Throughout most of the year, I considered our decision to homeschool constantly. Was I teaching them well? Was I missing something? Would my patience hold out until summer. However, the main question I asked is what would we do this next school year. I dragged my feet through the final weeks of homeschooling year one. How in the world would I do it again?
Mike and I decided to add the girls to a charter school waiting list in order to have another possible option. Throughout the summer, I secretly hoped I would get an email that they had been accepted into the school of our choice and I wouldn't have to make any decisions, nor would I have to face the tedious attempt at finding appropriate homeschool curriculum. As the days passed, I accepted that it looks like another year of homeschooling. I prayed about it . . . nothing. I checked my email again . . . nothing. Nothing told me to move.
This week I had the opportunity to meet with a friend who has been teaching her children from home their whole lives. She graciously offered advice, let us borrow curriculum she used last year, and handed me a few books to read on the subject. Home Grown Kids by Raymond and Dorothy Moore gave me an entirely new perspective on the subject of homeschooling.
"Education isn't books and charts and tests nearly so much as it is meaningful living, and no one can provide this better than good parents . . . a warm, responsive, and reasonably consistent parent with little formal education can, in an hour and a half or two hours a day, easily outdistance the teacher who has twenty or thirty kiddies in her coop."
This brought to mind the small window of time we have with our children and quite possibly the misconception that schools are the best place for our children to learn. I realize it is unconventional these days and the thought of this task is monumental to even the most confident of parents. But someday I will look back on these years and laugh at myself, smile and know I did the best I could.
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