Where'd My Summer Go?

I had barely stopped giggling maniacally that the school year was over when poof! Another was upon me. Seriously? I haven't even turned in my grades for the first semester of last year, much less finished off the year in the required triplicate. As of today, I did manage to get all the orders (that I've thought of!) in for curriculum for the 2010-11 year. It totalled some $350+ and would have been more except I already had so many of the texts I needed due to a bad case of OCD.

While trying to organize the space I'm setting aside for homeschooling this year, I was appalled -- shocked and awed at the sheer volume of my book collection. What was I thinking? Honestly, I think I thought I was going to be a MUCH better mom than I really am. Yes, I thought I'd need two books of 175 science experiments each. Evidently, I thought we'd be using my college vocabulary workbooks, along with resources with which one could learn German, Latin, Spanish, AND French.

When I started homeschooling, I thought it would be the ultimate act of sculpture, only better. Not only would I chisel out 3-D masterpieces in cute little boy form, but I would shape their minds! Somewhere along the line, though, I realized that the marble contained mostly pre-ordained images and I would never be the Michaelangelo to free them much differently from the dictates of the raw Carrara marble. My kids are what they are, and that is how I like them.

I also like being a homeschool mom. I like having them around me when the light bulb goes off. I like being the worst influence they experience all day. And how will I later gauge my success? Will it be in the number of languages they master? Honestly, at this point, I'll be happy if they master English! Their eventual ACT scores? No, it will be based on whether -- when they grow up -- they'll come home for Game night, bring home herds of friends at Thanksgiving, and later (when the time is right) ask me to babysit!