Why I call myself a Lazy Homeschooler....

A small sample of the things I love to do:
-nap
-do hard math problems with my kids
-backpack and cook over a fire
-bake cakes
-watch netflix
-gamble
-go to art museums
-reading the books my kids read and talking about them

Image from Anne Taintor, Inc

A small but select list of things I am not a fan of:
-laundry
-mom groups
-getting up at night for any reason
-running
-worksheets
-kids music classes
-being outside when it is raining

There are lot of good reasons to homeschool, and I will be writing soon about our situation and what led us to leave the public system. Homeschooling is a good fit for us - at least parts of it are. I love the self-paced math (which is a delight for me to supervise, really). I love working with my kids to choose books which inspire them. I like a good field trip with the kids.

However, there are a number of homeschooling things that play to my weaknesses. I don’t find it easy to connect with the moms in my area and the group playdates/fieldtrips/co-op groups are not my cup of tea. I see the need for my kids to have the social interaction and the group experiences, but if it were left up to me, I would find excuses to never make it to these kinds of meetings. Also, I’m not particularly organized. Unless I bought a boxed curriculum (and I have yet to see one that I like), the comprehensive education I owe my children would be sorely lacking.

So, what is our solution? We do reading and math (my strengths) in a well organized and systematic fashion. Then, I outsource as much as possible. The kidlets go to Wilderness Awareness one day per week. They learn some perseverance and bad weather coping skills while I drink coffee and post on Steemit. They cooperate and take turns and share while I grocery shop and cook dinner (and occasionally earn a paycheck). Two additional days per week they go to an arts enrichment program. This provides them with music instruction, group projects, and exposure to authority that is not their parents. They get a hodge podge of social studies, geography and literature to go along with more classic arts instruction.

We plan to start swim lessons and art classes in the fall. We will continue aikido . These are skills that I outsource to experts.

I know I am incredibly fortunate to live in an urban area where I can arrange this kind of life. I also have a near full-time job which affords me the chance to outsource the things that I don’t want to instruct. This is why I call myself a "lazy homeschooler" - I am not rigorous, or busy or ambitious. I arrange (what I think is) a perfect mix of experiences for them.

Perhaps you don’t have such things available or cannot afford to do them? If I didn’t work I would be busy constructing a part-time homeschool enrichment program of some sort. I think it is the biggest growth area in education. My community has a half dozen new ones coming on in the fall, and I see that only increasing.

I am beyond lucky that I have inquisitive, fun kids that go with the flow and take a little bit from every experience. But, perhaps, that is all part of my plan.