Part 7: Chapter 6

DTR

Photo by Xavier Mouton Photographie on Unsplash

Thursday, July 30, 2020
        Posted the following on Facebook: “Homeschooling Mamas, reveal thyselves! We learned our district will be doing distance learning for the 2020-2021 school year. They may change to in-person later, but online learning me no likey. Operation Homeschool must commence.”
	Everyone and their mother is commenting, and I'm delightfully overwhelmed with their responses. 
	“Come to the dark side. We have fun and lots of coffee,” one homeschooling mama says. 
	“They've announced that it will be for the entire year? Mercy!” another friend says. 
	“Are you sure? Homeschoolers usually turn out kinda weird,” Paul posts to which I can’t help but reply, “Speak for yourself.”
	People come out of the woodwork to tell me how long they’ve been homeschooling or how they’ve also decided to homeschool this year due to COVID. Get dozens of recommendations for curriculum and Charter groups. Learn that I must file an affidavit by October.
	Lucy recommends a book written by her aunt called A Survivor's Guide to Homeschooling. Lucy says her aunt homeschooled eight kids before writing this book, but Lucy also warns me it was written in the 80’s and may be outdated. Order the thing right away off Amazon.
	Beatrice—much to my annoyance because I’m still mad at her—posts the most helpful comment of all. “Give yourself grace. Focus on the basics, like reading, writing, and arithmetic. And enjoy the time together. Have a schedule but be flexible and don't feel bad about taking time to have fun and go on field trips. These young years are so precious and they don't need a lot of sit-down time. They need a happy mama and lots of read-alouds and snuggle time. Do whatever sounds like fun learning to you. It's amazing how little formal learning they need in comparison to traditional school.”