# Why yesterday was the best home school day yet !!!!



## hintonlady (Apr 22, 2007)

Sorta a long read


I havenât been HSâing long so days I feel like everything is going according to plan are still a bit rare. I worry a lot about my choices and if the lack of structured schooling is going to be enough.

Then yesterday my DS (13) was up at 6 a.m. bottle feeding his two new 4H lambs. He has been their sole care provider since birth on a freezing night. He had the kitchen spotless when I woke up because I had mentioned I was just feeling icky. (The pregnancy hormones are really kicking my rear)

During the day he offered to cook me lunch. He has been eager to learn cooking. I donât mind because after baby his help in the kitchen will be wonderful. He even carries laundry baskets for me and changes the clothes from the washer to the dryer. (even when not his)

He also gets up and does his farm chores on his own, usually without complaint. He especially enjoys driving the tractor to take water to the pasture.

I felt perturbed yesterday because he actually lingered at his chores for what seemed like forever. Then within an hour of coming in and settling down he asked me if he could play outside. It was 70 degrees out which is such a treasure because for several weeks it has been like 11 degrees. Brrrrrrr

Then it dawned on me.

I was happy to let him go outside. It made me even happier to realize if he had been at public school he would have been cooped up in a building, probably restless with many other children. Instead he was able to run free, be genuinely happy and just be a boy. 

Just as I was about to go call him in because it seemed like school needed to start eventually he came in on his own. I asked him why. He shrugged and told me he figured it was time to come in for school !!!! He then got in a full days work, made a great effort, needed minimal cues and made up for lost time by working into the later hours of the day. He didnât seem to mind a bit.

It was yesterday I realized this HS thing may not be a perfect science with easy solutions but it just seems right. A boy should not be cooped up on a gorgeous day. Not to mention he tries harder on the things we do cover and although a bit behind as he always was, is making progress. (not just as a student but as a caring, helpful member of a family and community.)

So, when people advocate against HSâing I say this: He may not be an Ivy league potential kid, that just isnât in his realm of interest. What he will be is a good hard working young man who grew up with happiness and some good values. Iâd rather have a good person than good grades any day. (although schoolwork is important)

Not to mention real life is teaching him so much about home ec. , agriculture, veterinary medicine, science etc. etc. .....................


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## Cloverbud (Sep 4, 2006)

Rock on, Mom! I'm hoping someone is raising a young man like this for my daughter.


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## hintonlady (Apr 22, 2007)

Cloverbud said:


> Rock on, Mom! I'm hoping someone is raising a young man like this for my daughter.



I see you don't live too far...

how old is she?


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## Ernie (Jul 22, 2007)

No arranged weddings yet. 

Your experiences echo mine, Hintonlady. The way I see it, the public school takes 8 times as long to teach the same topics and then adds in a lot of junk we don't feel the kids need (social studies, anyone?). If we want to take a day off to go romp in the field under the bright sun, then that's our perogative and our blessing.

I remember back years ago when I had a real job at an office. I had to go pick something up after work one day and took my kid into the building with me. He was 7 at the time. He looked at my small cubicle, no window, pathetic little houseplant, and cluttered desk with its ridiculously large computer monitor and then wrapped his arms around my waist and hugged me tight. It was if he was saying, "Daddy, I'm so sorry you have to do this for us."


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## Callieslamb (Feb 27, 2007)

it is apparent just how worth it, it is to home school.

congratulations on having a DS that is getting it and ready to be so helpful!

We just started back after Christmas today. I let DH7 have a few extra days just because it was nice outside and he had other things to do that were just as good as school work. If we don't give our kids a chance to live and apply what they are learning, they will never understand why they need to learn. And will not learn to apply it - (remember it.) I was very happy to see that DS remembered all the addition and subtractions we had worked so hard on - as well as Venn diagrams and counting money. It was a very satisfying day, and we don't get to many of those around here.


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## Cloverbud (Sep 4, 2006)

hintonlady said:


> I see you don't live too far...
> 
> how old is she?


She just turned 9.


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## matt633 (Apr 11, 2007)

YAY for you hintonlady!!!! You have already figured out what it took several years to get through my thick skull! My kids have always been at home and I definitely had that "homeschooling mindset" in the fact that I knew it was best for them, I didn't want to be the over achiever, put on the pressure kind of mom, and honestly I didn't care that they were the smartest, most disciplined, most perfect kids ever....but I REALLY cared what people thought. A couple years into it, after going through five curriculums and being so hard on DD with her reading that she cried every time she saw "Hooked on Phonics"...it finally took. Everything I already KNEW...came into REAL LIFE. I stopped caring what my SIL (whose DD, same age, was in a top notch private school) thought; I scolded my father when he gave the kids "the drill" and told him they were doing fine and it wasn't his problem anyway. I learned to enjoy beautiful days, unit studies, interest led learning, and more.

Now school can range from traditional textbook learning to helping a nanny goat with her first delivery to keeping a growth chart on the new baby chicks. Not to say I feel like I am "there"....I don't think I will ever be. I am just making the best of what God has so graciously given me!

Glad to hear you are enjoying it....and way to go having a 13 yr old son with such a great attitude!! Just hold on to that day when the hard ones come and know that life is made up of both and a good one is coming again soon!

Rachael


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## myhorsejack (Sep 30, 2007)

Yea!! What a wonderful day for you both. Thank you for sharing. It is nice to hear the good things too  

Christina


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