Richard R RamosRichard R. Ramos. Founder of Parents on a Mission,Youth on a Mission, and Latino Coalition for Community Leadership

The Emotional Rollercoaster of Starting Homeschooling When Learning Turns Into Tears

19 May 2026 · 1 min

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1:07

In this personal narrative, the speaker recounts the transition from informal kindergarten and preschool homeschooling to a more structured first‑grade approach. Expecting "real learning," the parent purchases textbooks, workbooks, and a Little Ties desk, feeling excited about a formal school‑like environment. Within two weeks, both parent and six‑year‑old child are crying daily. The child can only sustain 10‑15 minutes of focused work before walking away, leading to repeated interruptions and emotional strain for the parent. The account highlights the gap between the parent’s expectations and the child’s developmental attention capacity, illustrating the emotional roller‑coaster of early homeschooling.

Chapters

And then when I started homeschooling, we were doing fine for a little while for kindergarten and preschool, and then for some reason when I was— we started first grade, in my mind I thought, okay, now we're gonna really learn, right? It's time for real learning. I don't know what we're doing before. We're still learning, but I didn't think about it that way back then. So I got all these textbooks, workbooks. I got one of those Little Tikes desks, you know, the little plastic ones that had a little lift-up desk, and it was so cute. It had a little school with a little red top, and I'm really excited to get down and start learning. And 2 weeks later, we were both crying every day because I had a 6-year-old. And then we sat down on the first couple days, and I'm like, buddy, okay, we're gonna learn. He's like, okay, whatever. He does a little bit, he does about 15 minutes, and then he gets up and starts to walk away. And I'm like, "Hold on, buddy, wait, we're not done." He's like, "Oh, okay, I didn't know." So he sits back down, he does a few minutes more, maybe like 10 more minutes, and he gets up and starts to walk away.