There are downsides to homeschooling!

Most homeschooling parents love homeschooling! Most really feel its their calling in life.

So, you will often hear about all of the fantastic benefits of homeschooling. And there are many benefits of homeschooling. But you rarely hear about the downsides. I thought I'd share some:

-- The papers just keep on coming. You skip grading papers for one or two (or seven) days, and the amount of time it will take to catch up becomes daunting.

-- Teacher workdays don't help you feel "caught up"; they often make you feel behind because you didn't do lessons that day.

-- There are no substitute teachers if you need a sick day or a mental health day. Unless the principal (Dad) wants to take it on!

-- Homeschooling is really a misnomer. You find yourself in the car MORE and away from HOME so you can add in "specials" such as art, music, creative writing, drama, sports, etc that the other kids have in school!

-- Instead of the kids getting OUT of the house during the day and you having a chance to CATCH up on housework, they are AROUND the house all day creating MORE housework.

-- A Parent-Teacher conference just makes others think you are MORE nuts because you sit around talking to yourself!

I have spent the past day or so grading a week's worth of papers, vacuuming 3 rooms that desperately needed it, sorted through no fewer than TWENTY sets of Scholastic order forms, finished cutting apart the Latin vocabulary word flashcards, listed some unused homeschool items online to sell, analyzed and sent a week's worth of Emma's readings to the nurse for analysis, and many other miscellaneous things that have just been building up, or finally needed to be done. I'm feeling a little more caught up, but I'm trying not to "rest on my laurels" becuase I know that if I don't KEEP up, I'll have that week's worth of papers to review again NEXT week!

And don't get me wrong - this is still the right decision for Samantha and Michael but don't let anyone tell you that homeschooling parents are taking the "easy way out" - no way!