Robyn Elizabeth Lynne, How Would You Have Done Home Schooling Her?

Robyn Elizabeth Lynne, this is the gal I started out home schooling. Not quite sure what I was thinking but clear thinking has not guided me as often as I would like and it certainly did not with home schooling Robyn. I have said it often, when she arrived in this world she held me up against the wall by my collar and demanded from me answers, clear ones. I have yet to be able to fill that request!

This is the bare honest truth, she is way more smarter, loaded with tons more wisdom, organizational skills from who knows where, and thinks in a logical way that makes me want to slink over to the corner to slump. When she was three I was frustrated by her procrastination in the form of questions.
"Robyn, you are the queen of questions!" I told my little three year old.
"and I wish you were the queen of answers!" she replied in an itty bitty three year old voice.

What do you do? You choke on your spit is what you do! The signs were clear from the get go that this young thing knew what she wanted and had to simply wait until she could retrieve it for herself, no one else was delivering the way she knew they should. If ever I had anticipated a speaking career leading others in the uncharted paths of parenting, she made me put that dream to death!

"Were you home schooled? Did your mom talk about homeschooling? Did your mom want to home school you?"
My answers were pitiful, no.
"Then why do you want to home school me?" Off to kindergarten she went, she made her point, it was sound and frankly she scared me and these questions were asked at age four.

Thankfully, Carol Hoke rescued me. She had a one room school house teaching grades first through fifth. It met four days a week from 8-12:00 p.m.. Robyn received a stellar elementary education. At her graduation I do not remember my name in the line up of thank you's. In fact the only name I heard Robyn exclaim the night of her high school graduation was, Carol Hoke! Was I hurt? No, just real thankful that Carol was around to be subcontracted for the job! Carol and Robyn are sequential, logical and little bitty women who know how to command anyone they want to, you just do not mess with these women!

Sixth grade is when I had Robyn all to myself. She would sit on the couch with hands folded, face looking like I had nothing I could possibly give her by way of education, and an attitude that could be felt miles away. The other children would just wait for my pathetic lectures to her to be over. It was not fun. She would get me to a point where I would lose it and the yelling between the two of us was not good. We knew how to make a room go tense.

We realized at a certain point that our conversation was the same one over and over and neither of us knew how to get out of it. We had no counselor on site to wrench us from the hamster wheel of a mess.

When moms tell me that there is no way they could home school their child because they would butt heads, I just stand there thinking, "Been there done that."

But Robyn, the woman who at age sixteen knew who she was going to marry and wouldn't you know it, she did, was and is one amazing person. We had many wonderful conversations that astounded and inspired me! I loved watching her independence maneuver her education. She would read an author's complete works and then use the internet to further her studies by answering questions posed about the works?!! I do not have the attention span for that!

In eighth grade I hauled her off to a seminar. This is where she realized her education was her own. This is where ownership began. She, so responsible, always had a high school job and if the money was not decent she would request the amount desired and usually got it! When people would say to me what a good job I was doing with her, I would back out of the compliment as quick as I could. No, Robyn was the one, she was doing a good job.

This past March I was high up in the bleachers at West Chester University watching my little girl receive her degree in High School English Education. The honor of summa Cum laude was conferred on her. Robyn would tell you that she is glad she was home schooled. In fact the three older children are all appreciative. Just tonight, Kathryn said to me, "Mom, you always said that I would thank you for home schooling me, You are right! I am so glad for it."

Robyn, the first, was the hardest but what a privilege to be the mother of this young woman! Everything was worth it. We do not base our commitment to something for the ease of it, we commit to something because we know it to be what we are to do. However, honestly, if it were not for Lynn, I would not be committed to this endeavor. Glad he is around! He is the talker off the cliffer.