I know. I’m a few days late with this post. It was due Saturday. I didn’t even get the reading done until Saturday afternoon. That’s because this week’s chapter was about being Real. Honest and real with your self and those around you. But, despite my self assuredness that I am indeed already “real” with everyone, I’m not. It goes back to that giant pissing match I wrote of last time. That drive to put the best foot forward, and point out the accomplishments while ignoring the shortcomings. This lesson has also made me realize the lack of homeschooling friends in my life, something I just don’t want to dwell on. So I’ve been procrastinating. I just don’t want to write this. I’ve been more then happy to pop the next game into the Wii, and even play along. But write this I must. Because I am sure that I am not the only homeschooling mom out there feeling the lack of like-minded women in her life.
It’s not that I don’t know any, I’m sure I do. It’s that we all hide behind these facades, feeling the need to be perfect all the time. The perfection needs to stop. Recently on an email support group I’m in, someone asked how do the rest of us deal with the pressure? How do we turn off the teacher for a while? No one was answering. The woman had opened her soul about getting burnt out, and no one wanted to go near it. So I answered. And I did my best to use Real answers.
Because I do get burnt out, then depressed. Which leads to a few weeks of doing nothing. Absolutely nothing. Except those pesky kids of mine keep asking questions & reading (or asking to be read to), and somehow they learn despite my shortcomings.
We started off, almost 2 years ago with a classical, structured school-at-home approach. If you’d have told me then that I’d be an unschooler, I’d have said you were nuts. But we hated the curriculum, and I just couldn’t justify buying it again only to toss half it right off the bat in making modifications for how my kids work. so we went eclectic. But life happens. Depression hit hard. I tried to hit back, and through it all, they learned, even with our new found laid back approach.
Granted I know I’m short on history, long on math and language, and only fair on science and art. Music is mostly music appreciation (“What kind do you like? Oh, you want to rock out? Awesome! Me too!”) and some sing along stuff. But right now, my munchkins are young (7, 5, & 3). We’ve got plenty of time to cover what they need to know.
The biggest struggle is my own guilt. Am I doing enough? Am I failing them? (though the CAT proves I’m not) Am I doing a good job? That guilt sometimes drives me to do crazy things to and for my kids. But truth is, they are doing well. They are sponges that just soak up life and everything around them. It’s actually pretty awesome.
But am I bad for counting Wii Sports as PE? *S*