School makes weekends wonderful again.
No doubt it isn't solely home schooling's fault but over the last few years weekends at our house had lost their gloss.
When we first started homeschooling using a fun, hands-on, discover-based learning program (Konos) our days were full of wonder and enjoyment. It look a fair bit of time and effort to plan and prepare for our school week but we all got so much out of it I didn't mind a bit.
But as our age range expanded it became harder to keep everyone engaged at a level that was interesting and challenging to them. We started looking at programs for different ages. 'School at home' was sneaking up on me and I didn't even spot it.
And then.....we were sucked into the Classical Homeschooling Vortex. I'm sure this is a neat fit for some families but it was not a happy place for us. It took me a couple of years to realise that the joy had been sucked out of our lives and that my enthusiasm gland was failing to produce enough juice to keep us all charged up.
Because I found it difficult to ask my kids to settle for a less-than-perfect education (sigh) I always tend to be fiddling with each program until I get it where I could love it. The workload of tweaking, planning, preparing and teaching was crippling. Finally I realised I was going down for the third time and didn't have the strength even to clutch for a rope.
I was so busy for way too many hours each day in home school related work so I had no time to keep my house the way I like it. Saturday was my only chance to try and get back on top before I was back on the treadmill again (Sunday of course being written off with church and subsequent activities which I found exhausting and a bit of a trial). The kids and I would do chores for hours but still found it difficult to keep our heads above water. I saw myself becoming one of those home school mums who cheerfuly sweep aside a pile of home school crud, hairbrushes and bread crusts so they can offer their visitors a place to lay their coffee mug. Only, I wasn't pulling off the cheerful part.
I found I looked forward to school holidays not because I could spend some free time with my kids but so I could finally get into the linen closet and sort out the mess. At the end of each holiday I'd still have a list of a dozen undone jobs that I knew would have to wait until the end of next term when we had 'holidays' again. It was depressing.
So now, I get almost all the housework done in an hour each day and can spend evenings, weekends and school holidays enjoying my kids. They love it too. Sometimes we chill, other times we hit the beach. go shopping or hang with friends...it's just so nice not to be worrying about the six hours of planning (I kid you not) I'd have to put in on Sunday night if I didn't want to start the home school week on the hop.
Several of my kids would still like to return to home schooling...and I wouldn't say I've shut that door totally. But if we tackle it again, we'll do it in some way that frees us up to enjoy life and each other again. I won't be giving that up for anything.
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