Reactions of My Other Kids

Pamie poses an interesting question. How do my other children respond to me homeschooling their sister?

Background: Lulu is in Gr 3 - currently homeschooled for the grand total of 1 week. ;-) Hooligan is in Gr 1 and Honey is in Gr 6 - both currently in regular school.

My IDEAL world looks like this:

All my kids at home with me. Learning together as a unit.

REALITY looks like this:

Hooligan loves school. He is an active, social and busy little boy. Staying at home with his mom and sisters is not something he is keen on doing At All. I also harbour my own fears of teaching a child so young - I feel insecure about instilling the basics of reading, writing and maths. I am willing to re-look this when he reaches intermediate phase if it is something he would like to do.

Honey loves school although she is feeling sidelined right now. She would like to join Lulu and I. I would LOVE this but I do feel that she will ultimately be unhappy. She will miss her friends. She will miss the buzz, excitement and the whole school experience. I tread a fine line with her as it could appear that I favour her younger sister and exclude her. I do have a plan in place to remedy this.

At 1pm today I plan to go and see her ***teacher. I plan to take her out of school for approximately a month next term. We will see how she  {and I} copes and if she feels she is ready to 'give it all up' we will consider bringing her home for Gr 7.

The thought of having all three kids at home with me every day is overwhelming to say the least.

Taking baby-steps is how I am going to get to my destination. The goal is clear, the path undetermined as yet.

*** edited to add: spoke to teacher, fully supports my plan to the extent that she will supply me with all content required to school from home as I see fit. I am extremely fortunate that our school is completely supportive and encourages informal education, in fact, partners with many of us.