Regret?

    
     Recently, while the whole family was having fun in the pool, a woman from Canada asked me "Does your daughter regret not going to public school?" Now I'm used to the socialization question but this was a new one for me. What a strange question. Since Haley was at the other end of the pool I answered for her "She enjoys all the great books she is reading and she loves how quickly she can get all her work done. She has more time for riding her horse and other activities."
     When you homeschool you get a lot of strange questions and comments. A very sweet older family member once said they were sad my kids would not have any friends. I said "Have you met my kids?" The truth is they have gobs of friends. They have more free time now to spend with friends than they did when they went to school. When we are home in NY, Macy sees her best friend 4 times per week. In fact, her friend spends enough time at our house that her parents affectionately replace her last name with our last name. Haley sees her closest friends on Tuesdays when we go to Community Bible Study. This year she started doing all of her science labs with 2 of her friends who are going through the same book. (We are missing those sweet girls while we are in FL but with texting and facetime we are somehow muddling through). Honestly, when we are home in NY, my girls are in too many activities (something I want to re-evaluate when we get back)...swim lessons, gymnastics, karate, Friday co-op (HLACNY shown in picture), plus instrument lessons, horse lessons, and church activities. Unsocialized these kids are not.
    Once someone told me that my kids needed to go to school so they could learn how to handle bullying. Wow! I'm all for learning conflict resolution. My kids get loads of conflict resolution practice (we are spending 3 months in a camper after all). We have even had some small scale bullish behavior from kids for friends and kids in the campground... These are excellent opportunities to teach the girls to not take offense too quickly and to forgive... But bullying is a whole different animal in my mind. Bullying destroys self-esteem. It doesn't "teach."
     Back to Regret... Will Haley regret being homeschooled? I hope not. I hope she views her parents through the lens of mercy. We truly feel homeschooling is giving both girls the best education we can give them (academically and emotionally).  I hope she realizes that regret for the past is just a waste of spirit.  I hope she knows that God will not waste one little experience but will use it all to make her into his child.
     I did talk to Haley about it. She said she likes homeschooling. She remembers going to school and how long everything took. She loves to read her history books and readers. She does miss a few of her school friends but she has wonderful homeschooling friends. She also gets to come to FL and spend time with Grandpa, Great gram, Aunt Kerry, and Uncle Ken. You know, now I'm glad this Canadian lady asked me this question. I'm glad I had a chance to talk it all over with Haley. What an amazing young lady she is.