Education is a Life

This has been an interesting term as we have gotten used to days without a "teacher's manual". It has taken a bit of time to find a schedule that suits our family but we are getting there.

I remember when we first started homeschooling my older two children and I thought everything had to be just so. I converted our small bedroom into a little one room schoolhouse complete with train alphabet around the ceiling and desks. (I think I even had a pointer!) My, how the days have changed. We tend to be a bit more relaxed around here. Now the kids do their readings sprawled about on the floor, as they are cooking lunch, or wherever they may be. The atmosphere has changed from the pressure of me having to drill them with information to them being interested and finding out those things on their own. It took me awhile to learn and we have had many curriculum switches and tweaks over the years but I am very grateful for those lessons that I learned in the beginning.

I can feel the shift in the morning. It is almost like putting on a work uniform. I get into "teacher mode" and my tone becomes a bit more professional. "No honey, no we can't play right now, LATIN ROOTS!" as I hurry my children down their checklist for the day. The name of the game is Getting It Done. Fun things are set aside and the work begins.

Homeschooling can be all encompassing. Some days I am working on their schooling from the time I wake until they are put into bed. Since the switch to a Charlotte Mason method there are narrations. Some times endless narrations! In those days, it was worksheets. Oftentimes I wouldn't be able to find the exact form that I was needing and that left me designing my own into the evening hours. Long after the kids would be done for the day I would be on the computer looking up interesting graphics and making tables, trying to build the ultimate tool to drive the lesson home.

We want the best for our kids and homeschooling can be a lot of pressure. If they are not prepared for this world (socially, emotionally, or academically) there is no one to look at but us. Sometimes the weight of it all can take its toll on our attitudes. I get cranky when I am overwhelmed. When I get cranky, everything falls apart. Children are great at being little mirrors. When my attitude sours I see it in my kids first. Play turns into fighting. Tattling (oh the tattling!), snarky comments and quick tempers abound.

The problem with homeschooling is that it can be all encompassing. If we allow it, it can take cuddle time reading a favorite story and turn it into vocabulary drill and what kind of life is that? Homeschool moms don't get to clock out at the end of the day. We are in the throws of building a life. I am with my children almost every moment of every day and when they are grown, I want them to remember me as a mom that was also their teacher -- not a teacher primarily. I don't want to be so drawn into the "next thing" that I miss all of the life in the moment. Our children are growing and memories are being made despite that checklist.

 I give myself permission to choose to be a mom first. I give us permission to enjoy the journey. Practice saying yes to some of the fun things (even if they don't seem like much fun at the time).
Make cookies.
Play the board game.
Give them 15 more minutes.
Read the book. Again.
Color. Build. Play.
Learn something new together.

Let us build a life that includes learning as a benefit to an already full existence.