School begins on Tuesday. My remaining three minor children will be climbing onto the school bus or walking to school then. It was difficult to reach the decision to send them all off to traditional public school. I still believe that homeschooling is the optimal choice for educating children. The problem is that my younger children are lonely. I've tried to look for ways to meet their social needs, but our tiny community just doesn't offer any appropriate solutions to the problem. We have tried enrolling them in various community activities, but almost everything is done through the school system here. The extra curricular things they enjoy and where they excel are all located 35-45 minutes away from where we live. Driving that far everyday and wasting 3-5 hours while they participate in their classes is destroying my health and sanity.
It's impossible to keep the house clean, prepare proper meals (if we were ever home to eat them), and enjoy family time together, when we're forever gone. I find messy houses stressful. Sitting on my bum for several hours each day and eating crappy food is wreaking havoc on my health. Not the productive, satisfying homeschool life we used to enjoy.
It will be a new chapter in our life and I am prepared to be unhappy with the quality of their education. The wasted time will annoy me. But, I can do fun educational things with the younger girls and try to ignore the rest. It's important that the girls have friends throughout the fall, winter and spring. No one in our neighborhood is available to play or hang out once the school year begins.
My Etsy shops have both enjoyed sales increases of 50% for each of the last three months. Summer is supposed to be the slow season for Etsy sales, so the extra time will allow time for the additional business. I'm enjoying the creativity that my shops have provided. The additional income is also welcome. Who doesn't like extra spending money?
It's impossible to keep the house clean, prepare proper meals (if we were ever home to eat them), and enjoy family time together, when we're forever gone. I find messy houses stressful. Sitting on my bum for several hours each day and eating crappy food is wreaking havoc on my health. Not the productive, satisfying homeschool life we used to enjoy.
It will be a new chapter in our life and I am prepared to be unhappy with the quality of their education. The wasted time will annoy me. But, I can do fun educational things with the younger girls and try to ignore the rest. It's important that the girls have friends throughout the fall, winter and spring. No one in our neighborhood is available to play or hang out once the school year begins.
My Etsy shops have both enjoyed sales increases of 50% for each of the last three months. Summer is supposed to be the slow season for Etsy sales, so the extra time will allow time for the additional business. I'm enjoying the creativity that my shops have provided. The additional income is also welcome. Who doesn't like extra spending money?
3 comments:
I know that this must have been a big decision to make. I'm sure some blessings will come out of it, and I hope that those will outweigh the negatives. (hug)
Thanks Barb the Evil Genius. I know that you went through similar feelings when you sent your children off to school. It was a tough decision to make, but I'm trying to remain focused on the positives and ignore the negatives.
Wow, you've had a lot of adjustments this last year. Hang in there, praying for your family. It was a hard choice to go to public school for us too but the kids have all blossomed & found friends with similiar faiths. They can be a light in this ever darkening world. We have issues in many places with the public education but each child has tried to reach beyond the education offered. Congratulations on Katie too! Each step brings new beginnings.
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