Lame-o

Someone has (inadvertently) pointed out to me that my life is, well, lame. Yeah, we have nothing better to do with our time than to get stressed out over buying Christmas presents for the cats. In November. Yeah, L-A-M-E.

*sigh* I wasn't always lame. Honest. When did I become lame? I'd say, round about the time I became a homeschool teacher.

There, I said it. AND lightning didn't strike me.

See, homeschooling often seems to me like a purposely creating a tempest in a teapot, making something that is pretty darned simple (education) into something rife with angst. Seriously -- you have kids, you send them to school, they get an education, grow up, get a job, and leave home. Lather, rinse, repeat -- the Circle of Life, right? Well, yeah, unless your kids have an altered neurological system or some other problem with the educational or schooling process.

If you go to the public schools, you get peer pressure, fads, clubs, attitudes, friends, crushes, enemies, sports -- all things good or bad, depending on how it works out for them and how angst-y you get about that sort of thing. You send the kids out into the world. They find a way to figure it out. It builds character. Right?

I know you can simulate that sort of "real life living" (if that's what it is) while educating a child at home, but it doesn't seem to have the same feeling of combat. Maybe that's good?

Either way, my kids don't do "group education" activities very well -- the girl because she can't concentrate when she's trying to gouge her eyes out and the boy because he's trying so hard to get out of the class without getting into trouble. So in order to avoid the "I want to want something" culture of the suburbs, I have to find them a Life? Oy. I'll put it on my to-do list.

Now, I'm pretty sure the homeschooling didn't cause the lameness. Maybe lack of contact with the outside world did. I can't exactly take the kids to work at the homeless shelter, they can't do clubs/sports, we don't have livestock, they're afraid of nature/bugs/wildlife, and they're not interested in saving the sea turtles. These kids need to get a Life's Passion.

I can share my passions with them -- native plants, social justice, home improvement on the cheap, looking after my parents, building curriculum understandable to autistic children, helping my kids find joy in the ordinary moments of life -- but my passions will not be theirs.

Well, now we've found common ground between the schoolers and the homeschoolers -- we both want our kids to grow up with a purpose, a passion. That's something! I may have just fulfilled my life's destiny!