Another thing that I envisioned when thinking about homeschooling was going to be him sitting at his desk and me at mine while I hung anchor charts on the windows, running our small room like a typical public school classroom. Also, another idea that disappeared into the ether of good intentions. We pull two chairs together at the dining room table and work side by side. There are times when he is working when I leave him to do his independent work while I do some laundry (or some other random quick housework chore that needs to be done) in between lessons, but we mostly sit together with me working in my journal and him in his. I keep a journal for each of the subjects that we study (science, math, reading, writing, social studies) so that he can see that I am willing to do the work with him (this was something I did as a public school teacher as well - b/c if the students don't see that you are willing to do the work, then they are less likely to have buy-in). Right now we are working on with discussing what we are studying, me writing it in my journal and him copying it from that, but I know that with practice, he will be writing on his own. He's only in the second grade after all.
Some of the things that we are still working through are his listening abilities (there are moments when I am no longer teacher but a mother and he gets all whiny and pouty) as well as limiting distractions. I have to keep the dining room picture window closed b/c he tends to end up staring out of the window. I have to have miniature brain breaks in-between lessons so that he has a chance to get up and move/dance/wiggle/sing/jump. I also have discovered that I have to incorporate drawing and/or coloring into pretty much every lesson for almost every subject (even math). Since he is a tactile/visual learner, it helps for him to be able to draw what he is thinking or learning. Math manipulatives have also been really fun in helping him focus and stay on task.
I know that we will continue to have bumps along the way, but I like to think of myself as rather adaptable (a vocab word from our science lessons last week) so that I can continue to adjust and move our school so that it helps him continue to grow and become a wonderful human being.