Dear New Homeschooler!

Dear Terrified New Homeschooler

    There will come a day. A bad day. The baby kept you up all night crying with a head cold. Your daughter, who could add double digit numbers yesterday, today cannot add 2 +2. She's forgotten how to read, too. Your son is staring off into space instead of doing his work. You've reminded him 15 times in the last 10 minutes to get back on it. You're ankle deep in craft paper from the failed origami projects. It's a quarter till noon, and everyone is still in their pajamas.

    Don't panic. You're fine. Everything is going to be fine. The baby will take a nap and so will you. Your daughter will add and read again tomorrow. Your son won't become a juvenile delinquent. Tomorrow he'll discover that he loves salamanders and want to write a report on them, all on his own. (By the way, Mom, can we pleeeze have a salamander? I promise I'll take care of him! His name is going to be George, after Mad King George of England. . .) The mess will get cleaned up. Tomorrow will be better.

    I hope that this bad day never happens to you.

    There's That Parent in your homeschool group who has never had a bad day. Her three-year old is doing Calculus. Her house is spotless. She has a school clock, complete with alarm to keep everything on a perfect, precise schedule. She has never in her life had to rummage through the couch cushions to find the glue stick and paper scissors. She LOVES every MOMENT of homeschooling. She never wakes up a 3 am, wondering if her kids are going to end up illiterate and unemployable. She never wishes that Hogwarts was real, so that she could run away to it and never homeschool again.

    Maybe you will be That Parent. If you're not, know that you belong to a large, if not illustrious club. There are many of us that have had bad days at the homeschool. We will not judge you. We ask that you do not judge yourself too harshly either. Bad days can be hard to get through. But you *can* get through them. There are many better days waiting to be had. We veterans of bad days will be over here with a good supply of hankies if you need us. 

This was in my e mail box this morning and wanted to share. Author unknown