So they must get to learn other things that they don’t learn in school. (Translation: I had no idea you were some sort of religious freak – those are the only people who homeschool… religious freaks.)

Well, I am not a religious freak. I love the Lord, but not a religious freak. So now that THAT is out of the way….

It could happen (not the religious freak part). Every now and then I do take the kids to do interesting things.  Can I get something new and different in every day?  No. It is tough enough to get everything in that is required by the online school and the DC School Board, every day, for three kids.  Who has time and energy for enrichment activities?  Luckily, living in DC there are great museums and historical attractions everywhere, so we don’t have to travel very far to get in a little something extra.  I do have to make dinner every day so adding a cooking class every once in a while isn’t too hard.

I tend to notice more of what they don’t learn here that they could learn at brick and mortar schools.  They are not learning to use curse words, the details of the latest gory movie, how to ridicule other children, how to do who knows what when the teacher or bus driver isn’t looking, how to lie about what homework they have, how to have inappropriate conversations, or how to eat chips and soda and call it lunch. I know there are some fabulous brick and mortar schools out there, some that are doing more with the kids than even I can do… this is our choice for this time in our lives.

So I guess they do learn things that they might not learn in school, like respect, time management, manners, resourcefulness, and how to learn by observing the world.  The time we don’t spend moving between classes, driving to school, filing into the lunch room, or waiting for the class to be quiet, is spent outside finding examples of what they have found in their books and on the Internet.