Confessions of a homeschooling failure.....

I cry nearly EVERY, SINGLE day of homeschooling. I'm not lying. I'm not exaggerating. This is the SINGLE most DIFFICULT thing I have ever done. Juggling a job, a sick husband, caring for an old lady all while trying to homeschool 4 children... it breaks me EACH and EVERY day.  Somewhere around the 17th, "Mom can I skip number ____?" and the 14th, "Hannah is sitting at MY desk!" I fall apart... a hot, mad mess of tears and snot (can you guess that's exactly the posture from which I am writing THIS blog?) Many days this happens WELL before noon, and more often than not it is accompanied or more likely preceded by my very best "YOU WON'T LIKE ME WHEN I'M ANGRY" impression of The Hulk.

Most sane people would ask, then WHY do you do it? WHY do you put yourself through constantly feeling like a failure? WHY do you deal with the never-ending worry that you are missing some component of your children's education? WHY do you open yourself up to the frequent criticism of others who believe in "real school"?  WHY do you FIGHT and CRY and SCRATCH and CLAW your way through each and every difficult day?

The only answer I have:

BECAUSE IT IS WORTH EVERY SINGLE TEAR!

1. I honestly LIKE the people my children are becoming because they are homeschooled. They are kind, empathetic, interested in others and becoming quite WELL equipped to interact in this world.

2. I love that my children are learning while keeping a DEEP interest in learning. One of my favorite parts of homeschooling is that it doesn't deaden my children to the wonder of learning. They become the kind of people who WANT to know how to spell things correctly or what is the right way to use this word or that word. They are EAGER to learn new things which is NOT the same as being EAGER to do their lesson (I'm starting to preach to myself here:  Jami!  Do not DESPAIR that they don't WANT to do 36 math problems! Their desire to LEARN is more important than that!)

So now that the veil is off and this post is revealed for what it really is:  a desperate attempt to get myself back on track after a meltdown that found me with my forehead plastered to my desk calendar.... I'm going to lift up my head, brush off that paper clip stuck to my forehead and give a little cheer for all of us homeschooling failures out there:

*You can DO this!
*Even when you're failing a little you're succeeding at SO much!
*This most difficult thing you've ever done is the BEST thing you will EVER do!
*Now get your head off your desk calendar and get back to HOMESCHOOLING!  

(That's what I'm going to do.)