Tis the season for school examination. Fa la la la la...

From the end of May til mid July I spend a lot of time evaluating our schooling. What worked well, what worked OK and what didn't work as great as I thought it would. I evaluate each child and the progress they made. Learning styles and so on. I love it. I hate it.

I love looking back and seeing the progress, the lights that were turned on and milestones reached. I love pouring over catalogs and websites to evaluate books and curriculum choices. I love the dreaming process. The hope of finding the magical but ever elusive book that will excite my kids in the subjects they just don't care for. I love the planning and organizing. I love that we have so many options and choices available to us.

I hate that there are so many options and choices available to us. Classical, Charlotte Mason, ABeka, Bob Jones, Saxon, Singapore, kits, workbooks, hands-on, DVD, text book, games, puzzles, manipulatives. As I plan for the next school year I always feel as though my decisions will make or break the homeschool experience. If I choose the wrong one, devastation in that subject. The kids will fall behind and never catch up. Or worse yet, they will loose all interest in learning that subject and forever be tainted. I know, far too dramatic.

We have the option like many to take classes outside the home. In fact we have so many options we could skip the three R's and just take outside classes and never actually be home to school. Art, band, science, drama, Spanish, piano, Latin, and etc. I want the American Dream. For them to 'have it all'. Excellence in education. Fun social opportunities with peers of superb character. Wonderful enrichment opportunities and plenty of team sports to boot.

The reality is to achieve the dream we can not do every good thing. We must decide was is God's best for our family. No small task when it is all good. Not all God's best, but all good stuff. I feel especially burdened this year with the children all getting older and a baby in the house. This is a big responsibility that I don't want to mess up. I don't want to look back and think 'Why did we waste so much time with that?'

Good thing I have a couple months to work on this stuff, pray and sort it out.