What I learned in homeshool...

Geo & Wm at the mall trying not to look too embarrassed to be seen with their mother.

I have come to truly appreciate and be thankful for being blessed with the means and opportunity to homeschool. I have always said that we are fortunate... or blessed... or that I'm grateful. To be honest, I think all of that was mostly lip-service. Even as I said it I didn't really understand what a gift I have been given:

I am actually raising my own children.

I am there for every scraped knee... every first word... I'm there for the arguments and I'm there for the moments of self-doubt. I get to share in every triumph and every new discovery. Yeah - okay - so it also means that the responsibility for whatever goes wrong sits squarely on my shoulders.... It's not like we mothers don't end up with the lion's share of the blame in our modern public-schooled society anyway... At least I get a little heads up when it comes to my parental shortcomings and I'm not going to be informed of them at a teacher's conference or in a post-it note stuck to a book bag.

Geo chugging cappuccino. I keep trying to explain the concept of 'sipping' to him - to no avail.

I have gotten to spend real time with George and William. I feel as if I have actually gotten to know them - the people they are... Whether it's one of our tangents during instruction time or chatting during a trip to the coffee shop on Friday -- I wouldn't give up this time we have together for anything. And I keep asking myself -- when would we do this if they were in school?

William @ our coffee shop hangout.

Sad to say - but I really do feel like I missed a few years of their lives. Back in the old school days my relationship with them was composed of checking clothing sizes to order uniforms, grilling them about homework assignments, feeding them, doing their laundry, rushing them through the door in the morning, and putting them in bed in the evening. I felt like the boarding school house mother. Now I'm sure - quite sure - that other parents are perfectly capable of having a deeper relationship than that with their school-going kids. The important thing here is that I have realized that I was not.

I promised Geo that I would stop posting his pictures on my blog without his express consent when he turns thirteen. With his birthday practically around the corner - I find that I must take this opportunity to post whatever I have on my desktop.

I know it won't last forever. I still look forward to the day when all my fledglings take off on their own. I hope they learned what they needed from their time with me.

In the meantime, I am learning so very much from my time with them. And there it is - the big realization: All this time I thought that our Lord was calling me to homeschool because there were things that only I could effectively teach my children.... How could I not have understood that what was missing from our family was all that the children had to teach me?