Perhaps you are two or more weeks into your homeschool year and you’re wondering who thought this was a good idea. Not that you need them, but here are some reasons not to homeschool you might not have thought of yet. Then again, you probably have.
At first, homeschooling seems fun and simple. But it ratchets up in intensity the more children are added to the student pool and the older those children get.
It’s no longer mornings outside and afternoons reading aloud with 10 minutes for math and handwriting.
So we start counting the reasons this is no longer working for us.
Let me help the count. I hereby present 10 reasons not to homeschool, perfect for the tired mom with both teens and preschoolers.
#10. You will wear out your coffee maker.
Everyone knows large families wear out their appliances before others. Of course families home all day also put more wear and tear on the home.
What they don’t know is that homeschool moms wear out their coffee makers faster. The kids might be wearing down the couch, but the corollary is that we’re tearing into the coffee.
Just add coffee pot replacement as a perpetual line item to budget for.
#9. You will sneak-read the next chapter of the read aloud after the kids go to bed.
Guilty pleasures of the homeschool mom.
Your friends might think your entertainment standards have fallen to be so enthralled with a children’s book, but you just quote CS Lewis at them and move on with pity.
#8. You will have timeline songs, folk songs, and math facts stuck in your head.
Who knows if it helps the kids learn. You, at least, can’t get them out of your head.
If you want to stay dignified, even in your own head, you have good reason not to homeschool.
#7. You will figure out fractions.
Though your middle-school self swore to the contrary, you now not only can do math with fractions, but you can explain it.
It’s so obnoxious to be wrong. It only took teaching 3 kids through the math level, but it turns out that math actually does make sense. Who knew?
One reason not to homeschool is to not break those rash schoolgirl vows and also not have to undergo the character furnace that is a math curriculum.
#6. Your house will be messy.
Even if you resist the voices telling you that you must mummify chickens and fill buckets with sand and beans for your toddlers, your house will still not withstand the volume of activity homeschooling affords.
Definitely one reason not to homeschool would be that an empty home is easier to keep clean.
#5. You will be all things to all people.
Nurse to the infirm, cook to the hungry, tutor to the teary, storyteller to the eager, bounce house to the baby: the job of the homeschool mom defies description.
It’s exhausting. Oh, but wait, it’s actually what we’re told to be. So I guess you get kudos for the early and often practice at fulfilling the Great Commission.
#4. Your printer will be your most valued possession (after the coffee maker, that is).
Most days your house will look like the printer erupted all over your house.
Skip the ink, get a black & white laser printer. You’re welcome.
#3. You will find out you are ignorant.
Turns out that you need to read aloud the first grade history book not because the child can’t quite read it himself, but because if he did, he’d know more than you.
Reading aloud saves the appearances and covers our rears – pro tip there for the real reason we read aloud.
#2. You will find that your children are just like you – and you are just like your children.
Self-knowledge is always embarrassing; better to ignore such truths and prevent such realizations by being able to set up our own little worlds that don’t get toppled so often.
#1. You will be shown up as an idealistic control-freak.
You thought it was being organized, but it was only perfectionism, which doesn’t stand a chance shut up in a house with small children.
So, yeah, homeschooling pretty much boils down to embarrassing and exhausting, right? Seems like reason enough not to homeschool.
But it is oh so good to be brought to the end of ourselves, to be able to not put up a show and a false face but deal with ourselves and others honestly.
When, in the midst of the day, you see the reality of your children and yourself, you are not left to despair, but able to laugh. Because your success and your children does not need your idealism or control or intelligence or perfection or the fake peace that comes from never being challenged.
God’s using all the above to sanctify you, which is an even better outcome than educated children. Let’s just pray that we get those, too, along the way, by the grace of God and the hot (third) cup of coffee He’s provided.
Scholé Sisters presents
Laughing Well 2019
Saturday, September 21, 9am-3pm Pacific
You want a strong relationship with your kids, but sometimes they’re pills. Truth is, sometimes you are, too.
You long for joy in the journey.
You want your kids to leave your home with good memories and funny stories.
You want connections not only between subjects, but also between you and your children.
You are hunting for the missing piece that will bring it all together and make it all feel not so hard.
Yeah. That atmosphere of joy and delight?
It’s YOU.
Learning is serious business, but it shouldn’t make us serious kill-joys.
When we shed the burden of proving ourselves or worrying about our performance, we’re able to actually enjoy life and our kids – and experience true scholé.
Ideal for new and experienced moms from all homeschooling methods, the Scholé Sisters’ Laughing Well Retreat will help you:
- Discover delight in the day-to-day real life of homeschooling.
- Troubleshoot your sources of frustration and irritation that steal your joy.
- Recognize that peace and joy comes from trust in Christ.
- See how the gospel applies to our homeschool lifestyle and brings us joy.
- Embrace homeschooling as intense character training for ourselves.
- Find ways to add laughter with your kids, husband, and friends.
A joyful heart is good medicine,
but a crushed spirit dries up bones.
Proverbs 17:22
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