Homeschooling. What a life changer.
I find myself doing things I never thought I could do. I reguarly stay up until 12 doing things like folding laundry becuase there is no time during the day. Tonight I found myself cleaning the rug in the living room and the carpet on the stairs at 10:00 at night becuase I just couldn't take it anymore. Then I get up at 6:30 and run because if it doesn't happen then it's not likely to happen.
I find that I am really enjoying spending time with my children. And they are enjoying being together. They both have a few good friends that I make a point to do playdates with, but they like playing together. I remember one day in particular where we worked straight from 7:30 until about 2:00. I was exhausted, and I was thinking, seriously, I should send them to school, this takes just as long. Then, as I was cleaning up the kitchen after school I heard peals of laughter coming from upstairs. They were playing. If it had been a normal school day, Pearl would be in her room plodding through her homework with piano lessons and taekwondo still on the list. Now they have time to play. That made it worth it.
We got our first visit from our Credentialed Teacher (CT) last week. We went over Pearl's work and she's doing fabulous, just as I expected. As we went over Sam's, I was explaining what I was modifying for him and what we were doing to target his weak areas. At one point, she stopped, looked at me, and said, "I just don't see how his schooling could go any other way." Exactly. That's why we are here.
And I really feel like they are getting an excellent education... better than at school. Really. They are happy to learn, they never whine or complain or contradict, they just do what I ask them to do. They are happy. They are getting bigger because they actually eat lunch every day. They have time to do things like Spanish and Ukulele and Guitar and Piano and Sewing. They are going to be very well rounded children.
So, I guess the bottom line is that I feel like I'm really being a good mom doing this for my children. I feel like it's necessary for Sam especially, and I'm happy to spend so much time with Pearl. Really, I like my kids. The housewife thing is an utter fail most days, but Jared is so helpful and picking up the slack and thank goodness I still work one morning a week so we can have a housecleaner, heavens, I'm not sure what I would do without that! It's worth it for the kids, even if we have to have sandwiches for dinner three days a week:)
