In case you’d not caught on yet, I officially started homeschooling Elijah (my four-year-old) in December. At “worst case scenario” he’ll end up being ahead as we have three semesters to finish Kindergarten before I have a conniption fit (he’ll be five in July). With this has come the desire, nay, the need, to regularly attend the monthly meeting with other moms who homeschool. It’s funny but we were regularly with that group in high school after our own stuff had ended and many of these women have gone from being “my friend’s mom” to my friend.

The meetings aren’t necessarily all about homeschooling, more like a support group. Monday night was longer than normal but I learned more this time around thanks to more discussions about actual homeschooling. Even at the “extended” part of the meeting where we hit a restaurant that’s open 24 hours a day and often end up there until after 11, I asked a lot of questions and the fears that I had about one thing or another were dispelled. (His left-handed-ness, the time we spend on lessons each day, skills he should have before finishing Kindergarten, etc.)

I mean, I’m certainly no stranger to the homeschooling. I was homeschooled my last three years and my three siblings even longer, I’ve tutored before, at both junior high and college levels. So you’d think I’d know what I was doing but I guess I still have questions and doubts. I do think we’re on the right track though, so I won’t worry; doubts are to be expected.

This week already we’ve done quite good with the schoolwork. We even did a bit of a science lesson yesterday starting with going through his baby book, showing him the ultrasound pictures and then moving on to another book about babies developing. I think he’s getting away from that submarine idea. However his newest thing is insisting that the babies are dead before being born. Crazy ideas this kid gets, and who knows from where?

And today especially, in Math, rather than work so closely with him, I explained what he was to do then left him to complete the page. For the most part he did well, especially well with the activity of selecting only certain groups of x amount, etc. A little bit less on the identifying of two matching items versus one different. For example, there were three coats, two identical and he was to color the two that were the same. He colored all three. He knows same and different but for some reason had trouble identifying which of the coats was different. But when, on the other page, he had to color the one item that was different he got all of those right. Maybe it had to do with the fact that those items were a car, an airplane, and a truck as opposed to the groups of coats, scarves, and hats. He’s obviously more interested in the vehicles and was more enthusiastic to color them.

At church they’ve started a new thing, a second class for the little kids. If you’re unfamiliar, what we used to have, and many places have, was Sunday School where the kids had an actual class followed by “extended session” during church services where they were basically just babysat. Well our church has taken to doing a second class during that time. He gets a new teacher and everything and it so happens that his new teacher is also my Bible study leader. Monday morning she was telling me how she has a class full of boys and has had to change the lessons to be more active because the boys don’t want to, of course, sit still. She was then saying that Elijah is very smart and that he always remembers the past week’s lesson. He won’t give it up right away, she says, but if she presses him a bit, he will finally answer… without stopping whatever it is he is doing. This further confirms how I felt about that preschool thing: he may have been running around constantly but he soaked up everything they taught. Did I mention he can say the Pledge of Allegiance?

Okay, so not to brag on my kid but I think he’s smarter than I am. He most certainly has an amazing memory, I don’t know where he gets it. I think that the next 18 years are going to be quite an adventure. Both of us will learn a lot and I am going to be challenged with keeping him challenged. But I know I can do it!