Seven-year itch. . . .the homeschool version!

[1bassoon]

In hanging with some friends last night, and perusing the boards, I've noticed a theme:

 

There really does seem to be a "seven-year itch" for homeschoolers.

 

I experienced it - suddenly, the urge to research every new curriculum is gone, the desire to obsessively research and organize and plan schooling is gone. You have to take a step back, ask "Why am I doing this?" And then there's the drive to find something - anything - other than homeschooling to talk about an enjoy. Pottery, music, running marathons. . . .anything to define yourself as something other than "just a homeschooling mom".

 

Am I opening up a can of worms?

 

Do you think there's a 7-year homeschooling itch?

[Jean in Newcastle]

Yes.

 

The urge to take the kids by the hand and just drop them off by the school door - forget about actually taking the time to enroll them. . .

[freerange]

Hmm.....seven years was when we move from unschooling to classical!

[HappyCrazyMama]

Hmmm....well, I really am not looking forward to starting school, not.at.all. I just want to use MFW forever and not read about everything under the sun. I started selling Usborne books and really just want to have time to keep my house clean.;) Putting kids on the bus never crosses my mind but I just want things simple and I do want to do something besides school.

 

:lurk5:

[Bookworm Mom]

hmmm...we are going into our 7th year and I have had more days lately where I could very easily put then on the bus each morning at 7:30. I thought it had to do with my kids getting older and it getting crazier around here but it is funny that it is at the 7 year mark.

[elegantlion]

We're getting ready to start our 7th year and actually I'm excited. We keep pushing the start date back because of some life situations. We've mixed some things up this year and are doing a few subjects because ds wanted them. I guess we'll see how the year goes once we actually get started. I have clothed myself in flexibility, so I going to have a blissful year whichever way it goes.

 

Last spring was hard for us. We had multiple illnesses, growth spurts, distractions, redoing some subjects after half a year. I trudged through, but I felt like we got very little done this spring.

 

I've actually started planning for our 8th year, so maybe that will keep the excitement fresh.

[Guest Dulcimeramy]

I think it runs a little deeper than that for some.

 

I've been homeschooling for 10 years, and studying about it for 15 years. The seven-year-itch is real, and so is burnout! All hs veterans are familiar with these things.

 

Right now something different is going on, or at least adding to the usual problems. There is division and unrest in the country, there are soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq still, the economy is in trouble, Washington is a mess (no matter your vantage point, I think we all agree its a mess).

 

Mothers are wondering what to do. Some of us are planning to homeschool still, feeling that it is the best option for our family but also feeling guilty or wondering if we should be doing something to bring in some income instead.

 

Our husbands are stressed from being providers (and the founders of our homeschools) when they have been laid off for part of the year or their company might fall at any day or their bank might fail...

 

I think homeschooling is beginning to feel like a luxury in a day when, to most of us, the alternatives are fewer and worse than ever before.

 

I understand those who say they are just tired. Tired of being counter-culture, tired of carrying all the responsibility, tired of the very hard work of homeschooling.

 

In the 80's and 90's most of us were better off than we knew. When Vickie Farris wrote about how she coped as a homeschooling mother of 10 (hire a maid, order fast food, and use paper plates for all meals) we might not have been able to afford that but we could imagine her affording it. It was within the realm of normal.

 

In 2010, more of us have the timeless worries of mothers the world over. Food, clothing, and shelter for our children! Those preoccupations can be full-time jobs in themselves if we are trying to survive a recession.

 

To add the total and entire responsibility of homeschooling to old-fashioned scratch-cooking, mending, hanging laundry, growing a garden, making do and doing without, is more than some of us are ready to do. We simply don't have the experience.

 

When you add the unspecified worry about the times, and supporting husbands who are not as emotionally independent as they used to be, something has to give in Mama's heart or a nervous breakdown (or drinking habit LOL) threatens.

 

Some of these things are beneath the surface, I think. Nobody comes out and says "The stress of being a wife and mother in 2010 is more than I can bear and homeschool, too."

 

When we say we want to quit homeschooling and we idealize the schoolhouse up the street, we are saying we want a simpler and more familiar life. We want to do what our mothers or grandmothers did, and we want the built-in community that schools can provide. We want to believe our children will come out the other side as we did. We want to shut our eyes to the changes in public schooling in this generation. We *need* to feel as if we can put our kids in school.

 

I am carrying on with homeschooling. I happen to live in a truly abysmal school district and I would be depriving my children horribly if I didn't continue homeschooling. It is taking all my strength and courage to start this school year, though.

 

I keep thinking about the transcription work I might be able to find, or cutting down all the backyard trees for firewood and planting a giant garden, or building a chicken coop, or making over goodwill clothes for my family....or spending time helping and encouraging the elderly and the young families in my neighborhood and church.

 

My mind is in the Depression Era because I am beginning to see those problems playing out in lives around me. Do I have the right to spend all of my time, energy, and money homeschooling?

 

DH and I agree that our children have a right to a proper education. Homeschooling is the only way for them to have it.

 

So.

[ChemMommy]

Mine was more the 6th year and lasted into the 7th, but it was definitely there!!! It wasn't a "pretty" time in my life.

[Mommyfaithe]

Yes.

 

The urge to take the kids by the hand and just drop them off by the school door - forget about actually taking the time to enroll them. . .

 

:iagree: I always have the urge to wait at the bus stop and just put them on......wonder if it would work???:lol: :lol:

~~Faithe

[Mommyfaithe]

I think it runs a little deeper than that for some.

 

I've been homeschooling for 10 years, and studying about it for 15 years. The seven-year-itch is real, and so is burnout! All hs veterans are familiar with these things.

 

Right now something different is going on, or at least adding to the usual problems. There is division and unrest in the country, there are soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq still, the economy is in trouble, Washington is a mess (no matter your vantage point, I think we all agree its a mess).

 

Mothers are wondering what to do. Some of us are planning to homeschool still, feeling that it is the best option for our family but also feeling guilty or wondering if we should be doing something to bring in some income instead.

 

Our husbands are stressed from being providers (and the founders of our homeschools) when they have been laid off for part of the year or their company might fall at any day or their bank might fail...

 

I think homeschooling is beginning to feel like a luxury in a day when, to most of us, the alternatives are fewer and worse than ever before.

 

I understand those who say they are just tired. Tired of being counter-culture, tired of carrying all the responsibility, tired of the very hard work of homeschooling.

 

In the 80's and 90's most of us were better off than we knew. When Vickie Farris wrote about how she coped as a homeschooling mother of 10 (hire a maid, order fast food, and use paper plates for all meals) we might not have been able to afford that but we could imagine her affording it. It was within the realm of normal.

 

In 2010, more of us have the timeless worries of mothers the world over. Food, clothing, and shelter for our children! Those preoccupations can be full-time jobs in themselves if we are trying to survive a recession.

 

To add the total and entire responsibility of homeschooling to old-fashioned scratch-cooking, mending, hanging laundry, growing a garden, making do and doing without, is more than some of us are ready to do. We simply don't have the experience.

 

When you add the unspecified worry about the times, and supporting husbands who are not as emotionally independent as they used to be, something has to give in Mama's heart or a nervous breakdown (or drinking habit LOL) threatens.

 

Some of these things are beneath the surface, I think. Nobody comes out and says "The stress of being a wife and mother in 2010 is more than I can bear and homeschool, too."

 

When we say we want to quit homeschooling and we idealize the schoolhouse up the street, we are saying we want a simpler and more familiar life. We want to do what our mothers or grandmothers did, and we want the built-in community that schools can provide. We want to believe our children will come out the other side as we did. We want to shut our eyes to the changes in public schooling in this generation. We *need* to feel as if we can put our kids in school.

 

I am carrying on with homeschooling. I happen to live in a truly abysmal school district and I would be depriving my children horribly if I didn't continue homeschooling. It is taking all my strength and courage to start this school year, though.

 

I keep thinking about the transcription work I might be able to find, or cutting down all the backyard trees for firewood and planting a giant garden, or building a chicken coop, or making over goodwill clothes for my family....or spending time helping and encouraging the elderly and the young families in my neighborhood and church.

 

My mind is in the Depression Era because I am beginning to see those problems playing out in lives around me. Do I have the right to spend all of my time, energy, and money homeschooling?

 

DH and I agree that our children have a right to a proper education. Homeschooling is the only way for them to have it.

 

So.

 

WoW!!!! I think you hit the nail on the head. I have had to return to the workforce...working in my husbands business and it is literally frying me...yet in this economy, I can't NOT help....I just can't...SO....the issue for me is can I continue to homeschool and work and now that my kids are older, how can I keep up with my older kids activities, college tuitions, etc. The answer is, something has to give.....but what???

 

Faithe

[Pamela H in Texas]

Yes, I agree there is. My kids each used programs for 7th grade.

 

I'm also have some "finish line" itch. My ds should be halfway through his high school materials next month and I just feel SO done. Some days I'm glad I didn't have more children afterall.

[Annabel Lee]

Wow, Dulcimeramy, I agree - you identified what so many of us just keep trying to slog through.

 

When things outside of homeschooling have no wiggle room due to "the money just isn't there" - gardening, scratch-cooking, hanging laundry, mending & sewing, etc., the only thing left to give is homeschooling. Counting from my older son's K5 year, this is year 5 for me. I'm in "do or die" mode. Either I figure out a way to make it work, or I have to start weeding through my choices & methods and substitute cheaper and/or less time-consuming curricula. Read: boxed curriculum, pre-scheduled, and using it AS IS. So, I'm paring down somewhat, but it's still alot. If I can't make this work this year (or possibily this semester), something has to give. Either you'll see me figure it out in the next 6-9 months, or you'll see me switch some subjects (or all of them) to something that requires less prep & planning and is easier to get done for everyone.

[Laurie4b]

I think it runs a little deeper than that for some.

 

I've been homeschooling for 10 years, and studying about it for 15 years. The seven-year-itch is real, and so is burnout! All hs veterans are familiar with these things.

 

Right now something different is going on, or at least adding to the usual problems. There is division and unrest in the country, there are soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq still, the economy is in trouble, Washington is a mess (no matter your vantage point, I think we all agree its a mess).

 

Mothers are wondering what to do. Some of us are planning to homeschool still, feeling that it is the best option for our family but also feeling guilty or wondering if we should be doing something to bring in some income instead.

 

Our husbands are stressed from being providers (and the founders of our homeschools) when they have been laid off for part of the year or their company might fall at any day or their bank might fail...

 

I think homeschooling is beginning to feel like a luxury in a day when, to most of us, the alternatives are fewer and worse than ever before.

 

I understand those who say they are just tired. Tired of being counter-culture, tired of carrying all the responsibility, tired of the very hard work of homeschooling.

 

In the 80's and 90's most of us were better off than we knew. When Vickie Farris wrote about how she coped as a homeschooling mother of 10 (hire a maid, order fast food, and use paper plates for all meals) we might not have been able to afford that but we could imagine her affording it. It was within the realm of normal.

 

In 2010, more of us have the timeless worries of mothers the world over. Food, clothing, and shelter for our children! Those preoccupations can be full-time jobs in themselves if we are trying to survive a recession.

 

To add the total and entire responsibility of homeschooling to old-fashioned scratch-cooking, mending, hanging laundry, growing a garden, making do and doing without, is more than some of us are ready to do. We simply don't have the experience.

 

When you add the unspecified worry about the times, and supporting husbands who are not as emotionally independent as they used to be, something has to give in Mama's heart or a nervous breakdown (or drinking habit LOL) threatens.

 

Some of these things are beneath the surface, I think. Nobody comes out and says "The stress of being a wife and mother in 2010 is more than I can bear and homeschool, too."

 

When we say we want to quit homeschooling and we idealize the schoolhouse up the street, we are saying we want a simpler and more familiar life. We want to do what our mothers or grandmothers did, and we want the built-in community that schools can provide. We want to believe our children will come out the other side as we did. We want to shut our eyes to the changes in public schooling in this generation. We *need* to feel as if we can put our kids in school.

 

I am carrying on with homeschooling. I happen to live in a truly abysmal school district and I would be depriving my children horribly if I didn't continue homeschooling. It is taking all my strength and courage to start this school year, though.

 

I keep thinking about the transcription work I might be able to find, or cutting down all the backyard trees for firewood and planting a giant garden, or building a chicken coop, or making over goodwill clothes for my family....or spending time helping and encouraging the elderly and the young families in my neighborhood and church.

 

My mind is in the Depression Era because I am beginning to see those problems playing out in lives around me. Do I have the right to spend all of my time, energy, and money homeschooling?

 

DH and I agree that our children have a right to a proper education. Homeschooling is the only way for them to have it.

 

So.

 

There is a lot here that rings true.

[Laurie4b]

Mine started the second year into high school homeschooling after homeschooling all the way through. I'm sending our older two to a hybrid public high school/ cc this year and am relieved. I hope to be able to revive the joy of homeschooling with the two middle schoolers left at home. I have worked part-time for several years and that certainly increased the pressures and thus the "itch." Additionally, though, I think that our older two need the opportunity to continue to develop who they are vis a vis the world with much less of my direct influence. I feel that they've been given a great foundation in homeschooling but now is the time for wings. So I see sending them to school as a good thing and look forward to the same for the younger two.

[Heather in AL]

I think it runs a little deeper than that for some.

 

I've been homeschooling for 10 years, and studying about it for 15 years. The seven-year-itch is real, and so is burnout! All hs veterans are familiar with these things.

 

Right now something different is going on, or at least adding to the usual problems. There is division and unrest in the country, there are soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq still, the economy is in trouble, Washington is a mess (no matter your vantage point, I think we all agree its a mess).

 

Mothers are wondering what to do. Some of us are planning to homeschool still, feeling that it is the best option for our family but also feeling guilty or wondering if we should be doing something to bring in some income instead.

 

Our husbands are stressed from being providers (and the founders of our homeschools) when they have been laid off for part of the year or their company might fall at any day or their bank might fail...

 

I think homeschooling is beginning to feel like a luxury in a day when, to most of us, the alternatives are fewer and worse than ever before.

 

I understand those who say they are just tired. Tired of being counter-culture, tired of carrying all the responsibility, tired of the very hard work of homeschooling.

 

In the 80's and 90's most of us were better off than we knew. When Vickie Farris wrote about how she coped as a homeschooling mother of 10 (hire a maid, order fast food, and use paper plates for all meals) we might not have been able to afford that but we could imagine her affording it. It was within the realm of normal.

 

In 2010, more of us have the timeless worries of mothers the world over. Food, clothing, and shelter for our children! Those preoccupations can be full-time jobs in themselves if we are trying to survive a recession.

 

To add the total and entire responsibility of homeschooling to old-fashioned scratch-cooking, mending, hanging laundry, growing a garden, making do and doing without, is more than some of us are ready to do. We simply don't have the experience.

 

When you add the unspecified worry about the times, and supporting husbands who are not as emotionally independent as they used to be, something has to give in Mama's heart or a nervous breakdown (or drinking habit LOL) threatens.

 

Some of these things are beneath the surface, I think. Nobody comes out and says "The stress of being a wife and mother in 2010 is more than I can bear and homeschool, too."

 

When we say we want to quit homeschooling and we idealize the schoolhouse up the street, we are saying we want a simpler and more familiar life. We want to do what our mothers or grandmothers did, and we want the built-in community that schools can provide. We want to believe our children will come out the other side as we did. We want to shut our eyes to the changes in public schooling in this generation. We *need* to feel as if we can put our kids in school.

 

I am carrying on with homeschooling. I happen to live in a truly abysmal school district and I would be depriving my children horribly if I didn't continue homeschooling. It is taking all my strength and courage to start this school year, though.

 

I keep thinking about the transcription work I might be able to find, or cutting down all the backyard trees for firewood and planting a giant garden, or building a chicken coop, or making over goodwill clothes for my family....or spending time helping and encouraging the elderly and the young families in my neighborhood and church.

 

My mind is in the Depression Era because I am beginning to see those problems playing out in lives around me. Do I have the right to spend all of my time, energy, and money homeschooling?

 

DH and I agree that our children have a right to a proper education. Homeschooling is the only way for them to have it.

 

So.

 

Wow. Ding, ding, ding! I think you nailed it. What an insightful post!

 

Seeing it all written out like that is amazing. I hadn't thought of it that way, but it rings true. I am learning (very slowly) to be more self-sufficient "just in case". While I don't feel the stress of finances, I do worry about "what if", and THAT causes me stress. If ____ happens, I feel it's up to me to know how to make bread from scratch (and to learn to grind my own wheat is on my 'list'). If_____ happens, I want to have least read about processing a chicken. I'm becoming obsessed with the 'lost arts' of homemaking.... gardening, canning, raising poultry, sewing, etc., and even going back to school so I would be more marketable. For me to have these feelings when I don't necessarily have reason to, is pretty scary.

 

As for the seven year itch, I sure hope not! We're going into our 5th year.... if I get the 7 year itch, dd will be going into grade 10.... think I can hold it off until she graduates, so I'll be finished and it won't matter?! :lol:

[Gooblink]

Very nice, Dulcimeramy. Your post resonated with me. :)

 

It's nice to know I'm not alone. I was afraid I was going through a mid-life crisis. LOL.

[EKS]

This is interesting. I think you're right (having just completed our 7th year). I think this might also explain why so many people in our homeschool group are putting their kids in school in 7th grade. It has actually become a serious problem for those of us who are continuing because our kids are losing their older peer group.

 

I have to say I am looking forward to having my older son in community college full time in two years!

[mcconnellboys]

Well, LOL, since you're a whole new person about every seven years, I think it would make sense that you'd have different desires about that time.....

[MorganClassicalPrep]

I experienced it - suddenly, the urge to research every new curriculum is gone, the desire to obsessively research and organize and plan schooling is gone. You have to take a step back, ask "Why am I doing this?" And then there's the drive to find something - anything - other than homeschooling to talk about an enjoy. Pottery, music, running marathons. . . .anything to define yourself as something other than "just a homeschooling mom".

 

Am I opening up a can of worms?

 

Do you think there's a 7-year homeschooling itch?

 

Well... (and DD is only 4.5, so we are no where CLOSE to our 7 years, feel free to take this with a grain of salt!)... I think it's important for us moms to have something else to define ourselves by. Don't get me wrong, DD is number 1, and I am completely and utterly devoted to her, (more so than many of the other mothers I know IRL), but I also have a life outside of being "just a homeschooling mom". Right now for me it is my own education.

I don't know if this will prevent the "itch", but I hope so! :D

[Pretty in Pink]

Yes, we're going into our 8th year of HSing this fall. The past 6 months have been hard for me. For the first time I contemplated brick and mortar schools for my children. I thought it was just ds11 driving me up the wall constantly!

 

I think we're over the hump now though as we embark on a new school year.

[Sebastian (a lady)]

I find that I'm less interested in researching the next great thing because I've realized that none of them are going to be the magic solution that grants my child an education while he plays with Legos and I play on the computer.:svengo: We are going to have to work for our gains.

 

And as I grow more comfortable about who I am as a homeschooler, I'm less willing to let that be what defines me. I don't mind it being a major part of what I am. But I'm also a military veteran, military spouse, scout leader and all around interesting person.;)

 

And while I love to talk about curriculum with people, especially if I can help them sort through what they are wanting to do and how to get there, I have less patience for poorly thought out opinions. This could be the "the curriculum will do it all better than anything else" or "that curriculum is so bad that no one in their right mind would spend the money on it" or "anything we do homeschooling is better than anything they would get in school" or "we would never use THAT because have you seen the books they use?" or the whole gamut of socialization, aren't you ruining your kids opinions.

 

I think that it is sinking in (to my hard head at least) that I may well spend 12-16 years homeschooling and that needs a marathon pace. That what I do on a daily, weekly and monthly basis adds up to the totality of what we accomplish. That I can't always expect to make up or catch up later when I've been putting off now (which is different than waiting until a child is develpmentally ready for something, btw).

 

Maybe I started out with some trepidation, went through a phase of "I can do this" and am realizing that there is some serious business at hand. And that I won't be able to blame shortcomings on an outside agent.

[PinkInTheBlue]

I've really been thinking it was just the age of mine. Our 14 year old has never experienced the other side of the fence (public or private school) and the itch to try it out was made worse by several days with cousins that feed him ridiculous ideas. He came back telling me that colleges won't accept him because he won't have real grades but "Mom grades". Also, college simply don't accept homeschoolers period. The only schools he'll ever get into are, apparently, community colleges if he's lucky. I was about as hot as I've been in a really long time.

 

He's a great kid but he only does just enough. He does what I tell him and no more. He has no educational enthusiasm. I feel like I'm missing something or have done something wrong. So many other posters here have kids who are 14 and already know what they'll be their whole lives. Mine still want to play. :)

 

Sometimes, lately, the urge to let someone else worry about it or, better yet, take the blame seems so strong. In our little piece of the pie you have to decide at the beginning of high school to either all or none. Once you start high school homeschooling, you have to see it through. High schools won't accept homeschoolers without basically putting them back in 9th grade.

 

It's been a stressful summer for me. I feel like I've picked up the entire homeschooling yoke all over again and it's much heavier than before.

[Amy loves Bud]

 

Do you think there's a 7-year homeschooling itch?

 

ABSOLUTELY.

 

I just finished year 7 and I was really pretty much done. We unschooled except for math and grammar for the entire second semester. I begged the kids to go to PS when the year came to an end. :001_smile: They would hear nothing of it.

 

So I've taken a mistress or two - quilting and real estate.

 

I barely researched our school this year - we're mainly trucking along with what we were doing before the unschooling.

 

I'm handing over a lot of the responsibility for organizing and keeping up with work to the kids.

 

I feel much better about things as summer break is winding down - I needed the time off so much this year!

[sassenach]

Hmm... If you start homechooling a 5yo, add 7 years and that equals a 12yo. I think that may be part of it. Homeschooling a 12 year old was the worst year ever. In fact, it was so bad that I have opted to not homeschool a 13yo.

[ChrisOR]

 

When we say we want to quit homeschooling and we idealize the schoolhouse up the street, we are saying we want a simpler and more familiar life. We want to do what our mothers or grandmothers did, and we want the built-in community that schools can provide. We want to believe our children will come out the other side as we did. We want to shut our eyes to the changes in public schooling in this generation. We *need* to feel as if we can put our kids in school.

 

.

 

I feel that wistfulness for the easier financial years of the recent past. It was how we grew up, how we lived our early married years, and is familiar. This penny-pinching, cooking from scratch (however fun and hobby-ish I try to make it), line-drying, cloth diapering, thrift store shopping ... yep, its new and challenging.

 

I can see how that wistfulness for simpler, easier days does translate to homeschooling stress.

 

Good post.

[AuntieM]

What a true and insightful post, Amy. Thanks for taking the time to write it.

 

To this I will add that something inherent in home schooling - gosh, with parenting in general, I believe - is that just when you get the hang of things, needs change. Children grow, in all ways. You must always adapt to those changing needs, and that can be both exhilarating and exhausting.

 

I think it runs a little deeper than that for some.

 

I've been homeschooling for 10 years, and studying about it for 15 years. The seven-year-itch is real, and so is burnout! All hs veterans are familiar with these things.

 

Right now something different is going on, or at least adding to the usual problems. There is division and unrest in the country, there are soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq still, the economy is in trouble, Washington is a mess (no matter your vantage point, I think we all agree its a mess).

 

Mothers are wondering what to do. Some of us are planning to homeschool still, feeling that it is the best option for our family but also feeling guilty or wondering if we should be doing something to bring in some income instead.

 

Our husbands are stressed from being providers (and the founders of our homeschools) when they have been laid off for part of the year or their company might fall at any day or their bank might fail...

 

I think homeschooling is beginning to feel like a luxury in a day when, to most of us, the alternatives are fewer and worse than ever before.

 

I understand those who say they are just tired. Tired of being counter-culture, tired of carrying all the responsibility, tired of the very hard work of homeschooling.

 

In the 80's and 90's most of us were better off than we knew. When Vickie Farris wrote about how she coped as a homeschooling mother of 10 (hire a maid, order fast food, and use paper plates for all meals) we might not have been able to afford that but we could imagine her affording it. It was within the realm of normal.

 

In 2010, more of us have the timeless worries of mothers the world over. Food, clothing, and shelter for our children! Those preoccupations can be full-time jobs in themselves if we are trying to survive a recession.

 

To add the total and entire responsibility of homeschooling to old-fashioned scratch-cooking, mending, hanging laundry, growing a garden, making do and doing without, is more than some of us are ready to do. We simply don't have the experience.

 

When you add the unspecified worry about the times, and supporting husbands who are not as emotionally independent as they used to be, something has to give in Mama's heart or a nervous breakdown (or drinking habit LOL) threatens.

 

Some of these things are beneath the surface, I think. Nobody comes out and says "The stress of being a wife and mother in 2010 is more than I can bear and homeschool, too."

 

When we say we want to quit homeschooling and we idealize the schoolhouse up the street, we are saying we want a simpler and more familiar life. We want to do what our mothers or grandmothers did, and we want the built-in community that schools can provide. We want to believe our children will come out the other side as we did. We want to shut our eyes to the changes in public schooling in this generation. We *need* to feel as if we can put our kids in school.

 

I am carrying on with homeschooling. I happen to live in a truly abysmal school district and I would be depriving my children horribly if I didn't continue homeschooling. It is taking all my strength and courage to start this school year, though.

 

I keep thinking about the transcription work I might be able to find, or cutting down all the backyard trees for firewood and planting a giant garden, or building a chicken coop, or making over goodwill clothes for my family....or spending time helping and encouraging the elderly and the young families in my neighborhood and church.

 

My mind is in the Depression Era because I am beginning to see those problems playing out in lives around me. Do I have the right to spend all of my time, energy, and money homeschooling?

 

DH and I agree that our children have a right to a proper education. Homeschooling is the only way for them to have it.

 

So.

[Parrothead]

I hit burnout at the end of year six (K5-4th). For dd's 5th grade year almost everything I bought was geared to her. She really did teach herself. And did pretty darn decent on her year end assessment test.

I'm back now and excited to be starting again in September.

 

Through it all I never had the urge to put dd in PS.

[Closeacademy]

We had our crisis in the middle of last year. I learned to accept my children for who they are and that they may not realize mine or their own dreams but life will unfold for them as it will, we switched to a boxed curriculum, and we decided on a charter school for high school.

 

I feel much better going into this year (we started in preschool so this is year 7 or 8). We are more organized, relaxed and I have new interests--books and handcrafts.

 

The 7-year itch thing was different from the burn-out of a couple years previous in which I tried to use TOG and ended up dropping everything and we didn't do history again for 5 months.

 

I see so much of the previous posts in the world around me as well. I've seen people put kids in school and get jobs who I thought were hard-core homeschoolers. Many of my friends are doing the Dave Ramsey thing in hopes of reducing expenses.

[Geek]

Feeling overwhelmed and wanting to either quit to change things drastically? Yes.

 

This is my 7th year.