Day in the Life

I was always a scheduled child. I had a bed time, I got up at the same time, knew exactly how much time it would take me to get ready for school, a date, or the big dance. I turned all my assignments in on time, usually early. I had straight A's and never questioned the importance of my schooling. When I had children I figured they would be the same. Imagine my surprise when after my first one was born he needed only 5 hours of sleep every 30 hours and not consecutively. I tried a feeding scheduled, it didn't work. I tried a nap schedule, it didn't work. As our family grew I'd keep trying. In the end the only thing we seemed able to schedule were major holidays, and that is only because the greeting card companies had that covered for us. Imagine the laughter from my children when I announced that we'd be trying home school and we were going to stick to a schedule. We tried, and tried. I had beautiful color coded schedules that announced what assignments were due and at what times we'd have snacks. I figured with four kids home my kitchen would be a tornado if we didn't try to make some kind of plan. I wrote out menus that included breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks. I made a cleaning chart and a chore rotation. I had the most beautiful charting system I'd ever seen. I thought about marketing it. It worked brilliantly, things had never run smoother -- then I showed it to the kids. Somehow no one was ever hungry at the same time. Math lessons didn't always take 45 minutes but sometimes took 10 or even 60. It became obvious that it wouldn't work for us. In the coming days I would like to share some of the things we have learned through trial and error over the past year.

There has always been a lot of fascination surrounding my decision to have my children enrolled in an alternative school. When people find out that my kids don't go to the traditional brick and mortar school their reaction is usually the same. They raise an eyebrow, look my children over to see if they're mutants of some kind and then nod at me with a compassionate, "poor you" kind of nod. After people get to know us a bit more and notice that my kids don't have horns and that I am completely normal (those of you that know me well had better not laugh at that) they start to ask questions. They realize that my choice to homeschool/virtual school my children is one that is brave and that works for me. I love my children more than I ever thought possible and the fact that as their mother I have this opportunity to mold and sculpt them just a bit longer is one that I treasure. Yes, it gets tiring. Yes, I find myself pulling my own hair and balking at the amount of dishes made by a family of six who are home almost all the time. But at the end of the day I am so grateful for this chance to snuggle with kids an extra moment, to bake cookies for math and to let my children explore their own unique talents.