Homeschooling: the good and the bad days

Now that I've been practicing this homeschooling lifestyle for the past ten years, I'm beginning to realize something. Homeschooling families should have a very strong conviction that this is the road they are meant to be on. Developing a thick skin as chief executor of your child's education wouldn't hurt either. You need to or else you'll crumble at the end of a really rough day trying to teach your children.

And believe me, there will be some rough days. It's reality.

Some days homeschooling is so amazing it makes me want to cry because we are so blessed that we have the freedom to educate ourselves in any way we choose.

Recently, we hosted a history group in our home. We're studying Story of the World, volume two. My boys are really loving this book and they often read ahead of the chapter we are studying. Since we were studying Ancient China and Japan, we thought we would do some fun activities that correlated with the topic. We drank hot green tea, studied the map of Asia and looked up photos of the Grand Canal (which I never knew was man made, did you?). Then we took our little group outside to sit on the front lawn and enjoy nature so they would be inspired to write their own Haiku poetry.

Red leaf, spider veins

spread along the fallen leaf

crunches in my hand
--Diego

Once our poetry session was over, we sat in the kitchen and started to make our own sushi rolls, using thin sheets of nori (dried seaweed), rice and thinly sliced fresh vegetables, which we ate with soy sauce and pickled ginger.  We also had spicy tuna rolls (I ordered some already made), sauteed tofu wedges (yum) and some delicious miso soup. Once their tummies were full, we finished off the lesson by carving stamps into sweet potatoes (of all things) and using them to block print onto small squares of paper, just like during the Golden Age of China. We capped off the day chatting in the driveway while our children tossed the football around.

Sigh. It was one of those perfect homeschooling days where the learning just happened organically.

Diego, enjoying his vegetable nori wrap.

Xixi and Natalie, smiling and spreading their sticky brown rice.

Happy kids learning.

Wasn't that lovely? Doesn't it make you want to stay home and homeschool your little Einsteins?

Then there was last Tuesday.

I've decided to call this homeschool character development day. This is when very little schoolwork gets done because we're too busy striving against sibling rivalry, squabbles and drama and I am exhausted from the effort. Those are the days I wish I could pack them all off to a boarding school and not have to worry about educating a pack of savages.

So you see, you have to take the good with the bad in this homeschooling adventure. And thankfully,  there are many more good days than bad. Thankfully.

Have you had a great homeschooling experience lately? Do share. I need all the encouragement I can get.