Now, it's not like I was naïve enough to really think that homeschooling would result in such an idyllic home life. As I said, it was just an image that came to mind. And even though I knew it was unrealistic, it was still what I was hoping for.
Of course when I actually began homeschooling it turned out to be messier and much more difficult than I expected. When we first started, my two youngest children where three years and fifteen months old. Both were able to entertain themselves for fairly long periods of time, but like most small children, rarely did so when their Mom needed them to. Some of those homeschooling books that I read had suggestions for how to teach with babies and toddlers around. I did as one of them suggested and brought their little play table out to the kitchen (which was serving as the schoolroom) and set it up with picture books, blocks, paper and crayons. Lots of fun things that they loved, so of course that morning they had no interest any of those things. No sooner had I begun my very first lesson of our very first day of school than Miss Toddler flopped down on the floor and started crying. Mr. Preschool had no interest in what was on the table either, he just wanted to go out to the living room and watch his shows on Playhouse Disney, like he had always done when his brother and sister had gone to real school. I ended up teaching school from the kitchen floor while handing blocks to the toddler sitting on my lap.
Meanwhile, the two older children, one second grader and one fifth grader, were definitely not as enthusiastic as I had hoped they would be. I suppose it must have seemed strange to them, especially the fifth grader, sitting at home being taught by their mother. For my part, I was surprised by how hard a time I had just trying to explain the assignments I wanted them to do. Those first couple of months felt like walking knee deep through molasses. By October we were way behind the spiffy lesson plan I had bought. By December I had given up even looking at the lesson plan.
But in spite of things not starting off as well as I would have liked, our family actually was happy with homeschooling. Our mornings were so much more relaxed. No more frantic push to get out of the house in time for school with the inevitable hunt for someone's missing shoes or lost homework. We had more time during the day without all the running back and forth to pick up and drop off from school. We even started getting to weekday Mass on a regular basis. And I'm sure my kids didn't miss the hours of homework after dinner every night.
Nine years of homeschooling have not exactly led us the way I expected it would. Our family life does not look like one of those Regency era paintings, or even one of those watercolors that appear on the covers of certain homeschool catalogs (you know the ones I mean). My daughters may not be playing harp and piano in the drawing room, but they do like to have guitar and violin jam sessions out in the garage (which has become the music room, among other things.) I don't have a painter in the family, but one child has taken to drawing cartoons that make us all laugh. Neither of my sons have learned to love Homer yet, but one has grown up to be a good, hard working young man, and the other loves nature and the outdoors. I realize now that what we have accomplished, in spite of all the daily chaos and frustrations, is actually better than what I had first hoped for. Although we're not as well dressed.
Results not typical.
