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| Our “School Table” up until yesterday |
And mom and dad can hardly wait for school to start again . . .
Well, it’s happened, school has started again. But, as a homeschool mom, I have to say that my perspective on school vacations may be a bit different than the folks about whom Mr. Crosby is singing.
Because at least around here, homeschooling is not a schooling decision, it is a lifestyle decision.
I learned the hard way that giving kids an assignment and wandering off to do the dishes or take a shower is a recipe for failure. And lots of yelling. And maybe even hitting people on the head with pencils.
So, it’s hard to get big projects like Christmas baking in on a school day.
But if they’re not doing school work, they will be doing OTHER THINGS.
OTHER THINGS may include, but are not limited to:
- Wrestling in the living room
- Bouncing basketballs in the kitchen
- Attempting to shoot a stop motion movie in the play room
- Hosting a tea party that requires actual tea and cookies, (preferably very small homemade cookies)
- Writing and performing a play about Mr. and Mrs. Claus which could not possibly be performed without sets and costumes
- Creating a self-portrait in Perler beads (update: apparently this is actually possible. I had no idea. Ours did not look like this.)
- Inventing games with so many rules that they could never ever be remembered or understood and in which the actual playing of the game is unlikely to happen because the rules are never quite finished
- General arguing
- General messiness
So, it’s hard to get big projects like Christmas baking in on a non-school day.
But that’s the beauty of being a homeschool family. Whatever it is we’re doing or not doing, we’re doing or not doing it together. I’m not looking forward to shipping them back off to school so I can get back to my “real” life. This is my real life.
Messiness and all!
Yes! At least we're doing whatever we're doing together. That's the joy of it. Being with our families is our "real life." Thank you God.
Trina
I love your point of view here. I think all 9 points of your "Other Things" list is what home schooling is all about…it's just one of the many things that makes home school such a great thing. They're learning how to learn and explore and that will be so incredibly beneficial to them through their life. Your post makes me excited to home school one day (we claim we're still home schooling ourselves…but someday we'll have kids we can home school too).
Oh I needed this today. I just found your blog and was just looking around. Homeschooling is so hard to explain to others it's nice to hear that others understand.
Feel good after reading the story. Good to see you understand things in much detail and pay attention to little thing.