yes, that is what I am a homschooling mummy of four. And I have been doing it since 2005. Back then when we went on holiday and saw families taking breaks during school, I always asked myself - "How do they do it"? and now I am on that side facing all sorts of questions and comments.
The other day my daughter drove into town with a friend and her mother. The friend asked if her mother had ever thought about homeschooling her. The mother said " oh dear, I just could not be as kind and patient as N.J. she sure must have the patience of a saint".
Now that comment got me thinking. Do I have more patience than anybody else? I came to the conclusion that this is a path we have taken and of course at the beginning I wanted to do everything right so I - like any parent - overdid it. I played the teacher.
However, this did not last very long. The kids moslty just wanted me to read to them and sit and have tea. And that is what we still do today. We sit, talk, read, talk again, go for walks and explore things together. Children pursue life, and in doing so, pursue knowledge. They need adults to trust in the inevitability of this very natural process, and to offer what assistance they can.
All our kids read - alot. So, in a way i dont worry too much. Of course even I have my days where I do worry but I have still never regret homeschooling them in the first place. Because the time we spend together is so full of quality and love that I would not want to miss that.
And that is really all you have to do as a parent, just love and trust them.
John Holt once said "There is no difference between living and learning... it is impossible and misleading and harmful to think of them as being separate.”
And now I am off to read to my kids.
xxx xxx
Chocolat begins with the arrival in a tiny French village of Vianne Rocher, a single mother with a young daughter, on Shrove Tuesday. As the inhabitants of Lansquenet-sous-Tannes clear away the remains of the carnival which heralds the beginning of Lent, Vianne moves with her daughter into a disused bakery facing the church, where Francis Reynaud, the young and opinionated curé of the parish, watches her arrival with disapproval and suspicion.
"My daughter was three when I wrote Chocolat. She is one of the main characters in the story, as is her imaginary rabbit, Pantoufle. I like to think that was what began it; for the first time I felt ready to write like a mother, to try and express some of what it felt like to me. That started me thinking about my own mother and the members of my family, in France and elsewhere, and that's why so many of them are depicted in this book. My great-grandmother, especially, to whom the book is dedicated, is a strong influence, being at the same time a wonderful cook, a powerful matriarchal figure as well as being (as I remember her best) a lively, eccentric and generous Mémée. Denounced from the local pulpit for daring to send her son to a secular school rather than a fee-paying Catholic one, she was the template for both Vianne and Armande, and her picture is on the back cover of the book, just as I remember her, in her garden with her milk-jug in one hand. Armande's red petticoats belong to her, as does the manner of Armande's death, her refusal to conform and her impudent zest for life. Vianne's belief in magic also belongs to her, as do many of her recipes. 
I also wanted to write about people, and about how the arrival of a single individual can affect the internal politics of a community. My books often focus on small communities and the interaction between their inhabitants. The smaller the group, the more dramatic the consequences when someone introduces change. Lansquenet is not a real place, though it is closely based on a little town I know well and I have tried to make it as authentic as I can. It could be anywhere. The rivalries and jealousies of people are almost the same wherever you go.