Happy Anniversary to Me!
As of this year I have survived completed 10 years of homeschooling! My flagship student is now in grade 10, meaning, including kindergarten, I have just entered my 11th year. Gosh. I'm going to be homeschooling longer than it took me to graduate... hmmm.
I remember just getting started, thinking that surely someone would step in and save us from this terrifying prospect. I had no intention of homeschooling. I had many intentions of hiring a tutor and travelling the world. Worst case I would homeschool for a year or two until such times as a tutor was realistic. Apparently a tutor was then and continues to be, highly unrealistic. I would still hire a good private teacher in a heartbeat.
The obvious question is why did we not just take advantage of local schools when kindergarten rolled around? Well, it's got to do with my delusions that life is what you make it and you can make it something great - or at least more of what you want it to be - if you have a vision and the gumption to do it. I've never been one to want the status quo; I always want things to be better than average. At least in the areas I deem important. I knew what I didn't want: estranged children, learning problems, exhausting days, driving here and there and everywhere, junky peer pressure, being trapped by "the system", learning what we are told we must learn and when... and that was just school!( I have volumes of ideas about the rest of my life.) So I decided I would do something different. Like hire a tutor! Why not? Because it's outrageously expensive that's why not.
The next best thing to a tutor in the purposeful creation of my family life was homeschooling. And here we are - in the midst of creation. I can't say it's been easy, but it has been rewarding. I can't even believe I'm doing it. I am NOT the sort of person to home-educate 4 children. I'm really not. Every once in a while I catch a glimpse of what this looks like from the outside in and I laugh out loud. Like I did yesterday in the kitchen, prompting my 2nd born to demand what was so funny. What? Me? A stay-home-mom? Homeschooling? Bwahahaha. It feels like I've been wearing someone else's clothes for a decade.
I hope this other person doesn't want their clothes back for at least another decade, when that Jr. Preschooler in the pink jammies graduates!
I remember just getting started, thinking that surely someone would step in and save us from this terrifying prospect. I had no intention of homeschooling. I had many intentions of hiring a tutor and travelling the world. Worst case I would homeschool for a year or two until such times as a tutor was realistic. Apparently a tutor was then and continues to be, highly unrealistic. I would still hire a good private teacher in a heartbeat.
The obvious question is why did we not just take advantage of local schools when kindergarten rolled around? Well, it's got to do with my delusions that life is what you make it and you can make it something great - or at least more of what you want it to be - if you have a vision and the gumption to do it. I've never been one to want the status quo; I always want things to be better than average. At least in the areas I deem important. I knew what I didn't want: estranged children, learning problems, exhausting days, driving here and there and everywhere, junky peer pressure, being trapped by "the system", learning what we are told we must learn and when... and that was just school!( I have volumes of ideas about the rest of my life.) So I decided I would do something different. Like hire a tutor! Why not? Because it's outrageously expensive that's why not.
The next best thing to a tutor in the purposeful creation of my family life was homeschooling. And here we are - in the midst of creation. I can't say it's been easy, but it has been rewarding. I can't even believe I'm doing it. I am NOT the sort of person to home-educate 4 children. I'm really not. Every once in a while I catch a glimpse of what this looks like from the outside in and I laugh out loud. Like I did yesterday in the kitchen, prompting my 2nd born to demand what was so funny. What? Me? A stay-home-mom? Homeschooling? Bwahahaha. It feels like I've been wearing someone else's clothes for a decade.
Here's a vintage shot of my first year with all 4 students - Homelearning Year 3!:
I hope this other person doesn't want their clothes back for at least another decade, when that Jr. Preschooler in the pink jammies graduates!
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Thanks for constructive and encouraging comments!