I loved homeschooling my children. It worked well for our family. Homeschooling allowed us great freedom and flexibility, We learned alongside dozens of other families who became our friends. My children enjoyed their school years. By God’s grace, they went from special education classrooms to college scholarships. Still, as any homeschooler soon realizes, not every day is perfect.
I remember when nothing went according to plan and it was only August. A few days earlier, a neighbor and I had backed out of our driveways at the same time and crashed, smack dab in the middle of the road.
My car was finally out of the shop, but now our air conditioning was broken. I took my children, Katie and Bobby, to the lake. They found a large, makeshift plastic raft and climbed aboard. It drifted out into the middle of the wide, deep lake. As I watched, a current carried them across the water to the opposite side where they were finally able to swim to shore. Because of that episode, my daughter missed her art class. Later, halfway to basketball practice, Katie said, “Uh oh! My shoes don’t match.”
Things happened to wreak havoc with our schedule.
My children got head lice. One day, we desperately needed a plumber and waited hours for him to arrive. Often, we had a huge mess in our kitchen because a science experiment went wrong. For these and other reasons, it was hard to stick to a daily plan.
Home education required a huge time commitment.
It was a full-time, demanding and unpaid position. I was a full-time chauffeur. I missed lunches with friends and having a paid job. Come February, all of us felt completely burned out. On one particularly tough day, dinner was a bag of corn chips.
Homeschooling required patience.
I sometimes lost it after explaining the same lesson thirteen times. There were things my kids did not want to learn. I even tried to get them to like Shakespeare by reading Hamlet aloud using funny accents. I repeated things over and over again and no one seemed to be listening. I got tired of trying to convince some extended family members that I was not delusional and homeschooling is actually legal. I may have a master’s degree in education, but they thought I was crazy for going against the grain.
A friend asked me how I kept my house clean while homeschooling. The answer was, I don’t. Dishes piled up in the sink and the laundry basket was usually overflowing. Dinner was rarely on the table by 6:00 p.m. As my kids got older, I finally realized I could have them do housework as credit for home economics. When we had a particularly bad day, we could always end school at noon and go out for ice cream.
Looking back now, I actually miss those homeschool days.
If I had it to do all over again, would I spend nine years of my life homeschooling my children? Absolutely, but I would relax and enjoy it more, knowing it would all work out in the end.
(Excerpt from my new book, Treasured and Teachable: Homeschooling with Hope, Joy and Asperger’s)
Treasured and Teachable 