Mourning School

I am a product of public school.  For the most part, I enjoyed my public school years and made some really great friends that I'm still in contact with today.  Of course, I always thought when I had children that I would naturally send them to public school too.  Seriously- the thought never occurred to me that they wouldn't follow the same path that my husband and I did.

And then I had William.

Like they said, the rest is history.  Suddenly, my path- my husband's path, simply wasn't what we wanted for our child.  But some small part of me, OK- a fairly big part....mourned the loss.  Yeah, I said loss.

I had some great times in public school.  And it makes me sad that my child won't really get to experience these things.  The Halloween parties, dry ice in the pumpkin punch bowl, wondering if that boy you have a crush on will put a Scooby Doo valentine in your doily and heart decorated Kleenex box.  Goofing off in the back of the school bus during field trips, going on overnights with choir, buying corn nuts for lunch from the ASB store, spending the day getting ready for the school dance....yeah, my heart is sad when I think about all these things that my child will never experience.

It's only natural, right?

I think that we as homeschoolers are automatically characterized as hating all things public school.  Or anything to do with the institution that is school really.  But for most of us, that simply isn't the case.  We made our decision to homeschool based on many different factors and quite often, hating public school isn't one of them.  Really- it's not.

So yes- I'm sad that William won't know the excitement of many of these things.  I won't ever be a PTA Mom or volunteer in his classroom.  I don't get to have the parent teacher conferences where I learn what a "joy" my child is to have in class.  We won't ever have that "1st day of school" photo and there's no need to go shopping for cool new school clothes.

It's a loss for us both.

But then I think of all the great things we do have- all the wonderful benefits to homeschooling and I have to be OK with this trade off.  We get to do so many more things with our children and we spend the best part of our days together.  And I know that some public school Moms are probably envious of all that we as homeschoolers have.  I get this.  The grass always looks greener on the other side, right?

So yes- sometimes I still mourn the loss of "school".  But then I sit down at my dining room table and help the kiddo with his science experiment and I know that no matter what, I made the right choice.