Wanting to Quit When You Just Got Started

Confession time: My favorite aspects of homeschooling are the research and the  planning. The actual implementation? Not so much.

My perfectly laid plans don’t often go as planned.

Not because I’m not organized and not because I don’t have the proper materials, but because little and not so little humans are involved. A lot of days they mess up “my” plans. I don’t want to stop 25 times within 10 minutes for bathroom breaks, or drinks, or squabbles over who is touching who, searching for lost pencils or any other emergency my kids can come up with.

Homeschooling can be ultra efficient, except when it isn’t. I often feel like my life is constantly trying to herd cats. I’m the ring leader in a circus of monkeys that don’t have much interest in listening to me. My voice becomes the teacher from the Peanuts.

It’s hard not to feel completely frustrated and think, “why am I doing this?”. It would be so much easier to shuttle them out the door in the morning for the bus and then welcome them home again in the afternoon with freshly made cookies (because, what else would I do all day, right?)

Why keep going? Why not just quit?

Homeschooling is as much about me as it is my children (except when it’s not). It’s a daily reminder that our day can’t always be “my way or the highway”. My kids don’t need a task master with a long list of to do’s greeting them each morning. While my kids do need routine, structure and boundaries, perhaps sometimes I can go about it differently.

Some of My Homeschool Truths

1. Home is the best place to nurture interests and grow passions.

2. Home is the best place for a child to work at his or her own pace.

3. Home isn’t just for special needs/gifted students. It works for all of those “average” kids too!

4. My kids have time to be kids.

5. My kids learn survival skills, such as laundry, how to make a meal, how to clean up after themselves (this one is still a work in progress!), grocery shop and just basically how to behave in public.

6. This is entirely selfish – I would miss them! Crazy but true.

7. Everyday we can attempt to live a life of faith and what feels authentic to our family, not what someone else tells us is important.

Notice my list does not include a scope and sequence of concepts to be met. Academic skills ARE important. Extremely important. But it isn’t necessary to do Algebra in 4th grade and memorize poems in Latin in Kindergarten. If that’s your thing, great, but you aren’t a failure if those items aren’t highest on your priority list.

As a homeschooling mom about to send my oldest out into “real” school as he likes to say, mostly to push my buttons! These truths are even more valid. As my 9th grader is getting talks about stress management techniques, my 6th graders are planning their day to make sure they have time to ride bikes and go swimming.

Remember YOUR homeschooling truths. What’s important to YOUR family? and it will help you get through even your toughest days.

A little chocolate and a nice glass of wine doesn’t hurt either