The light side of homeschooling, from my friend Sheila

Sheila is a dear, dear friend, and I am thankful for her amazing ability to make everyone laugh around her. Here is a piece she wrote recently, on the beginning of the homeschool year at her house.

Goodbye Oprah! That’s when I started Catholic home schooling 10 years ago. I guess that would make my anniversary aluminum or tin. And my husband’s too! (Although he has been ever so loving and supportive, I do believe he is still a bit dazed and confused about this home schooling thing we do.)

Each year I look at the school I started and the books in my library (some collecting dust) and begin organizing, and reorganizing, which is a continuous process. Combing through the latest home schooling catalogs, searching, hunting, like a hungry lioness, in hopes of the perfect curriculum. After months of gathering, this year appears to be “the big catch.” And then like a rocket sitting in its pad, you’re ready: "look out world"... your home school is launched.

My home school is always being formed, always under construction. I’ve experimented with the greats: Mason, Montessori, Design your Own. Even this year I’m making my children wear uniforms and so we’re giving the military method a try. The children, looking feverishly into my eyes, ready to deploy the home at any given moment. My home school may appear bleak and dull just because sewing machines are never running, canning in the kitchen (well, I’d like to some day), the only cows milking are the ones that grace the cover of Home School Today. This year we are tackling the Egyptian pyramids using our dirty laundry. For lunch we are experimenting with different brands of frozen pizza. We are proud of the fact that we will be finishing Latin 1 this year in only 4 years. And for P.E. this year we are “going for the burn” using an old Jane Fonda video I bargained for at a garage sale.

The books and literature smell fresh from my package, and yet I wonder about SAT scores and science labs (of course, we use measuring cups when we cook and bathroom scales on a regular basis). I daydream too much about spas, coffee houses, and my husband and me in some rundown RV park. My children scramble to open the boxes in anticipation of stomping on the bubble packaging and having a Styrofoam battle scene with the million little white ones that come in the box.

Here I am starting the school year, ready to go—5,4,3,2,1—maps up, books in baskets , table cleared, LIFT OFF! Come on, kids! Time to get started! Let’s go! Hurry up! Get up from the breakfast table. Now, I said NOW. Now go to the table, you heard me, it’s time to get started! Kids, do you want me to call your father home?!!!!

Well, we're up here in outer space, actually going on our fourth week. All looks pretty good up here! My kids, once again, are all enrolled in the highly gifted program. Hold on, keep orbiting, only 8 months to go! (Only a mom who has home schooled could ever begin to understand this humor ;)

Holy Spirit, breathe down upon our schools and fill them with your Patience, Wisdom, and Love!

God Bless you All on the upcoming year!

Sheila Mckeegan, Homeschool Mother of 6
Lincoln, Nebraska
Published with permission.