My secret reason for homeschooling

There are lots of reasons people choose to homeschool their children. I'm not going to go into all of them, you can take a peek here if you're interested. My secret reason did not make the top ten. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised, it's not a particularly honorable sentiment, it won't make a great slogan or lead a movement. I homeschool my children because I'm too lazy to take them to school.

The Nuthatch did go to school for 6 months. We enrolled him in Junior Kindergarten when he was four years old. Here is his 'First Day of School' photo.

The Chickadee had just been born when he started school. At first it wasn't too hard. The weather was warm, the Chickadee was happy to sleep in her car seat on the ride to and from school.

The drive to school only took about two minutes. It's a ten minute walk to get there, but with the 2 year old Bluejay in tow it easily turned into a 20 minute walk (40 minutes round trip). At some point the Chickadee would wake up and decide she was hungry. We did walk a few times but in my sleep deprived fog it was soon ruled out as an option.

Then, it was winter. Fall jackets became winter snowsuits and boots. The clock was always ticking as I tried to convince a toddler and a 4 year old to eat breakfast and get dressed quickly. (The only thing a toddler does quickly is make a large mess when you aren't looking.) By the time I had corralled everyone into their car seats and made the round trip to school at least 20 minutes had passed. We would go back home for the rest of the morning and repeat the whole scenario at lunch time.

Then the Chickadee was not a newborn anymore. She needed to nap in her crib. I would take the groggy baby out of her crib in the morning to drive the Nuthatch to school, and then she would be awake for the morning, and right about when I needed to pick him up again, she would be down for a nap. Never wake a sleeping baby, anyone?

The 2 1/2 hour 'break' that I got in the morning while the Nuthatch was at school was spent caring for an infant and entertaining the Bluejay because his playmate was not at home.

It seemed like a lot of work, and I wasn't convinced of the great benefits he was receiving at school. Did I mention that I am a former public school teacher? Granted, I taught grade 7, but I knew that a lot of the time spent at school was taken up with snack time, recess, a visit to the library, listening to a story, doing a craft and so on. I can't imagine how much time was spent trying to get the attention of a bunch of four year olds. I had trouble getting the attention of one 4 year old. I could do all that at home with a lot less effort. My laziness was getting the better of me.

So, at March Break of the Nuthatch's first year of school, we brought him home. He's been home for a year now. I no longer have to rush everyone to get ready for school. My time spent as Mrs. Chauffeur is now time spent as Mrs. Teacher. Our lessons take under an hour (this year he would be in Senior Kindergarten). The Nuthatch and Bluejay have lots of time to play together.

...mothers work wonders once they are convinced that wonders are demanded of them.

Charlotte Mason, Home Education p. 44

Sometimes when I mention that I homeschool I hear the comment "How do you do it?", or "I could never do that!" implying the monumental effort I must be undertaking to educate my children. I just smile and shrug and think to myself of the monumental effort it took to take my child to school. "Sending him to school was too much work" doesn't seem like quite the right answer. They work wonders taking their children to school, and I work a different kind of wonder at home.