25 Things I Won’t Miss About Public School
May 23, 2014
Before we started homeschooling, my theory was “it’s got to be easier than what we are doing now.” I didn’t quite know if that was really possible or if it was just some crazy ideal. Turns out, it was true.
I thought I would make a list of all the things that I won’t miss to encourage me on the days that I second guess my decision. These are in no particular order.
- Packing lunches. Pretty much the same thing every day.
- Washing uniforms. Weekly chore that wore me out.
- Driving to and from school. I’m using half the gas I was using. Money saver too.
- Sitting in the pick up line. I eventually learned to swing in at the last minute but there were a lot of minutes lost just sitting.
- Homework!!!! I will always be a #homeworkhater.
- PTO drama. Bishop Family Motto: “We don’t do drama.”
- Rearranging my schedule for snow days. Worse than being on call and half the time it wasn’t even for snow.
- Planning vacations around school breaks. I hate traveling with the rest of the world.
- Balanced calendar. This mama loves summer! The school board, not so much.
- Sending letters to the school board. See #9. Also, it made no difference.
- Class snacks. tLG has food sensitivities and couldn’t eat most of the items sent by other parents. But they were given to her anyway and and then she’d be a hot mess. In the end, I was sending snacks for the class once a month and snacks for her every week. Spency!
- Bullying. My child was on the giving and receiving end of this. I hate it all around.
- 1st day of school paperwork. Glass of wine required.
- Behavior-related emails. Always made me feel like a terrible mother and helpless to control the situation.
- Checking a daily folder. Just annoying.
- Getting my child up and ready. Hardest sell of the day.
- Exhausted child. 7 am is not quite her natural wakeup time and 8 pm is not quite her natural bedtime. Therefore, we had sleeping woes.
- Grumpy attitude. Probably directly related to #17.
- Fundraising. I wish schools had more funding.
- Common Core Standards. Not a fan of turning my child into a sheeple.
- Standardized testing. Too much pressure.
- Mad rush if we oversleep. Sometimes we all just need a break.
- Valentine’s cards. Darn you Pinterest and crafty moms everywhere.
- Spring Fever. Usually resulted in lots of #14 and tears. I’m pretty sure I’ve spend the entire month of May crying for the last 3 years.
- Disconnected. I felt like the time away caused our bond to suffer. I also didn’t feel in tune with what she was learning.
Here are a few things I will miss. Again, in no particular order.
- Stanford moms. Some of the smartest and sweetest women I’ve ever met.
- Ms. Dillehay. New principal who took a legitimate interest in my child from Day 1.
- Free, dependable childcare. No explanation required.
- Montessori methods. I’m a big fan but the tools are expensive.
- Seeing my child run to my car to greet me each afternoon. Made my day.
- Encore. Allowed my child to think outside the box.
- Special programs and activities. Field day, Holiday Lunch, Field Trips, Festival of Nations, Fall Festival, Author’s Day, Fly Over.
- Walk Around the Sun. Unique Montessori birthday celebration.
- Lunchbox Letters. As much as I hated making lunch. I loved putting these special notes inside.
- Dressing up the car. I always did this on the last day of school and we pretty much made a scene upon leaving. Hooping, hollering, horn honking. Yay for Summer!
Overall, homeschooling has been a blessing for us. Clearly, my pros outweigh the cons. In some ways I wish we would have done it sooner. In other ways, I’m not sure that it would have worked. I feel like the Lord laid this on my heart at the exact time that we were all ready for it. I also know that this is not a choice for every family but there were certain things about public school that just plain got on my nerves and I’m thankful that we have eliminated those stresses from our life. For us, homeschool is, in fact, easier than what we were doing in public school.
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