math, cheating on math, and ultimately only got 2 years of math done in 4 years of high school because I kept failing, it was hard for me. She is better at the basic stuff than I ever was, but the way she guesses and tries to cheat with the answers in the back of the book is something else.

I also struggled with reading as early as the 1st and 2nd grades. I thought I was such a good reader since I received such great feedback in class like, "Good job!" and, "That's a great reading habit to go back and read the word!" so I was so blind sided when I was thrown into resource. Felt so betrayed xd but I wasn't in there that long, but was eventually thrown back in resource in the 4th grade and was so ignored. It was a computer program with a story and reading comprehension questions, I memorized every story and answer on that software. When I asked the teacher what I'm supposed to do since I know all of the stories and answers she wouldn't sit with me and try something new, she'd just say, "Do it again." It was stupid and never helped. I kept hearing the, "She'll read faster one day," or, "One day it'll kick in." It never did. I'm a slow reader and always have been. Some days I can read faster than others, but my speed is awfully leisurely.

I definitely won't be sending her to public schools here because of my experiences within those schools so a charter school might work nicely.

Still feel like a complete failure, though...but I guess it's worth a try to get her into a classroom environment and see if she'll take a teacher more seriously and where she can't try to call her sister over every two seconds. Although, I'm thinking she might hate it. She hates doing the work and will do anything to avoid it...thinking she'll wind up being home schooled yet again, but perhaps time will tell... sweatdrop

Anyone else switch from home school to sending their kids to a school outside of the home? How was your experience?