No matter how many times I tell my friends, and especially new homeschooling families, "relax, teach what your kids are ready for, ignore the national standards". I still find myself trying to compete with them when it comes to my own kids.
Only worse, you see I want my kids to be able to explore everything and anything they want to the depth they want. Which takes time. I want my kids to excel in anything that would make life easier on them, which takes time. And I want my kids to make homeschooling look good on the required tests each year. Which takes time.
Plus of course I sign them up for the programs that they want, and that we feel are good for them, which takes a LOT of time.
I want my children to have a good foundation in healthy eating, which takes time. Instant food and caving to their sugar desires is soo much easier.
So here I am faced with 5 children, impossibly high expectations, and only 24 hours in a day. How am I supposed to compete?
I shouldn't. I shouldn't be so concerned that we are a good advertisement for scouting, homeschooling, 4H, and healthy eating.
But I do. The beauty of homeschooling is that I can cram the full expected grade level work into about 2 hours, add on another hour for my expectations of grade level, plus one or two for their interests, Another hour for home ec, and they are still done by noon to use the rest of their day for their own interests.
It does however make for a very stressful AM for me, keeping track of 5 kids on different paths. I need a teaching assistant!
YOu have 5 of them!!
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