All of us make choices in life. Every day is full of decisions and many of those decisions are financial ones. My series this week is not meant to disparage the choices of my fellow parents, but to enlighten those who think I share their idea of wealth and have the ability to homeschool as well. I do not. I simply made a choice thirteen years ago that I wanted to try homeschooling. Each year I choose it again.
I don't think we want for anything. We have basic cable television and a couple of computers thanks to my geeky husband. We don't have the latest cellphones and we never had handheld games. I'm really good at getting books for free or at a discount, so our house is packed with books. We are lucky that we have a close extended family who can be incredibly generous at Christmastime and birthdays. I also have some generous friends in real life and in the blogging world who have blessed us with gifts of books, clothes, and supplies. We have a home with a big yard, but it is also the smallest house on the block. Our unpaved driveway is more of a mud pit since the snow started melting this week. And we have a lot of cats. I'm not sure why, it just happened.
What I am trying to say here is that we all make choices. Homeschooling families are no different from any other family. We do without or we find a way to pay for what we want. We all have different needs and desires. The one choice homeschoolers have in common is the desire to educate their children at home. A lot of us do that on one salary, but some families do have dual incomes and there are also single parents who have chosen this path. Can we afford it? I would think many of these families would say they can't afford not to. We make it work, because we want it to. I'm thankful I made the choice to homeschool. It's a tough job, and I know it's not for everyone, but it was something I had to do.
Even if it means I have to wait ten more years to pave that driveway.
13 comments:
If this was on facebook I would push "like"
February has sapped my blogging ideas (I was going to write zapped, but that is too energetic a verb) so I just linked to your blog for my post today.
-Christine
Christine-LOL! I'm glad to have helped you!
Christina, I liked this post so much. I expounded on it's virtues in my blog. I also copied and pasted the cartoon on my post. I hope that was okay.
No problem Dave, I'm glad you liked it!
You hit the nail on the head. The key word is "choice". I applaud you for working at being a homeschooler and full time Mom. For giving up the fluff stuff (which only clutters up your life). And for respecting other people's choices. There are many roads on the parenting and educating journey.
Love, Mom
It's so true. As you read on my blog I have been struggling with some of these questions myself. Financial difficulties have been a theme this last year and brought me to wondering if we could afford to homeschool. But like you said when I really think about it, I can't afford NOT to. We don't live near the best schools and even the best can't give the kind of education I want for my kids. I know even on a tight budget we are doing better for them than they could get otherwise. It just takes me reminding myself of this time and time again. Like you said, take it year by year and so far, every year homeschooling is what I choose.
One year at a time. That's the best way to think about it. Otherwise you can overwhelm yourself.
Our life sounds a lot like your life. I can only have a big pile of people over in the summer. so that I can entertain them in the backyard. I have no room to have people over for dinner. Sometimes, friends recommend that we add an addition to our tiny Cape Cod, but it's the right size for us, the one-income family who homeschool. Best wishes, you rich woman, you!
Your life sounds a lot like our life. We can only invite a big pile of people over in the summer, so that we can entertain them in our backyard. Our house is too small for a crowd but it's just right for a one-income, one-car, one-kid family of life learners. Best wishes, you wealthy woman, you!
Our life also sounds a lot like yours! We're not rich by any means but like you said "we make it work, because we want it to." My husband lost his job the year we were going to start homeschooling but we made it work because we wanted it to!
P.S. I LOVE the comics! Such a cool idea.
Well said. I sometimes wonder how we can be so happy with so little. I take that back - I know exactly why!
Ring true,
Nancy
I am so glad I saw this. I get moody (usually after having been to church - you know my issues with that) thinking about all we don't "have." You mentioned basic cable, and that struck me funny because I just blogged about tv/cable yesterday. Our cable rates just went up yet again. I have been really thinking seriously about ditching cable. I don't like what the tv/cable has become in my home. The tv is off right now, and it's so peaceful in the house. Of course ditching it would also save $$ (gotta come up with gas and grocery money somewhere due to those crazy rising prices), but that was not my main reason for the consideration. I see now why cable-free or basic cable is such a popular choice with homeschoolers (or at least that's who I always read and hear about going this route). We also live in a "brokendown" house. We started remodeling, tore a bunch of things apart, then the economy took its nosedive and we've been slogging along ever since. I often get depressed looking around the house seeing all that I consider an eyesore. However, homeschooling is so much more important to me. If being a one income family making it paycheck to paycheck means I am able to give my children a wonderful education at home, then I have all I need (and would do well to remind myself of that often). BTW - we now have a cat! My oldest saw a cat on a rescue group on FB that was at a shelter here. She was set to be euthanized on Sat. if no one adopted her. He used his bday money to adopt her. :)
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