Gratitude

On my facebook page a friend commented in a homeschool discussion that homeschool families typically fit a very narrow profile.  We can afford to make the choice to teach our own children because we are socio-economically privileged and that it's not a viable choice for most parents.  True perhaps although my family is hardly what anyone would call privileged.  So in typical monkey mind fashion I began mentally listing all of the "do withouts" in our family.  Everything everyone else has that we don't, etc.  Yuck.  You can guess how I started feeling pretty quickly.

So instead, I changed my mind about what that statement means to me.  Here's my list of all of the amazing wondrous privileges of our lives together, learning together.

I get to see my children grow and learn and participate fully in their lives.  Every day there is some moment of wonder.  Today Katy heard some little sis piano practice and swelled with pride when we shared together about how much her own practice has improved.

We are free.  Really free.  Today we can sit at the table and learn about viruses and make virus models.  Tomorrow we can jump in the car and head to Jellystone to study the crazy Archaebacteria living in the hot pots.  We can sleep in.  We can stay up until 1 am to see the meteors.  We can practice handstands in the yard at 10:30 am on a Thursday.  Few people anywhere in their lives have the kind of openness that we relish.

My children can follow their own interests and have plenty of time to pursue them.  Because we are not bound by curriculum or standarized testing we can devote time to puppy raising and dog agility, to growing our garden, to learning about raising chickens, photography - all rich and valuable topics full of amazing learning for my kids.  We do math and writing and social studies too, but it's fun to be able to do it creatively.

If we want to spend a lot of time on a particular subject, we can!  If we want to race through, we can!

We have so much fun together, not bound by time, desk, curricula, tests, schedules.....

We aren't bound by someone else's idea of what children should learn.  We read Thich Nhat Hanh, Gandhi, stories of the Saints, we talk about ethics and morality, problem solve about conflicts together.  I give my children plenty of room for the nuances and complexities of life, rather than rules in black and white, one size fits all.  We can let go of our judgment of others (at least we try hard) because we are happy doing what's right for our family.  We have the luxury of feeling safe each and every day.

We can use the benefits of the public schools - speech therapy (our teacher is awesome), and leave behind the waiting in line, the bullying, the crappy lunches.

I get to learn everything they are learning!

Are we privileged?  ABSOPOSITUTELY.  I will gladly drive a car as old as my teenager and forgo eating out and live in a teeny tiny house in a not so posh neighborhood........in return for all of the above and then some.  What an amazingly lucky deal.  Privilege?  Yeah, I guess so.