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Posted in School
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This is my response to Kelly's post about her Homeschool Experiment. These thoughts have been bubbling in my head for a few weeks so I will try to finally get them down. What did I underestimate when I started our homeschool journey? How hard it would be to do errands and housekeeping and all the things you might think are easy for me because I am home all day. The thought of taking 6 kids (my 4 + the 2 I babysit) with me to the grocery store makes me twitchy. Not to mention the fact that there just isn't time-- we do school, eat lunch, do a little more school, and then there always seems to be somewhere to be: Scouts, theatre, science lab, soccer, whatever. How many plates/cups/spoons/forks a family can dirty in a week when you eat at home 3 times a day. And we have no dishwasher. I often say I don't mind teaching my kids; in fact, I love it. I just wish I had a janitor and a cafeteria lady. Seriously, being home all day every day creates alot of mess. How heavy the responsibility of educating your children is. Frankly, some days I feel like a total failure. The buck stops here, ya know? When I see a gap in my kids' education (and don't think you won't, it's inevitable) there is no one to blame but me. Conversely, I also underestimated How incredibly supportive my husband would be. Guess who picks up the slack and grabs bread or milk or spaghetti sauce on the way home from the office when mama can't get it all together? Guess who folds laundry and irons his own shirts? (oh the horrors-- his mama is mortified by the thought of him doing his own ironing. But he is way better at it then me anyway.) Now I read of all these other moms with 8 or 12 kids who grow their own wheat and bake their own bread and sew their own clothes. I am sure that there is some hidden formula that I have not yet discovered for Getting It All Done. In the meantime, I am so grateful for a postmodern husband who knows how to sort coloreds and lights. How much we would learn about each other by being home together ALL! DAY! EVERY! DAY! I hear moms dreading summer vacation and counting down the days until the "freedom bus" returns, and I am saddened. It is truly a delight to be able to interact with my kids and watch them grow and learn. I love that they are best friends with each other, even if it's only from a lack of other choices LOL. I love that I am the one who gets to see the light bulb go off in their eyes when they get a new concept. Heck I am even glad that I am the one getting frustrated and yelling at them when they are being goofy or taking 5 hours to do one half of a Latin lesson. Better me than someone else, and I am not so foolish as to think my children couldn't make a teacher lose their cool once in a while. How glorious the privilege of educating your children is. Spidey-man said it best. With great privilege comes great responsibility. I offer you that with great responsibility comes great privilege. No one knows the heart of my child better than me. Who knows what can set Spenser off in a tizzy like I do (a writing assignment), or how to talk him down. (small manageable steps) Who else understands that Reed can read 20 books a week, memorize her part in a play along with every one else's and still not remember what a pronoun is, even though we have been doing pronouns since first grade. It is just part of the wonder that is her. I love reading Julius Caesar with Spenser and dissecting every word because it's more fun than reading the watered down version. I love how they laugh at me when I get carried away quoting The New Colossus or The Chambered Nautilus. (And how they groan anytime the Colossus of Rhodes is mentioned because they know what is coming.) I love the fact that Reed (who has had World History but not American yet, and ancient but not modern) relates historical events to plays she has been in and books she has read. I was trying to explain why Corrie went to jail in The Hiding Place. She couldn't understand why a good person went to jail. I was explaining the Nazis and Hitler and the Jews, and a light went on-- oh, she said. You mean like in The Sound of Music? Exactly, my dear. Some would say she is behind her peers because she doesn't know American History yet, but in my eyes, she is light years ahead. Is homeschooling hard? Without a doubt. Do I wish I had a day off now and then? Absolutely. Would I trade it for anything in the world? Not on your life. This post is part of the Carnival of Homeschooling at the Front Porch |
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