There are days I want to quit

This past weekend Joe took the oldest boys (Jude and Noah) camping with their Cub Scout Pack. I had 3 days with just 2 littles and I’m not going to lie, it was kind of awesome. The house was quiet and I was able to accomplish so many things during nap time/quiet time. I did miss my big boys but I also enjoyed the relaxed environment.

As I was making myself lunch during quiet time I had a realization that this is what my life might look like if I sent the 2 older boys to school instead of homeschooling. It was pretty nice to think of all the things fun things I could do with the little boys and all the stuff I could accomplish on a personal level. The idea of public school didn’t seem so bad.

In all honesty, I never even considered homeschooling my children. We sort of just fell into it out of a place of despair. And I’ve always told Joe that we will just take it one year and one child at a time. I don’t see public school as a bad place and I would be fine sending the boys to public school. But at this point I still feel like homeschool is the best choice for our family. There are definitely days where I want to quit, it’s hard work. But I also really love the benefits of leading my boys each day through their learning and life. We have so many unique opportunities afforded to us because of our flexible schedule.

I like that with homeschool we can explore and study topics that are of interest to each child along with our base curriculum. We can adjust the intensity of our workload each day and can push the reset button on the day if needed. There are days when Abel is ripping all the books of the shelves while I help Jude with his math or Noah refuses to do his reading lesson or Simon gets frustrated that he can do all the stuff the big boys do yet. These hard days when I’d love to quit I have to remember, I want to teach my boys about perseverance and hard work and they learn through my example. My boys are thriving and most days our homeschool journey is wonderful. So on the tough days, the days I want to quit, I look back through my Instagram pictures, Facebook posts and blog posts and realize how blessed I am to have the opportunity to spend all day with my kid. It’s totally worth it and I actually kind of love it.