Can you believe it? After all the years of homeschooling, and all those messes, NOW is when I finally get a house cleaner! It’s just more important for me to blog than clean the house, right? You know what I’ve found out about having a housekeeper? Now that I have one, I feel completely incompetent about my house. I don’t know what cleaning products I need to buy at the store, I don’t know if my vacuum works or not, and I don’t know if my bathroom IS clean or if it just looks clean from a distance. Yesterday I found an HUGE spider in my bed. (This is him, http://www.sfu.ca/~roitberg/lab/people/maxence/tduellica.jpg This photo is actual size, I’m just sure about it!) Has it been living in my bed all this time? How could I know, because I’m not the one cleaning. I’m pretty sure, however, that the sheets on my son’s bed NEVER get washed now that I’m not doing it.
The problem with school in a classroom setting is that you end up feeling incompetent. You don’t know what your child is doing, how they are performing, or how well they are learning. You end up knowing that they are NOT getting something that may be critical to you (world view, penmanship, or manners) but you don’t know what else they may be missing.
The joy of homeschooling is that you really DO know what your kids are (or are not!) doing! There may be gaps, as there are in any other school setting. But when there are gaps, once you see them you can actually DO something about it because you know it’s there! The problem with a classroom setting is that the parent may not actually know what is going on academically with their student (or socially, or spiritually, etc.)
Take control. Homeschool independently to feel more confident. It may not happen right away, but soon you’ll start to see where your child is, and start working with them on those issues that were hidden before.
That said, I’m not giving up my house cleaner! I’ve been waiting YEARS for this blessing!
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Christianbook.com Curriculum Page
J W says:
Oh, wow, Lee – old habits die hard. Your kids are grown, but you just *had* to go find a picture of the Big Nasty Bug on the Internet, and I’ll bet you even found a few articles about it and read them. I’ll bet right now you’re reaching for styrofoam balls, paint, and pipe cleaners to make a model of it. Aren’t you?
C’mon, fess up!!! 
August 24th, 2008 at 1:03 pm
J W says:
OK, the last laugh is on me. My poor little girl found the Big Hairy Spider (a.k.a. Tegenaria duellica) on her bed canopy tonight. Here’s some more info on it: http://bugguide.net/node/view/31449
Guess what we’re studying in school next week?
Thanks, Lee, for helping us identify the Big Hairy Spider so quickly. You saved us hours of staring alternately at the Big Hairy Spider and the computer screen. Truly, your blog is a blessing to the homeschooling community. Thank you for your support!
August 26th, 2008 at 9:13 pm