Saturday, there was a column in The Columbus Dispatch written by a mom who does not think she has what it takes to homeschool.
“I don’t think I have what it takes: the patience of a saint, an organizational style not based on procrastination and the ability to find a No. 2 pencil with an eraser anywhere in the house.”
Oh no! I don’t have any of those things either. I guess I shouldn’t be homeschooling. No one told me that I had to have the patience of a saint. I fail that one. And no procrastination? Gee, I fail that one, too. I wonder how we got through the first year. And pencils readily available at all times? There were days that the kids had to do their work in crayon!
“I couldn’t teach my kids and retain my sanity, too.”
I’m supposed to have my sanity?!?
What I want to know is why these prerequisites were not told to me by the Vermont Department of Education?
And I just had to laugh at her notion that the kids have to get up early to do homeschool. One of the reasons I wanted to homeschool is that my kids hated getting up for school. They are up by 7:00 now, but when they are teens, I bet that they will really benefit from the extra sleep.
My typical day doesn’t include as much TV as her imagined one did, but I am willing to bet that hers wouldn’t either. At least after the first week. There are days, though…
If you are thinking about homeschooling, don’t believe the myth that you need to be a perfectly patient and organized mother or that you have to get up early and undergo a rigorously scheduled day of book work. True, some families fit that description. I do not know any of them, but they do exist I am told.
In my family, we view homeschooling as a way of life. Learning happens all of the time, not just during set hours. We do have certain written work that must get done during the year, but it gets done when it gets done. Why spend a beautiful sunny day doing book work when there will be plenty of rainy or snowy days that we will not mind staying in?
A lot of what we do for “school” is done on a whim based on what we want to do. The subjects that are more structured, like math, they devour when they are in the right mood. They might work through two weeks of math in a single sitting and then not touch it for another week or two. That’s okay. That is why we homeschool.
You might not like the unstructured way we do it either. It might seem too unordered. That’s okay, too. It’s your home; it’s your family; it’s your homeschool. Do it your way!
Just don’t get too attached to your sanity!
(Hat Tip: Homeschool Buzz)
