10) When we were homeschooling, my house was impossibly cluttered with kids' work, toys, gear--just STUFF. And since I'm outnumbered 5 to 1 around here, I felt powerless in the face of all that stuff! Now at least I can pick up a little when they're at school.
9) One child's tantrum--any child's--could de-rail the whole day. That's all I'm going to say about that.
8) Figuring out how to motivate my precious little students, who may or may not have been self-motivated on any given day, was really hard for me.
7) I don't miss constantly feeling inadequate because I was trying to do 3 or 4 full-time jobs.
6) The holy grail of one-on-one time with each child was ridiculously elusive. Of course that is still the case when they're in school, but I do get lots of time with the little ones, which is so sweet and satisfying.
5) On one hand, it was frustrating to never have time for any of my own projects, such as cooking (nice cooking, that is), exercise, writing, or anything for me. On the other hand, though, homeschooling was my own project, and I liked it better than all that other stuff!
4) Homeschooling was not so great for my marriage. Not that it was terrible, or anything, but there were many days when Bill came home full of news to share and I was way too tired to fully appreciate said news. Without homeschooling, of course, I absolutely hang on his every word each night when he comes home. :)
3) I hated never being able to do anything exactly the way I wanted to, either in homeschooling or in the rest of my life. There was almost always a huge gap between my (ridiculously unrealistic) expectations of how a lesson or a day would go, and how it actually turned out. Good for my humility, that!
2) My Mommy AD&D--also known as utter failure to complete a thought or a task without getting distracted--reached frightening levels on some days. I won't think or say too much here about whether being a 40-something homeschooling mom had anything do to with that!
And...my #1 least missed thing about homeschooling (if you're a Mom, I know you'll agree!!)...
1) Sibling Bickering!! Just shoot me!!
Now, I know that there's a solution for each of these 10 items. In fact, I'm always collecting solutions to them! And the big question, of course, is whether the Ten Favorite Things outweigh the least favorite things, not to mention the availability of other appealing options for each student, financial considerations, etc., etc. This is quite a timely topic around here right now, as I'm very prayerfully trying to discern discern discern what to do for school next year! As with each year, I change my mind every week. :)
I have a long email to send you - on my laptop. Once I plug it in and get Word running, I'll send it!
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