To Homeschool or Not to Homeschool?

So, I'm barely hanging on until the end of the school year.  I just don't know how many more homework assignments, projects, and tests I can help with...or how many more lunches I can make the day before.  The grind of the school year feels, well, like exactly that...a grind.  I tease my fifteen year old all the time that I'll still be having babies and still at the same school when HE starts having babies.  We just laugh.  Anyway, I'm thrilled that the end of the school year is around the corner.  I am dreaming of not setting an alarm - even though I know the odds are that my little ones will continue to wake up early as if there were an alarm clock in their heads.  It'll just be nice to think I might actually get to sleep in from time to time.

I don't have big plans for the summer - summer school for the teenager not because he's in trouble (as it would have been for us back in the day), but because he wants to get ahead, basketball for the six year old, and swim for the three year old.  That should keep me busy enough, but I'm going to try my hand at homeschooling.  Yes, I'm finally going to make the leap, buy a curriculum, and see if I can actually teach my six year old something without the household going to pot.  If the house is a disaster, my kids are always starving, and I'm a wreck, then back to Catholic school he'll go.

I keep trying to put my finger on exactly why I want to homeschool.  I just have always felt a calling to it.  We had thought about homeschooling our oldest back a million years ago, but he was an only child back then, and we didn't want to risk him becoming a hermit.  Thankfully, school has helped him not be so hermit-y, and high school finally forced him out of his shell.  We are lucky to have excellent Catholic schools close by, so really why in the world would I want to do this?  The only thing that keeps reverberating in my head is that I want to spend more time with my children, and I want to be in control of the information that is available to them.

My time with my oldest is becoming more and more fleeting.  The time it takes to raise children seems to happen overnight.  These children are my children for all eternity, but I get a limited time with them here on earth.  I want to live life to the fullest with them.  I'm not really interested in drinking wine or playing tennis with the ladies while my kids are in school with strangers' kids for seven hours a day picking up God knows what bad habits, bad language, bad thoughts, or just bad germs!

I have so many concerns about it all, but I keep telling myself that the answer to homeschool or not will become very evident.  Either it will work or it won't.  I guess I'm just nervous to even think about making that step.  I certainly don't want to make my other three all hermit-y.  I hope I would be able to find other Catholic homeschoolers here in South Florida.  I don't have huge expectations for that though.  It seems most homeschoolers here are evangelicals, and our Catholic schools are numerous and overall, very good.

So, I will keep you posted.  If any of you reading this homeschool, please post suggestions for me.  I would love to hear what any of you are doing or what you have learned from your experiences.  Heck, I just love hearing from readers!  I will try to be better about blogging more frequently - school has just been kicking me in the rear.  'Til next time...