To Lead or Be Led? This is the Question.

Picture Credit: Jesse Burkholder, an industrious and busy guy. Can you trust him to clean your car? Does Bob Treichler own a vacumm? That should tell ya!



"Chris, you can fit everything into your Chevette and what you can not fit, come back for it next weekend." With that sentence I retrieved sanity into our first day of home schooling for the 2010-2011 year. Chris agreed and it meant he could leave whenever he wanted, we were all happy.

Last night as I was saying goodnight to Jesse he adamantly requested that tomorrow he be signed up for school, "seriously, mom!" What about when he is seven, can he then? Eight? Nine? Ten? Thirty? Absolutely, thirty sounds great. There are days when I wonder what provokes me to home school, a masochistic sense about me?

Nicole came into my bedroom with a clipboard in tow, I am in bed she is obviously not. "Mom, tomorrow I need for you to wake me up before the boys. Do whatever you need to do, shake me, whatever. I want to be finished early. I want to start with math, then science, then reading, then history."

It is hard to doze off with the fourth grader drill Sargent barking out my orders. Does she realize I am not prepared for anything. But I think she is on to something, she is taking charge of her education, pushing me to push her. I am being led. The question is this? Will I allow my children to lead or will I take up the reigns and make them follow me? What is education all about? At the end of my bed I am witnessing the beauty of homeschooling. Oh, God, please let me follow.

I am not really worried about what I am teaching these children,I am convinced I can give out Master Degrees with all the curriculum I have accumulated over the years of homeschooling.This morning I pulled off the shelves curriculum that looked fitting. Curriculum is never wasted! Even if you sell it at your garage sale, someone like me is buying it and using it somewhere along the line.

I love Latin and every year I try to do something with it! I was never good at Latin in all three years of it at Barrington Highschool. The Ivy league bound kids sitting next to me were,but still I loved it. I am determined with these last three to instill a love for it in them. Geoffrey today translating sentences looks up at me and says, "Why are we studying a language that is never spoken?" This is the age old question that plagues many Latin students.

Thank you for the question, Geoff. Latin derivatives in our English language are a dime a dozen! If you know Latin you are able to define words you had never seen before, besides which it is quite easy to learn........I'm sure.

Let us hope that this year will be a year in which I see the beauty of being led. I am also hoping that this is the year I actually keep my cool. Oh, let's hope!