Fresh Joy . . . The Homeschool-In-My-Head!?

I have a homeschool-in-my-head.

Do you?

If you don’t homeschool, maybe you have a picture in your mind of what homeschool looks like?

Funny – yet true – those of us who do homeschool also have a picture in our minds of what it looks like.

Here’s mine!

In my homeschool-in-my-head, each morning I greet my four smiling children in a bright, cheery room.

They are well dressed. Their clothes are pressed. So are mine.

Several informative and interesting posters hang on the walls.

A bulletin board is bedecked with our children’s beautifully written papers and their extraordinary artwork.

As I enter the room the children chime together, “Good morning, Mother!”

That’s the picture in my head!

Frequently, in real life, our homeschool takes place at a messy dining room table.

Currently we are ensconced in the basement family room, with outdated paneling and dark green carpet. Our room has tables, a few comfy reading chairs, over-stuffed (over-flowing?) bookshelves, and piles and stacks of papers.

In the distance (not too far, as the laundry room is nearby) you can spot the baskets of clothes beckoning me to attend to them.

More often, after nagging the children out of bed, I corral them to the basement and they slunk into our chairs. In the homeschool-in-our-home I am dressed in sweat pants and a shirt that has seen better days. The children whine in unison, “Mom, do we have to do school today?”

In the homeschool-in-my-head we have cutting-edge curriculum and materials. Each child’s laptop has carefully selected streaming video lessons for a few of their courses. The rest of the time they read (avidly!) from books that perfectly address their strengths and weaknesses. Our lesson plans encompass each child’s learning styles. We have many “Aha” learning moments and the children are always thrilled with our science experiments.

In real life, more often our books are used and tired. We have a shared desktop computer that sometimes works. Each child often struggles through a workbook or a reading selection that is less than ideal for them. We talk about doing science experiments. We realize that the frog I ordered last year has dried out and there will be no live dissection. Thank goodness there is a virtual frog dissection we can watch online – when the Internet is working well.

In my homeschool-in-my-head, field trips are delightful! The children are, as-always, carefully dressed and give me their full cooperation during our peaceful drive to the field trip site. They follow quietly behind me, studying the exhibits as they ask intelligent questions. When we get home, they can’t wait to get to their journals to memorialize this special day. One child scrapbooks the handouts she has collected during the visit.

In real life, our field trips are like cat wrangling. Each child runs in a separate direction. My son decides to try to climb the fence that runs alongside the line we must wait in to obtain admission. I try to interest them in the exhibits, but the oldest says, “Mom this is boring!” Child number two has an electronic game in her hand and bumps into her sister. It’s my son’s naptime and he starts to whine and fuss. I get a headache that does not leave me until the next day.

In my homeschool-in-my-head, my husband leads our family devotions before he leaves for work in the morning. Each child cheerfully finds their Bible and gathers around the table. Daddy reads the selection, offers his enlightened commentary, and asks questions to bring the passage to life for the children. We all pray together and he blesses each child before he leaves for the day.

In real life, we sometimes get around to devotions – often not. I bring a lesson to the basement once in a while, but it’s definitely not a regular event. The kids know the Bible stories, but clearly have not fathomed the depths of Scripture. They ask so many questions! I don’t know if I have the answers they seek and I feel inadequate most of the time to do the job I am doing.

Yet in our real lives, in each of our days, God is with us – even in our imperfection. The homeschool-in-my-home doesn’t look like the homeschool-in-my-head, but we are together each day, striving to be this imperfect thing called “a family.” My kids are not perfectly behaved and we have more than our fair share of issues and problems. Our marriage is often challenged by the stress of our lives and lifestyle.

Through it all, He is present. He is present in the arms of a sister who takes time to read a story with her little brother. He is present in the words I find to speak to the child who is discouraged with math. He is present in the interaction between two sisters as they giggle over some surprise they have planned for after dinner. He is present in the warm greeting we receive from my husband who has spent his energy providing for us. He is present in our midst every day as we muddle through this journey of the homeschooling-while-living-family-life.

Would I trade it for the homeschool-in-my-head? No thanks.

your friend,

Christine M. Field