I’m always amused when I talk to many of the moms I know who aren’t homeschoolers. It’s like to their mind I am superwoman because I homeschool and am still relatively sane. I’m sure you’ve heard all of the reasons for not homeschooling, and here are my two reasons I almost didn’t homeschool:
I can’t homeschool because I need my space
I’m a bit of an introvert. I like my time to have quiet and peace. I like to immerse myself in a new book and not talk to anyone until I’ve finished it. I don’t want to share my food. I like to create projects for long periods of time and not worry about the needs of another human being.
These wants can work if you’ve got an introverted husband who also needs his space. He too will disappear and read his book for long periods of time or work obsessively on a computer game.
This does not work with young kids or homeschooling. It can lead to homeschooling bad habits.
But, there are two things I can think of to combat this:
1. Even if my kids were in school I would still not be allowed to read or just do anything I wanted, instead, I would be cleaning the house, working on things for church, or cooking. Yes, I would have more “free time,” but I would have other responsibilities because the kids were not home.
2. This is the more important reason. God uses my children to refine me. If I had my way I would sleep in until 10:00, then I’d spend 2 hours playing on the computer, and finally, I’d start slowly working on things that I should have been doing on my own. I’m naturally lazy. God does not intend for us to be lazy. All you have to do is read the book of Proverbs to see God’s views on laziness.
3. These children are my responsibility given to my by God. I am called to train them and disciple them. It is an awesome responsibility, and this is part of why we homeschool to train them up.
So, for me at least, God uses homeschooling to grow me and to help grow my kids.
I can’t homeschool because I’m a mess
Sadly this really is what my desk looks like. I am either insanely organized or not at all. This was probably my husband’s biggest concern when we talked about homeschooling. I have a tendency to get really excited about a project, get started, and then let it fall apart as the next big new project intrigues me. Yes, I am a bit ADD. Oh, look a chicken! (Future Ticia 2024 says I am now officially diagnosed ADHD, so yes, very ADHD)
But, I am growing from this. I have to be able to answer the question “What are we doing today?” I have to plan things. And that is slowly happening.
I’ve figured out how to make my disorganization work for me. I make general plans. I don’t plan for a certain day. My lesson plans don’t say on Monday I will cover pages 127-132. Instead, I broke down each subject into manageable bits and wrote down activities we could do to go with each day.
That works for us.
Slowly, I’m putting simple systems into place that are making all of us more organized. I’ve planned our meals for the week. I don’t usually stick to it, but it gives me something to go from.
I’ve started creating places to put things. With clear labels. Big huge labels. Now, I’m working on training the whole family to put stuff in those places. It’s slow. I have an entire family of anarchists, and most of them are right-brained creative people. Poor Jeff is the only analytic in the family. Everyone else is coming up with a project to do. It makes for a bit of creative chaos, but it all works out.
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