Hey everyone, it's snowing... what?!

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Seems like yesterday we ended organized school work.  That's a relative term for homeschoolers.  We do school all the time, everything is learning related so organized school is with books, non-organized school is everything else.  Non-sympathizers gasp and accuse us of pushing our children over the edge in the same breath saying we can't possibly teach them as well or enough as the government schools.  Sigh, it's such a different life we live!

I was in a super store the other day and the aisles were sectioned off with large blaring signs of "Back To School!"  It was July 15th.  About three weeks after most schools stopped for summer.  I nearly choked on my bottled water.  And the panic was palpable as I counted up the weeks I have before getting it all together for high school for both my girls now.  Then I realized I have SIX weeks to do this.  Plenty of time. Back to school, arghh...  but I had to wonder, I'm sure some parents were happy to see the signs, maybe even some children as well.  And the aisles were a mess, they'd been thoroughly rifled...  It's mid July, folks.

Homeschool is a very different concept in today's society.  The idea of having your children with you 24/7 is distasteful to many parents because of our social conditioning, I think.  Most of us are trying to get the baby away from us as soon as birth, by following well meaning advice of self comforting rules and the almighty time for yourself as a human being.  I think my time to myself is with my children.  Granted the occaisional hour or two to read a book or go out with my husband to a movie is nice, but days and weeks to myself, no..., that constitutes neglect.  And the self comforting thing really drives me wild.  If we were supposed to learn to self comfort ourselves from birth, why did God give us parents?   He calls himself the God of all comfort in Corinthians, so don't we as parents, following God's nature, have an obligation to comfort our charges?   That's not going to happen by banishing the children to another room or a camp or someone else's house or someone else's school.  We've become long distance caretakers.

No, it's not back to school time or that most wonderful time of the year as that funny commercial suggests.  That happens for some children in about six weeks but not for mine.  Mine are in school all the time because they are engaged in life learning.  But in September we pull out the books.  My me time is spent with my children, how else will they learn to do what I do.  If they aren't learning it from me, they're learning it from someone.  They need me and I need them and it's ok to need people, especially those who are your own flesh and blood.

Our society is weird, I think, and warping at dark speed into a robotic orphan generation.  No wonder the child crime stats are up and parents feel hassled, harried and overwhelmed.  Who wouldn't with the media constantly telling us we need more time to ourselves and guess what, it's back to school time even though it's six weeks away.  That's called gaslighting in some circles.

Guess what?!  It's Easter!  NOT...  Someone's gotta tell this market driven society to cut it out.  I don't want to be led around by whether or not I have enough notebooks I won't even need until next September.  But the vendors are probably freaking because the market place is losing a lot of lovely spenders since homeschool is taking off like wildfire, and we're not buying all the school commercialism anymore.  We're content to stay at home with our children and don't need the mega paychecks to pay for mega clothes and fancy cars and power lunches. We're letting our children grow up in a natural way, with Mom and Dad loving them and taking care of them and teaching them about life and their abc's.

I don't need Calgon to take me away because I don't want to leave.  :)

photo credits: morguefile.com