14) What has been the hardest thing about homeschooling? Especially only homeschooling one out of three kids?
Honestly, the hardest thing is keeping shadowkatt challenged and giving her as much social contact as she wants. She’s far, far more outgoing than I am, and while she certainly isn’t isolated, she would prefer to have lots of contact with people outside the family every day. However, she would be extremely bored, academically, if she were to return to public or private school, because she’s working far above “grade level” in pretty much every subject. As it is, she has more opportunities for social interaction than the other kids do because of the flexible schedule she enjoys.
Many things would be easier if we were homeschooling all three kids. We wouldn’t be subject to the tyranny of the school’s schedule at all, for one thing. The kids work fairly well together in many ways—real_pochacco and shadowkatt really compete with each other and drive each other on more, and they are often good about tutoring G in various subjects.
Also, I worry about the other two feeling left out. They get a lot less one-on-one adult interaction than shadowkatt does simply because she’s here so many more hours every day. We can customize her education a lot more, as well. G’s learning style, in particular, is absolutely not compatible with “school” in general. I know they want to be homeschooled, but until we get some custody issues straightened out, we simply cannot do it.
