Homeschooling is a Bad Idea

School...now that makes sense. I mean, I have things that must get done in order to live a sanitary life. Dishes, clothes, bathrooms, floors, on occasion must be cleaned. Air conditioner filters need to be changed, the cats need their shots, dinner must be prepared...At the moment my lawn looks like the boogey-man could rise up from the grass and weeds at any moment because there has been no time to mow or weed back there. Once in a while I need to sleep. and shower.

So I hear that it works like this--in the morning the kids walk down to the corner, jump on the bus and go to school. The teacher gets all her plans for the day done. The lunch ladies serve food.  The principle  manages disorderly conduct, and the secretary deals with all the interruptions. The kids come home relatively clean, supposedly better educated, and richer for their experiences. I know, right? Sounds like a great deal. I mean, we did it and turned out okay (don't laugh). (Oops...I meant principal. I would edit the error, but the comment below from a kind anonymous reader who felt the need to correct my spelling deserves to be noticed)

This homeschooling life is balanced on a very thin thread, I find. Whether we start math at 8:30 or 9:00 can affect the entire outcome of the day. If something comes up that cuts into lessons for too long on any given day it can throw off the whole week. I get so sick of thinking what we're going to eat for lunch that I could scream sometimes. I look in the laundry room and realize that the wet clothes have been in that washer for days--so much for my water-saving washer--how do you get rid of that smell again?

But there is this thing that I find I am so addicted to that I can't consider the alternative. It is the time that we spend face-to-face, side-by-side, heart-to-heart reading, looking up, cutting and pasting, discussing, watching...praying. Today my kids and I started our day by talking seriously about 9/11, an opportunity that I would not trade for anything. It was not on my "agenda." Later they jumped into their science lesson with both feet, and while I read they made collages of swimming creatures to put on their science notebook covers. One of them learned how to receive a compliment from the other without boasting, and how to ask forgiveness for careless words when they were done. They learned how to be ready to serve when the neighbor had to take her sick son to the e.r. and we watched her two other little ones. A blogger I follow has a title description on her front page which reads "living. lovely." And I think "of course." It just makes sense.

And while all the little frustrations seem to add up at times, there is just nowhere else that a kid can do his physical geography lesson outside in the sun with good friends, wearing an army helmet for no apparent reason without someone noticing. Really, not one person even mentioned it...

Maybe this isn't such a bad idea after all.