โDo your kids ever wish they could go to school?โ
This question, most recently posed to me by a friend, is something that I often wonder myself. I mean, I happen to know the answer so I donโt actually wonder, but back when I started homeschooling I kind of assumed that the kids would go through spells of wanting to go to school and itโd be me against them and Iโd have to either put my foot down and say This Is The Way It Is or Iโd eventually cave and let them scamper off to join their peers.
However, they are extremely vocal about not wanting to go to school. They say things like, โIโm NEVER going to school.โ
And then I think, Oh dear, Iโve totally brainwashed them!
This year, day one of real school (public school, that is, not our homeschool) found us sleeping in, eating breakfast at 9 am, and then jumping into the canner and staying there for the rest of the day. Mid afternoon I suddenly hollered, โLook at that! The bus!โ (except it wasnโt the bus but I thought it was), and then I lapsed into a dreamy speech, โDo you guys realize that if you went to school this would be the first year that all of you would be out of the house? Do you know what that means? It means that I wouldโve just spent the entire day in the house by myself. Alone, all by myself, doing whatever I wanted, all day long…โ
Through my half-closed lids, I could see the children, each of them standing still, watching me closely, trying to comprehend what I was saying. Then my oldest tentatively, almost fearfully, asked, โDo you wish we were in school?โ
I snapped my eyes open wide and said firmly, slowly, โNo. I want you right here with me. I like hanging out with you guys.โ
My son exhaled sharply (had he been holding his breath?) and muttered โGood.โ
The moment gone, the kitchen was once again a blur of flying feet, flashing knives, and fruit.
But my heartstrings were wrung just a tiny bit because my son sounded so genuinely relieved. Like he was unsure of his place in our family, and actually believed that I might send him awayโregardless of his preferenceโfor just a few hours of coveted alone time.
I felt kind of flattered, too. My kids, social animals that they are, actually want to be here at home with boring old me. What a pleasant surprise.
It wonโt always be this way, I know. Eventually theyโll be chomping at the bit to get out of this house and on with their lives. Theyโll get jobs and buy cars and higher education and fall madly in love and leave me to go make their own nests. All that will happen, sure enough, but just because it will happen (and should happen, hallelujah!) doesnโt mean I have to rush it.
So I wonโt. Iโll savor our mid-morning breakfasts and hodge-podge lunches with all of us crowded around the little kitchen table and these late summer nights where they run pell-mell through the yard shrieking their fool heads off.
These years are fast and furious, so saturated with both exhaustion and exhilaration that I can hardly comprehend it.
But thatโs not going to keep me from trying.
This same time, years previous: chocolate malted milk frosting, nectarine cobbler, odds and ends
7 Comments
Jennifer Jo
Margo, It's a bag to haul sand—a whole ton.
AmyShow, I agree!
AmyShow
Your kids would make a wonderful ad for Monger and Sons. Just sayin'
Margo
what on earth is that enormous bag? My kids would adore that!
Anonymous
My kids say the same thing about school and then I too wonder what I've done to them to make them think it is so bad. I really don't say a whole lot about school, I think they have made their own assumptions! I admit I've threatened sending them to school – not because I want to because I too love my time with them – but because sometimes I have a bad day :). Thanks for your post today. A good reminder to me of just how much I love our life as a homeschooling family!
Judi ๐
Anonymous
It sounds so rosy-posy. Well it IS, sometimes.
(Rosie-posey? Rosey-posie?)
(I'm having another Anna day. I had to plunge a knife into each jar of red beets to get rid of the air pockets.)
sk
the domestic fringe
I think that's awesome. You have great kids. Mine want to go back to school. They miss it a lot. Maybe it would be different if I began homeschooling from kindergarten, but I didn't begin until 5th and 3rd. grade. It's hard to make the transition to home 7 days a week with mom.
Kate
This is a question I always have for homeschool kids! I'm glad you answered it ๐