My sister, who is starting to homeschool her oldest son
(4yo), texted me this morning saying, "Public school is looking pretty
good day!" So this post is for her! This is an idea that has
been rattling around in my brain for quite some time. There are lots of
reasons that people home school and often it is a stop gap measure until they
settle down in a permanent situation. Some of us, however, take up
homeschooling as a lifestyle choice and for us it is a marathon not a
sprint. Now lest you think I am a runner, let me stop you right now.
My sister-in-law runs marathons and my sister half marathons and other crazy
races like the Ragnar; I am the un-athletic one in my family. I do,
however, understand the principles of pace. When you choose to homeschool
full-time, it is all about pacing yourself. Over the twelve years I have
been homeschooling, I have watched a lot of super moms give up and put their
children back in school because they were running a sprint. They went
total gang busters out of the gate and made all these super lessons and spent
hours and hours planning lessons and making cute cut outs and planning huge
things. I learned really quickly that if I was going to homeschool long
term that stuff wasn't going to work for me. So after a few times of
falling on my face I settled into a pattern that works for us. We simply
make learning a part of everyday life. We turn off the television and the
electronic junk and we learn. Some days are these wonderful aberrations
of the perfect day and the next day as we struggle through I wonder what on
earth I did different today than yesterday. The answer is absolutely
nothing!! We are flawed and imperfect human beings and so are our
children so why should we think that education should be perfect every day.
So what I have learned with two children graduated out is that it simply
doesn't matter. Good days come and so do bad days and in the end these
beautiful children that we sacrifice to love and nurture and teach turn out to
be just great. We are doing God's work and His hand is in it even when it
doesn't look pretty and in the end He took my meager abilities and mixed it
with lots of family love and helped my children be amazing. So my message
to my sweet sister and all of you who feel like public school is looking pretty
good is simply to hang on. The harvest is great even when the larborers
are few and exhausted!
You are lovely. You are encouraging and funny and thoughtful and resourceful and immeasurably helpful. I would be utterly lost without you.
ReplyDeleteBut it's still hard when your kid reads brilliantly 3 days in a row and then for some reason, he just switches off and suddenly we have to go back to the beginning. I'm sure it has to do with the way kids develop and learn, but for someone who read for 12 hours a day at one point, it's beyond exasperating.
Still. You're right, it is rather like working out. Occasionally unpleasant, sweaty and painful while it's happening, but a lovely sense of accomplishment when it's done.