“They”(I don’t know who the elusive “they” encompasses) say when you pull a child out of school and start homeschooling, you should give them 1-2 months for every year they were in school to deschool–that is, get their spark and desire to learn back.

We stopped school last May at the normal end of year, and just didn’t go back in August.  During the summer, I let Emily veg/play some video games/watch tv to her little hearts content, and we started officially homeschooling at the end of August.

As i watched the months go by, I waited for something….anything to show me she was going to become self motivating again.  To see that DESIRE to learn that she had 2 years ago, before public school beat it out of her.  Nope.  Every day, she would do her school work, but only if I told her to.  I haven’t seen her try to learn extra about anything.  She doesn’t ask for specific books from the library.  Doesn’t ask to research something on the internet.  Good little public school soldier that she is, she does the work she is given, no more, sometimes trying to get away with doing less, regardless of how capable she is of doing and learning so much more.  She will sometimes express an interest in something, and when I ask if she wants to get a book and learn more, she passes.

I resigned myself to the guilt of having allowed this to happen, and that it wasn’t going to change.  She had lost all motivation.  Learning was a chore that had to be done, not a lifelong adventure and challenge.

Then, slowly, her spark started coming back.  Very very faint at first.  It started with enjoying history and the Usborne book she had for her Ancient History class–she spent an afternoon reading the entire book.  Took it in the car with us wherever we went so she could read it and look more. 

In January she happily started her Singapore math, book 3B.  3B is a lot more hands on–measurements, map reading and such.  She took it upon herself to measure everything in the house.  She would finish her math exercise in 5 minutes and supplement herself by applying the concepts learned to things around the house.

This week, the girls were bickering about the television(yes, there can be bickering when the only channels they get with kid shows are PBS!  I didn’t know it was possible either).  I was having a stressful day, and made a grand pronouncement that there would be NO TV PERIOD for the remainder of the week(this was Tuesday).  Their usual routine is to watch cartoons for a little while when they first wake up in the morning.  Oh, the week has been a Mommy’s delight:

• On Wednesday I woke up to them playing the card game WAR together while sitting on the heating vent.
• On Thursday they woke up and pretend played together until it was time to start school work.
• On Friday, Emily woke up, grabbed her school books out of the bookcase, and immediately began doing her seat work.  I told her she didn’t have to do it yet(we usually begin school around 8:30 and it was before 7:00)but she insisted she wanted to get it done, so she could play more later.

The spark is coming back!  I am thrilled, and doubley thrilled because when it comes time to start homeschooling her little sister, Emily will be setting a positive example with her desire to learn.  Counting from when Emily left public school, it has taken 8 months to get here.

Oh, and we have a new rule in our house:  1 hour of TV a day during school days, from 4:00-5:00pm.