it's not perfect

When my dear friends ask me how homeschooling is going these days, I always respond with, "Great!" or "I love it!" or "There are so many blessings we are getting from it." 

But one answer you will never hear from me is that homeschooling is going perfect. 

Because it's not.

It never does and probably never will.

Homeschooling does a number on a parent's head, let me just tell you. We are not superheroes, by any means. If anything, we are constantly shown our weaknesses day in and day out. We worry that we are missing some important aspects of education or that we are too far behind in our subject matter. We don't get the luxury of just being regarded as teachers. Our children will always look at us as "Mom" which brings a whole lot more whining, moaning, and complaining than what you would get in a classroom. 

I raise my voice more than I care to admit. My children get sent to the principal's office at least once a week (i.e. a conference with Dad resulting in some type of discipline and the words, "Quit giving your mom such a hard time!") I struggle to separate my household duties from my educating time because laundry, groceries, dishes, and a dirty house are always staring at me. And every single ideal that I have set from the beginning of the school year, I have fallen behind in (which is why I try to set high standards to begin with!)

I need recesses too. And I don't get enough during the day time. Currently, I am in my room after telling my children that I need a break and don't want to see them for a while. I'm sure they are watching Power Rangers or Pokemon, but I don't care. We can mark that off as Special Interests in our education requirements. (Just kidding - we experience a lot of Special Interests, but in my homeschool world, watching TV shows just doesn't qualify!) 

When I say things are going great, I'm not lying. There are times when I step back from the chaos and it is easy for me to see the blessings...but that's a whole other blog post. 

So you all can feel free to take me off of any pedestal that you might have considered putting me on. I don't deserve it. Each of us answers the call that God puts on our hearts according to His will and His guidance. Mine just happens to be this crazy, upside-down world of homeschooling. 

And even though I usually feel like I'm failing at it, I still love it. 

KC