Wednesday, February 20, 2008

The School Threat

My husband is a wonderful man, he is kind, hard working, thoughtful...and a complete idiot sometimes!!!!

Today we had some of our homeschool group to our house for a music class. We were anticipating approximately 20 kids and a half dozen or so adults. So I decided today was as good a day as any to clean the first floor and catch up on some laundry. At breakfast I asked the girls to please remove all of their things from the kitchen and put them where they belong. 15 minutes later I am alone in the kitchen with tons of stuff that does not belong to me or the kitchen. Silly me decided to complain to dear 'ol Dad that his children weren't listening to me and I was frustated before I had my coffe (never a good sign). His response? "Put them in school."

Now you tell me in what perverted universe will putting my children into school improve their behavior? And who is going to drag them out of bed in the morning, dress them, pack lunches and backpacks and have them on a bus before 8:00? And who is going to get them off the bus and feed them a snack and do their homework and put supper on the table? And if they decide they don't want a bath on a given night who is going to fight with them to take one anyway so they don't go to school dirty? Who is going to shop for and construct the 8000 stupid projects that the kids hate? Who is going to explain to them why we don't believe we came from monkeys and that the world just blew up into exsistence? Who is going to comfort the child who got bullied, or picked last for dodgeball?

Now, I fully recognize that many of the above annoyances are important, character building experiences. But the whole reason we have chosen to homeschool is so we can control the circumstances surrounding these events, and make adjustments as necessary. If my 10 year old wants to skip a bath and read a book till midnight, she would be unable to wake up for school and be smelly to boot. If my 4 year old decides to be a bully, we can pull her aside and explain right then and there why that behavior is unacceptable and guide her into a more appropriate method. If my 6 year old wants to learn how to build a birdhouse before he learns how to tie his shoes, I can be there to tie his shoes for him (and hold the nails!).

Homeschooling is a challenge; it isn't always pretty and we sometimes don't all like each other very much. But we get through it, together, and that is a lesson that cannot be taught in school.

4 comments:

j-m said...

Hey, so now I know what you did as soon as all of us were out the door! :) Isn't blogging therapeutic?

Mom of 3 said...

Having cleaned the house all morning, it was nice to have the freedom to blog! I should have thrown in another load of laundry, but tomorrow is another day!

Nan Patience said...

I do declare: this must be the first I'm hearing of all this--and I like it! Now you're talkin!

Jen said...

Love the reasoning! I sometimes find myself threatening the kids with school, as in, "If you don't want to do your work, you can go to school with the rest of the world! See how much you like THAT!" But in my heart I know it's an empty threat, because it would only (sort of)solve one problem--getting along, not having to fight about school work--but it would create SO MANY MORE!!!

The kids, luckily, don't realize this, and they do realize how much better they have it than schooled kids! :)