Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Smarter Than a Ninth Grader

I have ordered all of Hayley's homeschooling curriculum for this fall. 

I couldn't wait to crack open the new books.  I LOVE me some new books.  The smell of fresh ink, the crisp new paper, the crack of the spine when it's opened for the first time.  Sigh.

I was in the midst of new-book-sensory-overload and I happened to look, really look at the actual content. 

YIKES!

I know I took Geometry but, HELLO, IT DOES NOT LOOK AT ALL FAMILIAR.

Neither does the Biology.  Or the Literature.  And do not get me started on Spanish.  I didn't even take Spanish.  I took French in high school.  WHHHHYYYY???  French is not at all useful.  But I remember I felt very sophisticated.  That and five dollars will buy me a Starbucks coffee.

So...panic is beginning to settle in.  But so is excitement.

Why am I homeschooling?  I'm so glad you asked!

Although there were many considerations that went into this decision, I think it really boiled down to this:

TIME.

I woke up one day and felt like I'd been punched in the gut with the realization that Hayley is 14 and I only have FOUR MORE YEARS to influence her life decisions.  I thought of all the things I want to be sure she knows before she enters the shocking reality of the world.  And I realized that public school has made me lazy.  I've been passive, even content, to let strangers prepare my child for life.  Please, if you are happy with public school, please don't take this as a condemnation of your choice.  Just because it's right for us doesn't mean it's right for your family.  I just realize that I need to be very intentional about preparing Hayley for life and I know myself too well.  I won't make the effort unless I don't give myself a choice.

I also realized that seven hours a day at school plus all the extra-curricular stuff that goes with it doesn't leave much time for anything else...much less quality time sharing life lessons. 

So this next year will be about TIME.  Time for learning and laughing.  Time for living.  Because life is just too ding dang short.

Stay tuned this fall and find out if I'm smarter than my ninth grader.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Very Exceiting!

And the good news is that you don't HAVE to be smarter than a ninth grader, you get to learn all over again!

It will be fun to see what the new year brings!

Carpool Queen said...

That's really neat, Lisa. I'd consider homeschooling if math and chemistry didn't kick my bootay.

Amber said...

You already know how I feel, so I'm going to skip all the "I'm so glad you're homeschooling" and "You've made a great decision" stuff. I'll just get on with this.....

SSSSQQQQQQUUUUUEEEEAAAALLLLL!!!!

Shannan said...

Well, I know you wrote this a long time ago, but I'm so proud of you - and it would be fun to be homeschooling at the same time in the same place! By now you're well into and have probably have had a few "Oh my gosh! What am I DOING?" crappy days (I have a few of those...but many more good ones). Hope the two of you are making some wonderful memories and seizing every day and learning a lot at the same time...
Love, Shannan