Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Learning Environments Calling all homeschoolers...give me your pep talk.

I am right there with you. DS5 turned 5 in summer as well. He too attended PreK last year. We did most of the homeschooling when DS5 was in PreK and it worked quite well. How old is your older one? Mine just turned 7. I am still getting used to typing DS7

My main worry is how to keep DS5 busy while giving enough attention to DS7 when he needs it. DS7 and I are both used to the one-on-one situation we enjoyed last year. It will be hard to leave it behind. DS5 and DS7 have different personalities. What worked for DS7 may not work for DS5.

DS6then5 went to public school K last year. I knew it wouldn't be an easy year w/ DS9then8, and he wanted to go to K so I sent him. After about 5months, he had enough of school and was begging to stay home. He finished out the year once we figured out anxiety due to excess noise in lunchroom is what triggered his issues. His teacher actually differentiated for him in language arts at least and while he complained a bit, it wasn't soul-crushing as it was for my oldest.

My issue will be that DS6 will have less work and DS9 will be saying "Why do I have to do more work than my brother?" Also, DS6 stays on task MUCH better than my 9yr old so I hope that rubs off on big brother. On the flip side, DS6 is MUCH louder than anyone and this summer the noise has been putting me over the edge. I will institute an afternoon reading hour where hopefully I can put my feet up and recharge.

Unfortunately, my 2.5yr old gave up naps a few months ago. The past few days she has slept until 10am so I woke her up at 8:30am hoping she'd nap today...nope...she fell asleep at 8:30pm though rather than 10pm.

My oldest is 8, would be 3rd grader if he were in school. I know what you mean about the differing personalities. My daughter pushes both mine and her older brother's buttons often! I joke she may be in a kindergarten classroom by October if she doesn't watch it!

On the bright side, given the right art supplies she will occupy herself for a LONG time. She's ahead of the curve, but I don't really have a good feel for her yet. She's also 9 months younger than DS was starting kindergarten. She's ahead of him in some things behind in others. We'll see!

Back to that happy state of denial!

I truly feel your pain. I'm in EXACTLY the same boat... Sigh...

I've found that Bear does similar things to Wolf when we are doing school. He has his own workbook (lots of scribbles), they do the same art projects and Wolf reads to him for reading time. Science and History are done with both, with Wolf getting more info. He's just part of the experience.

I am in the boat too. My DD3 (just turned)is also around while I am trying to hs DS7. She has already managed to do moon sand on the carpet, color the tv and 2 walls (Thankfully washable marker) and dump out a bottle of shampoo which she claims was her way of cleaning up the marker she used to draw on the floor. And the school year just started. She likes to sing while she doodles and my DS7 likes it really, really quiet while he works so keeping them in the same room is almost painful. No naps here either. I did get out the bouncy ball and have been taking them for walks first thing in the morning which has helped the last few days. Anyways I need all the tips I can get from the pros here too.