"So, How's Homeschooling Going?"

Every now and then someone will pose the question to me "How's homeschooling going?"  Several answers flit through my mind -- each one incomplete by itself.  So here's my long-winded response:

It's bumpier than I expected.
It's hard for me to stick to a schedule.  I hate being housebound, so we're often out and about -- at the library, the grocery store, the local park, or even taking road trips to see family and friends.   So there are days when no formal "homeschooling" is done.  Other days we do stick to the schedule, at least partially...

But I'm okay with the bumps now.
At first, I panicked, "Oh no, we're not sticking to the schedule!"  or "We're not getting done by noon!" or "We didn't get to math today!" This reaction despite the "relaxed" philosophy I thought I had adopted.  I'm still finding my way...  I rationalize that she already knows how to read.   She's doing first grade math.  Do I really need to stick to schedule, to "home school" every day? It's only kindergarten! And we do Classical Conversations on Friday.

In the end, all the reasons I wanted to home school are still the reasons I love homeschooling

I love spending time with my daughter.

I love getting to be the one who introduces new concepts, listening to her articulate her burgeoning theology in Bible time, watching her mentally wrestle with and grasp math facts.

I love making up funny animal references to her misshapen letters and getting to crack up with her at her mistakes.  I love that she pokes fun at me when I make a letter that's not perfect for her to copy for her handwriting work.

I love that she loves me teaching her, too. Recently, while correcting her handwriting (not her favorite subject), she impulsively hugged me and said, "I love having you as my teacher, Mom!"  A golden moment.

I love the flexibility of apple-picking "field trips", the real world people skills interaction with grocery cashiers, and endless hours to spend at the library.  

In the beginning, I despaired of ever getting "alone time" again, even wondering if maybe home school isn't for us. But recent weeks have deepened the surety of the calling.  No one event or clarion moment sticks out, just a sense of rightness settling in: this is what I am called to do. These days, these years are fleeting.  My moment, my window of opportunity to make an eternal impression on my daughter is now. So I won't give it away; I won't subcontract teaching, mentoring, and shaping my daughter to anyone else.