Confession of a Happy Homeschooler

I have a confession: I think about sending my kids to public school.

It's true.

Sure, I wax poetic about the great times we have together, the learning through doing, the activities, the travel, the time spent together as family, the opportunities we are able to provide our children precisely because they are NOT spending the majority of their young lives in the modern-traditional setting. But once in a while, I get selfish, and I think, "My life would be so much easier, so much more MINE if I just sent them to school in the morning."

I envision walking them to our neighborhood school, then jogging home or going for a bike ride; having time to write; getting the house clean now and again; taking a midday swim; enjoying the occasional movie matinée. I'd get more excercise, get more writing in, have more time to play on my own.

Then again, won't we be on our own soon enough?

Not a day passes without me overhearing someone talking about how much they miss those dayswhen their kids were small, or teens, or home. Those overheard nuggets help put me back on track, though I never stray far anyhow.

And if I need another reminder of how our kids may be better served in their current program, all I have to do is pick up the newspaper, or watch the news, or check the internet for the latest. (This week, a mainstreamed kindergartener was voted out of his class during a demonstration on democracy. Further, his teacher asked each classmate to tell the boy IN FRONT OF THE CLASS something they didn't like about him. He's FIVE!)

Yes, I know there are GREAT things that happen at school, too. But we're all pretty happy with our program which currently affords us the luxury of focusing on art history and geography in addition to math, spelling, reading, writing and cursive, music, history and life skills.