I gotta be honest. I love homeschooling. The flexibility. The slower pace. More time with my kids. The ability to throw in a load of laundry at 11 am. It’s pretty awesome. And that’s what I tell people when they ask me. But I also used to say it with the caveat that “I’m not sure if my kids love it.” I realized they were picking up on it, and it wasn’t helping because kids feed off whatever emotion you’re feeling. So now I just say it’s amazing, but I leave off the part about my kids maybe not loving it. Because the truth is, I don’t always know what they think. And right now, I’m just hoping they feel the same way about it as I do.
Because the truth is, I don’t always know what they think.
My 10-year old asks me if we’re going to go back to regular school for middle school. “We’re going to go back, right?” Like I’m not really serious about doing this long-term, right? It’s that “You’re kidding me, right?” attitude that has me a little nervous about how they really feel about all this. And it’s hard not to measure myself up against those homeschooling moms who seem to have it all together, with kids with drive and a vision for what they want out of life. Kids who love learning and want to spend hours dissecting a flower. That’s not me. That’s not my kids. But I believe that what I’m doing is still better than what they would be getting in school.
Of course as I’m writing this, my 8-year old is sitting next to me trying to write a summary of a short newspaper article that we’ve been butting heads over for over an hour. But it’s still better. At least I think so.