Yesterday was one of those days that did not quite work out like we had planned. I expected to come home, correct some math and science, adjust the plan for today based on those corrections, then sit down with the family to work on our Christmas puzzle. After Christian’s guitar lesson, Lorena and the kids went to the YMCA to do their normal workouts, so they did not get home until about 6:00 PM. By that time, we were all hungry, so I did our read aloud while Kelly drew a Betty Blonde comic, Christian worked on the puzzle for a bit, and Lorena made dinner. After we ate dinner, it was already 7:00 PM. I started correcting the math and science, but both Kelly’s geometry and Christian’s algebra and science were pretty tough, so it took a little longer than usual. Kelly had to do some unfinished piano practice and Christian had to do some unfinished CLEP studies, so, while I worked with one of them, the other one kept going on uncompleted homeschool work. We did not finish until around 9:00 PM. We did not do particularly well on what we did and we did not get everything done that was scheduled.
One of the things that is hardest to describe about homeschool is how difficult it can be to get everything done in a day. We have specific materials we want the kids to cover to be prepared for college in a few years. We learned early on that participation in too many activities outside the house did not allow enough time for them to finish the studies they require to know the material. There are all kinds of great opportunities to participate in science, math, language, art, drama, writing, robotic, and every other kind of workshop and class imaginable. There are many, many sports opportunities: football, baseball, basketball, running, swimming, soccer, ping pong, and even lacrosse. Still we want the kids (and Lorena) to get out of the house at least once a day to get some exercise, break up the day, and interact with other people.
In that regard, we no longer worry at all about “socialization”. Our own experience with socialization parallels the results of the studies we read when we started our homeschool. It is really government school kids who bear the greatest social handicap of years wasted in the artificial environment of a traditional school classroom. Their social interaction is limited to associations with twenty or so children of their exact same age and only one or two adults, all confined to the same room for months on end–something that rarely, if ever, occurs in the world they face when they leave school. By contrast, homeschool kids tend to interact with people of a broad range of ages in church, at the library, in music, art, science, and language lessons, on sports teams, and homeschool group field trips and get-togethers. Like everything else in this fallen world, homeschool is not perfect, but it is considerably better than anything else we have available to us. Nevertheless, because socialization is such a strength in the homeschool setting, we can bias our time toward completion of academic goals.
We were all a little snippy when we started working on the puzzle for a half an hour before going to bed. We enjoy listening to one particular music channel at this time of year, but when we turned it on, all we got for the entire time we listened was the platitudes of an inane sports interview after an inconsequential game of preseason basketball. We went to bed late. Some days are like that. Maybe tomorrow will be better, but I do not hold out much hope because we all have our biannual checkup with the dentist. It is hard to get homeschool work complete while waiting in the dentists office and it is hard to deal with a grumpy dad correcting that work after he has been to the dentist, too. Thankfully, Christmas vacation starts in just one week.
Take heart, Ken and Lorena. We have had days, and even weeks, probably even a month or two like that in our 12 years of homeschooling! Homeschooling is challenging enough without beating yourself up when-ever something does not go quite right. There are ebbs and flows of homeschooling, just like in life….and especially if homeschooling is your life! Sicknesses happen, ministry opportunities come up, “bad hair” days and just plain “off” days occur. We (homeschoolers) have Saturdays and evenings and other days, and even parts here and there of summer break when we can squeeze in a little extra so that at least before the start of the next school year, we are pretty much where we thought we would be. You guys excel in planning and in keeping the big picture before you. The kids will make it and will reach their goals. I have NO doubt. In homeschooling, there is lots of breathing room. BREATHE!!! (WOW!, that was a good reminder for me, too!)
Thanks for the pep talk Ruthie–it was timely and much appreciated. 12 years! Wow! We have been going only for five and a half. When we first got started homeschooling we read a book by Raymond and Dorothy Moore titled The Successful Homeschool Family Handbook. It was really great because it said exactly what you are saying here–it is not worth getting too stressed about any single bad period or unmet schedule, because it is just small stuff in the big picture. Life is too short to take on extra, unnecessary stress. The thing I have realized over the years is that, even if we do not get to everything done, we will be in much better shape academically, socially, and spiritually than if they got their education any other way we have available to us. We remain very excited about the whole, big adventure of homeschool and realize we will have off days, but we very much appreciate the community that encourages us, and we are glad you are a part of that.