Is it enough?

Contrary to popular belief, parents who choose to homeschool - the ones who choose to take responsibility for their child's education instead of handing it over to an institution - do not spend their days  lounging around in the pj's, chatting with other mum's whilst their kids play video games (well, not all of them)!

My experience is that us parents spend a large proportion of our time reading (books, online forums, websites, blogs), researching, choosing and buying "curriculum" (or, as I prefer to call it - learning resources). We spend hours making sure we doing this homeschooling thing "right".

Because we have made the HUGE decision to educate our kids - it's now in our hands and we'd better not stuff it up!

I know I'm not alone in wondering if we do "enough". I think about what they would be doing in school right now, if they were there. I wonder if the inspector will think what we do is "good" enough. I worry about the standard of their handwriting, their writing, their maths. (I think I might have a few issues with gaining other's approval...).

It gets even worse when you go online! All of a sudden there is this whole other world of "dictation" and "copywriting" and "spines" and "living books" and (my nemesis)....messy art and craft.

Crap. How am I going to fit all of this in? My boy really should be practising his phonics. My girl should be able to know the difference between subjects and predicates. Bloody hell - maybe we should go back and start from the beginning - we've missed so much!

And then I come to my senses. We are covering all the Key Learning Areas required (don't you just love teacher-speak?). They are years ahead in some subject areas and working at grade level in others. And I am starting to come to the conclusion that knowing where they are up to compared to the kids still in school really does not matter in the big scheme of things.

And then I talk to my kids. I ask "do you think we are doing 'enough'?"  And they look at me, with big honest eyes, and they answer "Mum, we are learning SOOOO much more than we ever did at school!"

And that's enough for me.