And then she turned her face away from me, tears welling up in her eyes. "It's like I don't even know who I am anymore, you know?" she said. A sweet mom friend was over for coffee. Both she & her husband have full-time jobs, working from home. I could tell that juggling work & kids were taking a toll on her mental well being. She didn't want to subject her two children to mandatory temperature checks and wearing masks all day while they were at school. At the same time, homeschooling just wasn't going well for her. She found herself yelling at the kids more. She snapped at her husband at the smallest things. The family dynamic had suffered since everyone was cooped indoors a lot more & while she was trying her best to keep things going smoothly, she had hit a breaking point.

For many families, the two months of homeschooling before summer induced enough anxiety to question whether homeschooling for the long haul is even possible. Especially, if you are the type of...

As every mother realizes pretty quickly, I noticed I was never alone. I drink early morning coffees holding a sleepy baby in one hand. Cooking breakfast is a pantomime of toddlers clambering atop kitchen counters and cabinets. A simple trip to the bathroom is not without a troupe following me in and engaging in merry conversation. The rest of the day carries on the same way, baby on my back & children underfoot until my husband comes home. Yet another person to join me as we bring our busy day to a close with dinner, bath-time (again, not without baby) & then bed.

You may find it somewhat ironic that I found myself feeling rather alone. Tucked away in my own home, isolated from the world around. Homeschooling mothers often find themselves in such a juxtaposition - lonely, yet never alone.

Homeschooling in uncharted territory can magnify this feeling of loneliness. To be thrust in the throes of working full-time jobs while simultaneously educating children is a daunting...

When I say 'Homeschooling is NOT School at Home', I am saying homeschooling is "Learning At Home". I realize, of course, that for some children a "school-at-home" approach works very well. But, it is essential to understand that it is merely one way of teaching among an ocean of possibilities.

If "very well' is not how you would describe your current homeschooling experience, read on below.

School. It is not necessary & your children don't need it.

Now before you close out of this browser & declare me to be crazy, hear me out, ok?

When I say "school", I mean traditional school as in a classroom with a blackboard, desks & chairs. Traditional schooling invokes a certain sense of obedience. It is a place of instruction where teachers tell children what to do and what to think. When people say school is essential for children, they usually mean education is important for children. And it is along with self discipline, logic, critical thinking & problem-solving skills....

Well, the apocalypse arrived. And I can personally attest to public school children looking woefully out of their window while my homeschooled kids busied themselves in vital play, weaving in and out of our house on various “expeditions”, while fashioning bows & arrows out of twigs and yarn. I might even go as far as to say that quarantine has forced many parents to turn their own children into screen time zombies - and distance learning has done little to mitigate that problem.

Soon after schools shut down, my neighbor confided in me that she was drowning. Her workload had not slowed down at all during the quarantine. Many nights, she worked until midnight because during the day she spent most of her energy watching over her child's shoulder, pleading with him to complete his worksheets. Distance learning to her meant only three things:

Piles of  Worksheets. Lots of Tears. Rinse & Repeat.

“This is not how I imagined school to be for my...