My boys tell me often how much they miss homeschooling, but these are just for me!
3 Things I do NOT miss:
1. Paperwork!
I stink at lesson planning. Big time. I'm so thankful for all the curriculum available today that comes with all the lessons plotted out with what to do when, but even with them the homeschool teacher still needs to fit it into your own family's schedule, and determine anything that might be best skipped for your individual children, or something that needs added in, etc. Then there is the annual learning plan for each child, the keeping of records (with or without the dreaded portfolio), grading, re-grading, etc. The pile of paper never seemed to go down!!
2. Heavy Responsibility
When you are your child's primary teacher and sole administrator (principal, counselor, nurse, and almost every school specialist all rolled into one!), that's a lot of responsibility weighing on your shoulders! When your child goes to a school--any school--you are delegating the responsibility for educating your child almost entirely to them. Mom takes the role of helper in the educational process from there on out, sometimes little more than a cheerleader (for a child who will do homework independently). If the child isn't learning something, the school works to fix the problem, and all you need do is give permission (and sometimes not even that). If your child fails a test question given by a random stranger, they want to know what school the child attends, and the stranger may even offer sympathy or advice to get the school to fix the problem. When you homeschool, if your child is having a bad day or just hasn't covered some subject or other yet, the random stranger treats you like an idiot. And that stranger abuse is nothing compared to the stress we place on ourselves every day as homeschool moms, wondering if we are doing the "right" math program for this child, or covering subjects in the "proper" order, or spending enough time on this or that, etc.
3. Less Adult Socialization
I believe there is a tiny bit of truth to the socialization myth about homeschooling, but it's the MOM who is missing out, not the child. There are such wildly divergent approaches and purposes and styles of homeschooling that sometimes it can be difficult to really "click" with other homeschool moms in person. Even when you do connect with one, you usually only see her during a certain co-op or park day or group, because we are SO busy running our kids around to all of their social activities (not to mention the occasional hour or two at home to actually do schoolwork, LOL)!! Now that my kids are in school, and granted partly just because they are now older, I now have more time to hang out with my own friends (without them!). I'm also working a job at the time I am eriting this, so there is adult interaction there also. Yay, socialization! :)
3 Things I DO miss, every day in every way:
1. More Time with my Kids
While I can appreciate the humor in commercials that joke about "back to school" time being the best time of the year, I don't like that they are in one place and I'm in another for SO many hours of every day now. Yes, I'm a real mom and they are real kids and they do get on my nerves sometimes. But I also adore them, and love to spend time with them. I miss reading with them and discussing what they are learning all day long--we have so little time to do that now.
2. FREEDOM in our Schedules and Planning
We are slaves to the public school schedule now, and I hate it. I do so miss being able to make appointments during the day instead of fighting for the very few after-school times with every other parent who uses that doctor or dentist, etc. I miss being able to go to parks and museums and so forth on school days when the crowds are low, and just making up that time on a Saturday or a day that the schools have off. I miss being able to wake up at a decent hour, and do school when we are good and ready, instead of having an alarm blast us all out of bed at an ungodly early time so we can stagger off to other buildings to work or learn. I miss being able to plan vacation time when it's convenient for us. I miss taking 3 weeks off for Christmas. I miss having days off be genuine days off, instead of being filled with homework and appointments that we couldn't get done any other time. I miss being able to drop everything to go see "once in a lifetime" kinds of things like Air Force One taking off, or simply talk a walk outside just to look at God's Creation and see what we can see!
3. The Learning itself
While I don't miss the lesson planning, grading, and other paperwork, I DO miss shopping for curriculum, and trying out new things, and learning right along with my kids! I miss the discussions with other moms about this curriculum or that, and why this one worked where that one didn't. I miss having the freedom to change gears even mid-year because something isn't working... or to spend more time on something they enjoy. I really REALLY miss the field trips! :) We have had some genuinely fabulous field trips! And as much as I don't really like reading all those papers and essays, I do like seeing their minds work, and hearing orally them explain something they have learned and are excited about. I do still get a small amount of that after school hours, but I miss having it more. This of course overlaps very much with both #1 and #2, but the time and freedom are huge, and even one of them more than makes up for all 3 of the things I don't miss. Even though I don't miss those things above at all, I would embrace them all again in a heartbeat if we had the chance to homeschool again. :)
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