Today is the last day of our series The Great Homeschool Public School Experiment! And today we’re talking about the last thing we’ve noticed since our kids have been in school: unwelcome attitude changes.

It’s no secret that all kids act out on occasion and ours have been no strangers to that rule. We’ve dealt with quite a few tantrums over the years, but we’d settled into a fairly comfortable routine as a family. After our kids started going to school, though, we noticed some sudden and glaring changes.

While we weren’t shocked by these changes, we were certainly less than thrilled. And it’s taken us a while to get back to our original comfortable routine. But we’re definitely on our way now. Here is how we’ve dealt with the unwelcome attitude changes that have popped up since our kids have been in public school.

Image: altanaka / Dollar Photo Club

The Sudden Appearance of Backtalk

We have never really had to deal with backtalk from our kids. After they started going to public school, though, we started to hear it for the first time. I wish someone had taken a picture of my face the first time Tigger said with a sigh and an eye roll, “I didn’t mean THAT, Mom.” I’m fairly certain my jaw was lying on the floor.

After recovering from my initial shock, I managed to ask “Excuse me?” I guess my face showed my abject horror, because Tigger immediately backtracked and rephrased her original comment. Still, Jay and I had to talk with each of the children in turn about picking up disrespectful speech from their classmates. We addressed it every single time we saw it. Every single time. And slowly, it’s loosening its death grip on our household.

Dealing with Irritability

Another issue we noticed was serious irritability. Pooh and Roo would wake up and immediately begin arguing as they got dressed. As soon as the kids got in the van at the end of the school day, Tigger and Pooh would instantly begin interrupting each other. It was awful.

We chalked a lot of the irritability up to the sudden change in schedule and their new homework responsibilities. But any life change is going to bring its own challenges and going to school was a HUGE change for them. Since we don’t have as much time together during the day as we used to, we have to make the most of what we have by sharing family dinners, giving the kids time to unwind individually, and getting them to bed at an early hour. Now that we make those things a priority, the irritability seems to be decreasing.

Have your children ever picked up negative character traits from other kids (in public school or elsewhere)? How do you handle it? Let us know in the comments!

This post is part of the series “The Great Homeschool Public School Experiment“! I really hope you’ve enjoyed reading it! Read about our other adventures in trying public school for the first time!

Welcome to another entry in The Great Homeschool Public School Experiment series! Today, I’m sharing how we had to adjust our schooling and living schedule to make room for public school.

It’s also time for another edition of the Laugh and Learn linky, so be sure to check out our favorites from last week and read some great new posts this week!

Since we’d been homeschooling from birth, adjusting to a public school schedule was a MAJOR event in our family. Honestly, I had forgotten how much of my day revolved around school as a child. During the week, school pretty much consumed my waking hours. It’s only gotten worse since then.

Here’s a look at how we had to adjust our schedule when we took a break from homeschooling and enrolled our kids in public school.

Getting Up Earlier

First, we had to start getting everyone up earlier. A LOT earlier. Generally, we allowed the kids to wake up on their own (usually around 8 a.m.) and then we’d start our morning routine. Fortunately, our kids’ school is located less than a mile from our house. But we still have to get everyone up no later than 6:30 a.m. so that they could make it to school in time for breakfast.

Apparently, they got the most important sleep of the night during that last hour and a half. Because without it, I have some seriously grouchy little ones. Pooh, in particular, has had a difficult time adjusting to rising that early. Sometimes, I actually have to shake him awake.

Reshaping Our Afternoons

I figured that the morning overhaul would be the biggest adjustment, but I was wrong. I had no idea how much homework kids receive these days. Even Roo has homework and he’s in kindergarten.

So, when I pick them up, I bring them home for a snack. (They’re always starving, because they eat lunch at 10:10 a.m. Truly.) After they have a snack, they get right on their homework. I’ll talk more about how we adjusted to the very idea of homework in another post. In general, homework takes about an hour, sometimes more for Tigger, and then they get a chance to unwind before dinner.

What Happened to Our Weekends?

I didn’t even consider that our weekends would be affected by public school, but they are. I had seriously taken for granted how much homeschooling helped me with errands. Now, I have to wait until the weekend to take the kids shopping for anything. Of course, every other person in our town is also shopping on weekends, so those trips now take three times as long. Fun!

If you have kids in public school, I’d love to hear how you tweaked your daily schedule to make room for their assignments. Let me know in the comments!

This post is part of the series “The Great Homeschool Public School Experiment“! Read about our other adventures in trying public school for the first time!

And now it’s time for the Laugh and Learn linkup! 🙂

Welcome to our 15th week of Laugh and Learn – Homeschool and Parenting Linkup. Join us in the fun and help us spread the word! Laugh and Learn – Homeschool and Parenting Linkup will be open by 6 am every Tuesday morning. We will pick our three favorite posts and feature them on the following weeks linkup. Be sure to link your best content and maybe we will pick you! When you link your post with us it will be featured on three blogs.

We pin our favorites to a special Pinterest board for #laughlearnlinkup – homeschool and parenting posts. Check the board out here: #LaughLearnLinkup {Featured Favorites}. It’s added exposure for your awesome content!

Your Fabulous Hosts 😉

Tina

Tina lives abroad in Latin America with her husband and four children. Currently in Mexico, Tina is active in homeschool, travel, and her Bible ministry. She blogs about all of their adventures and more at Los Gringos Locos.

Find Tina at her blog link above, and on the following social media networks:
Facebook
Twitter
Pinterest
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Linkedin
Tsu

Selena

Selena is a writer and a homeschooling mom to four kids, including three with ADHD/SPD. Selena and her husband, Jay, are committed to teaching their children at home and loving every minute of it! You can read about the family’s homeschooling experiences at Look! We’re Learning, written by Selena!

Find Selena at her blog link above, and on the following social media networks:
Facebook
Pinterest
Twitter
Google +
Instagram

Sarah

Sarah lives in Kentucky, USA, where she and her husband homeschool three children. Sarah writes for and about, families with special needs. She hopes to provide support and encouragement to all special needs parents in the homeschool community. Visit Sarah at Dedicated Homeschooler.

Find Sarah at her blog link above, and on the following social media networks:
Facebook
Instagram

Our Favorite Posts for the Week of January 12th:

Written by Sheila at Brain Power Boy

Written by Annette at In All You Do

Written by Brand New Mom at Brand New Mom

Thanks to everyone who submitted a post. Please check out the posts above by clicking on the image.

Now, let’s see your best posts for this week so we can share them as next week’s favorites!

As you all know, we made the decision to put our kids in public school last month. After homeschooling for six years, it was … a difficult transition to say the least. Our kids had never stepped into a school before and their only ideas of what school is like came from TV, so they had no idea what to expect.

Personally, I waffled back and forth on the decision to enroll them for months, so I waited until we were really sure to break the news. It still did not go well.

Here’s the first installment in our series: The Great Homeschool Public School Experiment! Today, we’re talking about how we broke the news of our new public school experience to the kids.

Image: archideaphoto / Dollar Photo Club

Breaking the Public School News to Our Kids

I actually decided to tell Tigger first. She’s the oldest and I thought that if I told her in advance, she’d put on a brave face for her younger brothers. That turned out to be a good idea.

Her first reaction was to cry. She told me she was afraid, because she thought the other kids would be mean to her. I told her that she’d probably have a few mean kids, but that most kids would probably just be unsure since they didn’t know her (and because she was starting in the middle of the year). Of course, fourth grade is a difficult time for kids anyway, so she had a lot of questions and doubts, but by the time we started, she was looking forward to it.

Pooh, our six-year-old, responded with “THIS IS A CATASTROPHE!” (He actually said that…lol.) He really, really, really did  not want to go at all. Ironically, he ended up adjusting the fastest, so go figure.

Roo was kind of nervous, but also kind of excited. He’s in Kindergarten, which is an awesome time to go to public school for the first time. If I could go back to any point in my childhood, it would probably be Kindergarten.

Personally, I had been dreading breaking the news to the kids for weeks. But it turned out that telling them about our new homeschool public school experiment was the easiest part of the entire process. The harder parts were still to come. 🙂

Next week, I’ll talk about the next part of our experiment: School Shopping!