5 Things I'm Looking Forward to When School Goes Back!

If you are anything like me, your Facebook and Twitter feeds are full of either Mums counting down the hours until they get their "Mum time" when school goes back or Mums sharing photos of their little or big ones starting "big school" or high school.

I so very want to say "I homeschool, what's your superpower?" on those "Mum Time" posts. But don't, because I can't deal with the fallout.

And just because, here is our first day of Year 9 2014 back-to-school photo:

Aren't they getting all kinds of grown up? Wombat Girl insists on the hat, even though it is way too small for her now. And that's a network cable, not Video Boy's brain's power supply!

This will be our fourth year homeschooling, and although it's changed and morphed and doesn't look the same every day, I'm still very comfortable with our decision. So we keep going. And the kids are happy (most of the time!). 

So instead of tears, dread, stress or "Mum Time", here is my top five things that I'm looking forward to when "school" goes back:

1. Absolutely NUMERO UNO is spending time with my cherubs. Because our summer holidays are filled with me working. I just finished up 3 weeks straight (only 2 days off and they were spent driving up and back to Sydney!). I genuinely missed my kids! I missed their humour, their hugs, their observations on life. They are really great kids and I can't wait to spend a little more time with them.
2. Cool things to learn. Seriously - I am actually excited about learning about history this year. Industrial revolution, the Enlightenment - I never learned about that stuff when I was in school (just ancient Egypt and Captain Cook and that's about it, folks). Not to mention a heap of Vi Hart videos to catch up on and....there's just so much out there to keep learning about!
3. Watching my kids grow up. It's a double-edged sword, but ultimately you want your kids to be capable adults and I enjoy watching their achievements (academic and domestic and social) as they continue on their journey.
4. The fact that we are not stressing, dreading or crying (much) over the start of school. Our first day of our first ever year was a bit freaky, but now we pretty much just pick up where we left off last year. We know the drill. Even if Video Boy is not particularly excited about giving up his games for the morning - he knows what the alternative is!
5. Speaking of alternatives, I'm looking forward to NO scungy lunchboxes, rushed mornings, squeaky new (expensive) school shoes, backpacks, notes, assemblies, parent-teacher nights, and tears and stress. Bonus is, I manage to squeeze in a bit of "Mum Time" even with the kids at home!!!

What are your favourite things about going back to homeschool?

Any tears (theirs or yours)?