School Is a Bad Word

I don't know what it is, but my daughter thinks anything that has to do with school is bad.  Computer games that are school related get old with her very quick.  I've tried a whole variety of games, like the Jump Start games.  She wants nothing to do with it.  It's all too hard and inspires lots of fighting.  It's like she knows educational things are supposed to be boring, no matter how much I try to make them fun.

Things are incredibly different with her brother.  Her brother loves school stuff.  Once I get him playing educational games I have to evict him from my chair so I can have my computer back!  He loves watching educational shows on television.  He could sit and learn about anything all day long.  We can play games, work with letters, all of that for days on end without stop, and even though he would be cranky with exhaustion, he would still beg to do more!  He loves school.  He loves books.  He loves anything that encourages him to learn!  He's all about learning!  I used to joke that he likes books more than toys, but I think it's actually true.  He does love books far more than he loves toys, though he still loves his toys.

My daughter has never been one for learning things that look like work.  She'll ask a million questions about cars.  She'll want to know absolutely everything about how babies are born.  She wants to know how things happen, but when it comes to reading and math, that's just too much effort.  I've tried everything from rewarding her for being successful to being hard on her when she's just giving me problems for the sake of giving me problems and everything in between.  It's been a constant struggle no matter what I do.

A part of me is tempted to just go on cues from my kids.  I'd be doing a lot of work with learning with my older son because he loves it.  I think I might burn out long before he does!  My daughter, however, I'm afraid she'd never want to learn anything practical.  I mean, I know she's learning how to read, but how much of that is from our frustrating lessons and how much is that from her own work?

I guess I'm still trying to figure out this whole thing.  It's so frustrating!  I've had so many people tell me that homeschooling kids learn because they love learning.  I'm seeing that with my son, but my daughter is exactly the reason why people told me homeschooling would be better, because kids who go to school develop that resistance to learning.  For years (before I met some of the awesome people I know now) I thought that this sort of thing just didn't happen with homeschooling kids unless they were in a rigid school-like environment.  I started to get down on myself because something must be wrong with me because I can't inspire my daughter to love reading and learning the way I do, the way her brother does.

Well, I guess this is just going to be part of the journey.  I need to set myself to be ready for the challenge.  We'll see where it goes from here.