Oh look it's September

I am shocked every time I look at the calendar. Hard to believe that Labor Day has come and gone. Especially when it is still 95* outside. As I sit, listen and watch the kids play outside I can't help but think how awesome our summer has been. While we spent most of our days at the local swimming pool, we still managed to knock out 6 weeks of school. Our 7th week of school proved to be the most challenging, taking us the entire month of August to get through. Now that we are into the second week of September, we are trucking right along. My overall goal is to get through Core D+E (Sonlight) in 18 months. Which will get the girls through 4th, 5th and 6th grades; respectively. The boy will continue working on Math, Language Arts, and Science. As he gets older and matures, we will add in other subjects. He would rather play with his dinosaurs or his Lego's, than sit through a history lesson. Little does he know that the books he reads and quite a few of the shows he watches are riddled with history. I know he will know much more than even he realizes.

Question of the month... Is home schooling hard??
Several acquaintances have asked this. The first time I was asked I was caught off guard. Of course I sat back and thought about it. As I pondered how to answer whether home schooling was hard or not, I realized that it is all about what you consider difficult. The answer to this question is not simple and the answer is not the same for everyone. I will do my best to answer.

The short answer is, yes. Not for the reasons most would think.
It is not difficult to have the kids home all of the time. Overwhelming at times but not difficult as long as boundaries are set. Everyone has a period of time during the day that is quiet time. Each child can do their own thing, as long as it is done quietly.
Scheduling appointments, volunteering, having lunch with friends can be difficult to plan. Especially if you are the only one in your group that home schools.
Meal time, I have mixed feelings about this. Having to plan three meals a day, can get tedious. After a year of trying to do it on my own, I decided that the kids can take some responsibility in meal planning. Each kiddo has to plan five days worth of meals, including snacks.
The hardest part of the entire process, for me, is staying on task. Life happens and it is so easy to let your little boat get carried off by the current.

Overall I would say that home schooling is not any harder than sending your kiddos to school. The challenges are just different. We don't have to worry about home work, fundraisers, parent/teacher conferences, sick days, snow days, bullying and unsafe schools.
Instead we worry about whether or not our choice will be the best one for our children. We worry about the neighbors calling the cops because our kids are outside at 10 o'clock in the morning. We also worry about our kids making good choices, we worry about the friends they choose, and whether they will be able to get into a good college.
As with any choice we make in regard to our children, it's all about perspective. What works for us, might not work for you and vise-versa.

Right now we are all enjoying the fruits of the kids being home. Our schedule is, mostly, our own. The best part of this.....I get to wear my pajamas all day!!!