I do. It’s true. I homeschool for a lot of reasons.
I think where I am now in homeschooling is a nice place to be. It wasn’t always this nice.
So far on the homeschooling timeline (and I’ve only been on it a mere 5 years now) I’ve hit my stride. I’ve homeschooled long enough to have actually taught more than one child to read (the fear in most first-timers’ hearts), I’ve acquired enough materials to wing it if I have to, and I have enough knowledge (about my kids, learning styles, and my own teaching style) to know what will work and what won’t. I have enough time in to know that if something doesn’t work I can chunk it. I have enough time in to know not to buy a whole set of anything, but rather to buy just enough to try it out, and then buy what we need as we go – what works today for this child might not work tomorrow for that child.
I also embrace seasons. I now know that the hard season of laying on the couch, sick as a dog pregnant, handing out worksheets is a season. It will pass. I know that I generally like our books and curriculum we’ve chosen right now and are progressing along nicely. But I also know when it gets stale and we’re bored and we’re itching to not do anything then it’s time to do a unit study – lapbooking, delve into a good book and notebook it, or just take an unscheduled break. I’ve been doing this long enough to know that I’m not a schedule kind of person when it comes to many children and teaching them. I can’t pick up a curriculum plan that says you must do 3 hours a day, 5 days a week for 6 weeks and then take a break. We won’t make it. We won’t be able to check off all those subjects exactly. Some math takes us longer to “get”. One child gets very ill for a week and falls behind. It just happens. So we year round and take our time and aim for the greater goal of teaching them all they need to know before they graduate instead of the micromanaged smaller picture.
Though I don’t necessarily like that I’m a holiday slacker, I like that I’m not freaking out anymore about being a holiday slacker. Like the fact that we didn’t celebrate Valentine’s Day (because we were preparing to go on vacation the next day), but then left up our Valentine’s banner right through St. Patrick’s Day (which we also celebrated with a parade the Saturday before, but then completely neglected the actual day).
I love that I know I can tailor any curriculum that my kids and I like to fit us and our needs. Like our new Rod and Staff language arts. I briefly struggled with why can’t my 9 year old write 7 sentences without having a meltdown and then Brenda talked me down, reminded me it wasn’t shocking that a 9 year old boy is still having fine motor skills issues and just to write it (or have them write it on the board). I remembered that I want him to get the concepts, I don’t need him to be bogged down and overwhelmed.
So I wrote the sentences from the book on the board (with an extra from me as an example sentence), split them between the two boys to correct, and turned them loose. That night I looked over at our picked up dining room and smiled at the blackboard. I like that we learned about Amenhotep IV and Nefertiti. I like that the sentences we corrected were about God and His creation. I like that there’s a sun hanging over our table. I like that I have the alphabet and old leftover holiday banners up over the blackboard.
I like that Supermoon occurred the year we’re studying Astronomy.
I like that arts and crafts and pajama pants are a part of our days.
I just really like homeschooling.
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