I need advice, ds does not like school

[kiloyd]

My ds is 9 and we will be doing Preparing in the fall. He is smart but if he doesn't WANT to do something it will be a battle. He does not like any of the sit down and think stuff, like math, cursive, and English. I really like HOD, we've used it 2 years now. He likes the science and history reading pretty well. Likes the science experiments.

Once he decides he will do his math or writing or whatever he does in well it's just getting him to do it. I've thought about relaxed schooling , I sort of do. I've let him pick the schedule. I would say that the first half of our year went pretty well. Feb, and Mar. there was lots of "I'm not doing it!". In April or so we began alternating math and English each day so he didn't have to do both in one day.

I have recently tried the timer and he liked that. I said "I'll set the timer and you need to be working on your math for 15 min.". I worry though if I do that, what do I do if he doesn't finish it? I guess i could do 15 min of math in the morning and 15 min in the afternoon.

On frustrating days my mind goes to thinking it may be time for public school. But I really don't want to do that. I don't think God is leading me that way. The answer, I think, is to change up school. Of course he may surprise me and show more maturity this coming school year. He did make a jump from 2nd to 3rd grade.

Any tips?
Thank you,
Katherine