Crawling with homeschoolers

On Monday WD (my son) and I met some friends at the park.  I was sitting talking to my friend about homeschooling curriculum and such.  I looked up and there was a lady looking at me smiling.  She said, "Homeschoolers?"  I said, "Yes."  Thus starting a conversation about homeschooling, homeschool groups (she started one which has about 28 homeschoolers) and curriculum. A little while later we took a walk around the pond which was full of tadpoles...can't wait to go back in a couple weeks to see all the frogs.  Anyway, there were two boys fishing.  My friend said, "I bet they are homeschooled."  She asked one of the boys where he went to school and he informed us he was homeschooled.  WD and his friends had a great time watching the boys fish (using a dead frog and live dragon flies...yuck, definitely a job for dad or grandpa).  It is so exciting to find others not in your "circle of friends" who homeschool. 

Homeschooling is a wonderful opportunity.  It is a lot of work.  Some days are frustrating.  Some days there is no time to do anything but school.  Dishes, laundry, projects, (dust LOL!) pile up.  You stand there looking at the house and saying, "What I am I doing?  I can't do it all?"  Then you remember that you only have your kids for 18 years give or take a few.  You remember that they probably won't remember the things that were not done, but they will remember the things that were done.  The time spent working with them, teaching them not just accademics, but life skills, the scriptures, character.  When discouraged and overwhelmed, we must step back and look at the big picture. What will the kids remember-the dusty woodwork and unfinished projects or the time spent laying under a tree outside reading Charlotte's Web?  Investing ourselves in our children (meshing as I heard one mom say) is what they will remember.  It is what makes them who they are.  

"And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up." Deuteronomy 6:7
"And ye shall teach them your children, speaking of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, when thou liest down, and when thou risest up." Deuteronomy 11:19