The brutal truth about homeschooling...

So, here we are...nearing the end of the second week of school. Four days of hybrid school and seven of homeschooling (eldest two are only in the hybrid one day a week) are completed...still one to go and, quite frankly, I am brain-fried and bone-weary. Here is the brutal truth about homeschooling. Even if the love teaching runs in your veins - that art of conveying information in multiple formats, constructing lessons to cater to each pupil's learning styles, many (if not most) days can suck that love dry! Why?

Although you may be able to take off the parent hat and put on the teacher one, that hat is invisible to your child! Chances are high that a kid in a classroom isn't going to groan when Algebra begins...or sigh on the ground when Biology textbooks are opened...or release a massive and noisy gas with a giggle, stating, "Fiction makes me fart!" Most likely, they don't bicker or make faces at their fellow classmates or dance around victoriously singing, "I finished before youuuuuu!" Am I correct? All too often, I have to remind my kids that I am now wearing the teacher hat with a, "Would you do this in Mrs. (Insert a present hybrid teacher's name)'s class?!"

I have yet to discover a curriculum, with all subjects included, that fits the varied styles in which my kids learn. With kids in three different grade levels and curriculum, the planning for each subject's year takes no less than five hours. Then, there is the preparing for instruction, teaching it, and grading work each day. Part of FL homeschooling also requires us to create and maintain a portfolio through the year to submit to a licensed teacher at evaluations. On any given school day (between the different levels of instruction and the above), each child spends 3-5 hours doing school, whereas I spend no less than nine! This almost always translates into bill paying, emails, writing, changing laundry loads, and such, being done sometime between dinner and bedtime.

The "pay" is worth the sacrifices of time and sanity, however. Although it isn't received in the tangible form of salary and is often unappreciated, homeschooling does earn me a peace of mind - I know my kids are learning what they need in order to succeed in college and life. They are being taught in the styles that they learn and are given chances to use what they learn in practical applications. And that, my friends, is the brutal truth about homeschooling!

One of those practical applications - after learning all about dinosaurs, why not a trip to Dinosaur World?!