While all of you bitches are off giddily shopping for school supplies and backpacks and new shoes so that you can send your babies away for 8 hours a day, I’m stuck at home creating schedules and lesson plans and trying to restrain myself from driving over to the nearest public school and begging them to take my kids. Don’t get me wrong, I still love homeschooling.
Well, no, that’s kind of a lie.
I love what homeschooling does for my family. I love the flexibility, I love that my kids get to spend time with their daddy (he works weird hours and they’d never see him if they went to public school), I love having a reason to buy truck loads of books. I love that I don’t worry about bullies or bad influences. I love that my son’s teacher likes him and treats him nicely (most of the time). I love not having to wake up at 6am to get everyone out the door on time. I love not spreading peanut butter and jelly on bread every god damned morning before I’ve gotten a chance to even shower.
I do NOT love actually, you know, teaching my kids and being patient with them. I don’t love that some days I want nothing more than to lock them in their rooms and demand that they KEEP IT DOWN, MUMMY WANTS TO DRINK HER VODKA IN PEACE. I don’t love spending mumblemumblesevenhundredmumbledollars on books and knowing that I’ll be spending more throughout the year when I find books that look SO GREAT I can’t pass them up even though I have a pile of books that we’ll never get to already. I don’t love all this planning and scheduling and staying sober so that I don’t accidentally schedule Eeyore to practice his alphabet and Cindy-Lu to practice her long division. I also don’t love long division. I really don’t love that Eeyore wants to learn computer programming and I’m going to have to teach it to him.
I’m just a big whiner today. I don’t love that either. It’s just that everyone else gets so happy and cheerful at this time of year, because they know that soon, so very soon, summer break is over. I’m jealous, yo.
I’m not quite ready for fourth grade AND kindergarten this year. I’m scared. Cindy-Lu could totally kick my ass if she tried and God knows, she’ll probably try. Eeyore is in fourth grade this year and I really feel like we need to push a little harder. Book reports and speeches and term papers and the SATs. You know, usual fourth grade shit.
I guess I do get to participate in a little back to school excitement though, since Cindy-Lu starts three days of pre-school in September. Yes, even though I homeschool I still send her to pre-school. Yes, I know you think that’s weird. Yes, we are doing Kindergarten and pre-school the same year. Yes, I KNOW, you think that’s nuts.
Did any of you actually read this long rambly post? No? I don’t blame you. It didn’t make a lot of sense, did it?