Today has been an empire building sized tearfest at our house. Shaun has been having growing pains when it comes to becoming a responsible "adult" (growing tweenager). He wants the priviledges that come with growing up, but not the responsibilities. Didn't we all go through that?
Homeschooling has been an incredible blessing, but a small curse in that we are having invent the best way for him to be taught. The freedom to invent our own school has brought up things like unschooling vs schooling, relaxed vs structured, workbooks vs discussion, books vs internet, etc. We can do anything so we are a little overwhelmed at not doing everything. Does he learn best in the morning or afternoon? Should he do chores first or after? Do we set time limits or assignments? Should we follow what the public schools are studying or follow what interests him. What do I if he doesn't want to do anything?
All these things kind of came to a head today. Add in a healthy dose of hormone induced hysteria and you can pretty much envision a really long day!
There is also that battle for me between asking too much of him and usually, not asking enough. His low self esteem makes him terrified of failure. Not just big failure but little everyday failures can send him into a panic.
On top of all that, he is headed to his dads house in a few days and will be there for a few weeks. He loves his dad and really wants to go, but it still causes anxiety for both of us. His dad is not the most empathetic person, so any emotional outbursts on Shauns part are not well handled. Clint loves him, but feeling for others is not his strong suit.
Hopefully, the next few weeks will go well. Just waiting to see.
