Why We Homeschool

One afternoon I was washing dishes and looking out the window into my backyard at my then twelve year old and five year old daughters.  They were sitting on a blanket in the grass. Between them was arrayed the plastic tea set that had once belonged to the big sister, but was now more the property of the younger sister. The two girls were chatting and playing together, pouring water from the teapot into one another's cups. There was nothing patronizing about the older girl's attitude and nothing manipulative about the younger girl's these were just two sisters enjoying one another's company and playing together.  The seven year age gap was completely inconsequential and unheeded by either girl.  The thought suddenly entered my mind THIS is why we are homeschooling.

When we first discussed homeschooling, a million years ago when we had only 2 girls each under 3 years old, we thought of a lot of grand reasons to do so.  We could design our own curriculum. Our children could learn at their own pace. They could learn about what interested them most and not what someone else thought an 8 year old had to know. We would have an awesome teacher to student ratio at our school. We could include our faith in their learning. Our children would be exposed to ideas on our time frame, not the public school's. School bullying would be a non-issue. Our children could enjoy a field trip to the zoo without having to fill out a worksheet. They could take the time to actually finish their lunch without worrying about when the next bell was going to ring!  They would have lots of time to just play. We could include the learning of basic life skills like cooking and home repairs. All of these reasons are very valid and they are still there in the back of my mind as advantages to homeschooling.  But none of them are THE reason we homeschool.

THE reason we homeschool is that we want our children to be together as often as possible and to build beautiful sibling relationships with one another.  We want them to be one another's best friends.  We want them to learn and grow and play together.  And we want them to do so with more than just a few hours in the evening when they are each bogged down with homework and extra curricular activities and whatever else the public school kids do after seven hours in school.

Can siblings who attend public school still grow up being great friends?  I am sure they can.  But I am also sure it is a lot harder to accomplish and that there are many more obstacles and risks.  My older children attended brick and mortar public schools for a few years, and quite frankly it sucked the life out of any 'family time.'  The kids left for school at 7:30 in the morning.  Hopefully they were home by 4:00.  If we were really lucky they could get their homework done in time to eat dinner, take baths and get ready for bed so they could do it all again the next day.  More often we weren't so lucky and they were still struggling (read that "crying") over math assignments after they should have already been in bed. Keep in mind that this was elementary school! We had to make it clear to the school they attended that we actually wanted our TWINS in the same class.  It astounds me that the norm is to split up siblings that would normally be in the same grade. Of course there are weekends.  And vacations.  And those blessed snow days.  But what we really wanted for our kids was the chance to share their lives, all of it. To work together, play together and learn together every single day.

Our children are not shut off from the world.  They have other friends and their own interests and ambitions. But they are undoubtedly one another's best friends.  Even now, separated by continents and communicating only through once a week emails or the occasional letter they continue to be one another's number one support system. When I see my grown sons tear up at the sight of one another after six months of separation: or read the emails from younger siblings to older brothers and sisters detailing their day to day activities and then read the emails back begging for current pictures of everyone at home and encouraging each in their current challenges: or even when I read through a long Facebook exchange that looks like nothing but a very long list of random movie quotes, but is in fact the latest development of a long standing family game: when I sit through a long, loud and hilarious game of charades on a Sunday evening: or when I hear my now sixteen year old, who was once the little sister playing tea party in the backyard, well after she should have been sleeping, chatting on her cell phone to that same big sister who is away at college: I know that no matter what else our homeschooling experiment produces, we succeeded in what mattered most.

Plague at our House!

My family apparently has the plague.  We have been sick, I kid you not, since early January.  It all started with a memorable Sunday at church when I was summoned out of Relief Society by Fionnula's new primary teacher, who informed me in the hallway that Fionn was "puking in the drinking fountain."  Great.  Don't worry, it is now the cleanest drinking fountain in the building.  I disinfected the bejeebers out of it.  The thing is, in a family the size of ours...even at it's current diminished size, one person coming down with anything can mean weeks of passing that anything around the house, and if multiple people bring home separate viruses, well goodness help us all. This time I think I can track at least two different infections that are making the rounds and possibly a third. It is no fun.  And any sympathy I demonstrated early on for the sickies has slowly ebbed away.  I am just so tired of it all.  Yep, with this many kids you want to be one of the first sick, when Mom is still willing to make you cream of wheat and jello and get you all comfy on the couch and bring you blankets and buddies (stuffed animals) and read to you and snuggle with you.... if you are near the end, she doesn't have it in her anymore and you find yourself filling up your own humidifier and making your own honey lemon tea while Mom plays one more level of Candy Crush.

I have to say, I prefer it when whatever illness it is just strikes everyone at once, there are a couple of really frightening days.... and then another couple days of cleaning up the aftermath, and it is over.  At least I do, right now, as I endure the endless days of one or two or three children at a time stumbling around in a stupor, and squabbling for rights to the couch and the remote.  Because I have lived through some hellish bouts of everyone sick at once too, and probably when I was in the midst of those I would not claim to prefer them over the days that go on basically as planned, if a little more slowly and with someone new every few days occupying the couch for 72 hours.
Like that time I had 4 children under five all puking.... we covered the entire living room floor with old blankets, gave them all a bucket, and hung out watching Disney movies and disinfecting one bucket after another.  Yeah, that wasn't fun.  Or how about eight children, including a nursing infant AND both parents all vomiting.  Seriously, I just puked right over the baby in my arms.  Not so much fun either.  But they were both over with within about 48 hours.  None of this lingering sneezing and coughing and moaning and whining and yes, even occasional puke that we have been dealing with for five weeks now! Five weeks! There aren't enough Disney movies on my shelves to get us through another five weeks.... ok, let's face it, there probably are, but that is beside the point!