Around the time "normal, " children start heading back to school each year people start to ask what it is I plan to do with my kids when they reach "school age." I'm very use to it and have almost come to expect it. Afterall, homeschooling takes up a large portion of our lives and I understand the natural curiosity.
During this time I get to reflect on that question myself and study my heart to see if I really do want to continue homeschooling when the government says I have to formally teach them. I see all the Facebook posts with photos of people's kids headed off for their first day of school and reading about the parents' bittersweet feelings of excitement from getting rid of them and sadnessnes from seeing their little ones getting bigger and I think "I will never get to experience that."
I find myself asking all the "what if," questions and feeling like I will miss out on the great stay-at-home-mommy reward. I may never do anything for myself or have a career again. I may never finish Lydia's painting or Delores' quilt and I will be stuck with my girls all the time and never have a moment of peace! Of course, this is an exaggeration but that is what goes through my mind when I have to think about teaching them EVERYTHING they need to know and I have that overwhelming feeling of "am I really going to be able to do it?"
On top of that there are a lot of doubters and judgemental people who really don't care. They just want to let you know that they don't believe you can do it and really don't understand why you would choose to homeschool when public school systems are so awesome now and it is just so much easier to leave your kids' lives in someone else's hands who juggles 25 to 30 kids at the same time 5 days of the week in a building that strangely resembles a prison (Did anyone pick up on the sarcasm?). Those are the people who's mother's brother's aunt's cousin twice removed knew someone who was homeschooled and they were just so far behind and couldn't even graduate so they assume every homeschooler is like that and your poor kids are going to turn out that way too. Even though your kids are presently "above average." (Tell me exactly how that is logical reasoning).
After working through my feelings with my more emotionally stable partner and he reminds me of why we chose to do this in the first place (see "How we got here," for a good list of those reasons) there is no doubt in my mind that my first option will always be to homeschool our girls. When the girls reach a mature enough age I plan on giving them the choice, but until that time comes the only way we would choose a different path is if there is an extreme medical emergency, I die, or God tells me that this is no longer what He wants for us.
And let me just take this moment to say that I think no less of people who send their kids to public or private schools. Every family has different needs and I think its great that those options are available.
Yes, it is still scary and yes, I am still self-conscious but there are tons of resources out there for parents who want to take this homeschooling thing seriously and as long as I take this one day at a time and do what is best for our girls we will be just fine. And since all my readers are understanding and supportive, when you meet one of those doubting, judgmental people do me a favor and encourage them to do a little research on the benefits and success stories of homeschooling since it is very questionable that the person they are referring to even existed. That would help me out immensely when curiosity peaks again next fall.
No comments:
Post a Comment