Homeschool World Forum

I just worry about all these extracurrliculars taking over. We want the best for our kids, but in trying to do too much, we risk destroying what we have. During the years I lived in OK while homeschooling, my kids were in Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, 4H, art lessons, dance lessons, soccer, the Home School Support Group, Home School Fridays (we met once a month for team teaching, workshops, and such), horse riding lessons, gymnastics, Suzuki music lessons (twelve classes a week!), my son took a week-long community ed class on construction, three of them had paper routes, they were in religion classes at church, and we went on field trips. Not all at once, mind you, but in the span of four years!

DOn't do this to yourself! I felt llike printing a bumper sticker that read "If I'm a homeschooling mom, why do I feel like I live in the car?" It was too true to be funny.

When we moved to NC, I had had enough. They dropped out of everything except soccer, and my son stayed with Boy Scouts. (He's an Eagle Scout now). As a family, we got involved in community theater, and were all on stage in the same musical. That was enough. We had time to build family relationships, support and encourage one another, AND get our homeschool work done!

We don't want to duplicate the public schools! If we did, we'd send our children there. The public school children are so overwhelmed and overscheduled that they do not know how to be CHILDREN any more. Let us give our children the most precious gift we can give them. A happy childhood. All the rest - it's just stuff.