I stopped by the local vet clinic the other day to pick up a few needles from my neighbor, the vet.  She asked me who watches my children when I come into town?  My anti-homeschool radar sounded and I said well my husband is there....(we live on a ranch so of course he is always there, somewhere).   Then she said no, she meant "Who TEACHES your children when you are in town?"   I thought that was a silly question but I told her they were playing and doing chores.  She gave me a lecture about ....that is what is wrong with homeschooled children.  They are not made to stick to  a schedule and therefore they don't learn what is like to work a job. 

Of course my mind was thinking....what if they are self-employed, ranchers like their father or a stay at home mom like me.   So I pointed out to her that the local school starts at 8:15 and dismisses at 3:43 but they get recesses and spend 5-10 minutes lining up for this and that and taking turns going through lines and wasting oodles of time waiting for everybody to finish so they can move on to the next thing....and that when you homeschool, you get the learning done in much less time.   She continued that it was wrong for me not to have them schooling for 8 set hours a day. 

I wanted to really get into a debate over this but since she is the only vet around that I can get my Rx for the animals from...I can't alienate her...not with the price of gas.

It took me by surprise.  I know it shouldn't have bothered me but it set my guilt-o-meter going sky high thinking about the last two weeks of Oct and first two of November when I was 1000 months pregnant and couldn't "teach" very much...and the next couple of weeks when I was dealing with 4 birthdays, Thanksgiving and a huge winter storm.  Or the fact that almost all of my time was spent with the new baby and the 2 year old who wasn't ready to give up his position as the baby.   I looked at the "schedule" I had set up and felt guilty that we were not on track.   But then my 11 year old came in an told me we need to make a run to the storage because the "done" books were overflowing out of the boxes. 

I may not have taught as many classes as I had planned but I did teach my son the love of reading and the love of learning.  I have spent endless hours at library sales, rural school auctions, used book stores, websites and eBay finding good quality books for him to read.   So what if he is in 5th grade and doesn't know the capitals of the states.   I am 43 years old, the mother of 7 ages 23- 4 months.  I worked as a waitress, went to college, worked at a bank, worked at the State Library, worked in government purchasing, worked in governmental, private and corporate accounting, did outside sales, did phone sales, worked in a hay field, did daycare, and now I do bookkeeping, raise meat goats, lead 4-H, coach soccer, homeschool and other things and I have never once needed to know the capitals of the states since I left elementary school!!!   He is advanced in his reading, English, Latin, History, and Science.  He is right on track on Math and he is responsible, reliable, honest and caring.  He loves Our Lord, his family, his country and all people.  I'd say  he is getting a pretty good education.