Vacations

One of the added perks to homeschooling is the ability to take a vacation whenever it suits you. I love that flexibility. I just wish I had it. That's the downside to homeschooling one child and sending the other off to public school every morning. I'm still tied to the school calendar. I still have to get up at 6am to ensure Garrett makes it to the bus stop by 7:15am.  

This past week, I made the trip up to my home town in Upstate NY to visit my newborn baby niece. I had to make the decision whether to pull Garrett out of school or leave him home with Jacob, who had to stay behind and work. I decided to pull him out. He didn't want to miss meeting his cousin, he loves getting a day off of school and he didn't want to be left behind; all excellent reasons in my mind.

I felt mildly guilty about pulling him out of class for personal, not medical reasons, especially since I know I will be doing it again at Thanksgiving and again at Christmas. I know it's disruptive to the class having kids out unnecessarily. But family always plays a dominant role in my life and I think that making the effort to put family first, even at the inconvenience of our day-to-day lives, is an important value I want to instill in my kids.

So on this ten-hour long car ride, I had plenty of time to ponder. I was planning field trips that I want to take Casia on this year in and around our state. Many of them I think Garrett would enjoy and really get a lot out of, yet sadly, I am going to have to leave him behind. It is at these moments that I really wish I were homeschooling both children. I don't feel compelled to pull Garrett out of school because of a poor academic fit, as I did Casia, but I am beginning to love the idea of homeschooling as a way of life, not just a temporary fix for Casia's education. After one year of homeschooling, I see the benefits beyond the basic scholastic skills. I wish I'd pulled Casia out sooner. And I start to wonder if maybe it wouldn't be better, for Garrett, for me and for the family as a whole, if we pulled him out to homeschool as well. It's just a seed of an idea at this point, but it's starting to grow. We'll see what happens over the course of the year.