Our classroom…that isn’t.

I’ve come to terms with where I sit on the homeschooling issue.  I’ve blogged in the past about my internal struggles on the topic, and I think we have our resolution.  Now I need to come to terms with it.

In a perfect world – that would be a world where I’m not working ten hours a day outside the home with an hour drive each way – we would homeschool Jack.  I’ll even go so far as to say we’d homeschool, with a touch of unschooling.  If we win the lottery, that will happen.  Barring such an event, though, I don’t see it happening.  I’m not home enough to do it, and while my husband is more than capable of creating a wonderful classroom for our son, I am Type-A enough to want to have my hands in it as much as possible.  And I just can’t do it, not with my schedule.  It wouldn’t be fair to Jack, and the bottom line is, that’s what matters.

So that’s where we stand.  And now it is up to me to come to terms with it.

Until then, let me fantasize a little about our homeschooling classroom.  It looks a lot like this:

With a healthy dose of this:

And a dash of this:

Our inability to effectively homeschool Jack is a damn shame.  We have all of the right tools.  We have so many resources available: from our little “urban farm” to our proximity to a wonderful library to access to all kinds of programs, we could really do something amazing.

Jack is just 2 and a half right now, so school is still an event in the far-enough-off future.  So for now, we live out my homeschooling dreams in our little ways:  the garden is a classroom, the state park is our field trip.  The kitchen is our science lab, and the library is our constant companion.

It’s time to buy that lottery ticket.