What we can do

People go back and forth all the time about the benefits of public school and socialization vs. the benefits of homeschooling and individualized education.  As an educator, I can see both sides, but as a parent I can't.  I know it sounds ridiculous and some of my dearest friends would disagree with me, but here's what a do know:
--If I send my kids to school, I can't spend ten minutes with the girls watching a squirrel out the window going for acorns and sitting in a sunny place eating his acorns and then going for more and coming back over and over and over.  They were truly fascinated.
--If I send my kids to school, I don't get to take the kids with me shopping for goodies to stuff Easter Eggs and letting them pick out what they think the kids will like while keeping in mind what will actually fit INTO the egg!
--If I send my kids to school, Rachel can't take her time writing 0-100.  With no time limit, she literally sits at the table, takes a break when she needs to, watches out the window to find cardinals when she needs a break, and discovers it's more fun to write 11, 21, 31, 41, 51, etc. straight down instead of going across.
--If I send my kids to school, we can't have dance parties at the drop of a hat.
--If I send my kids to school, someone else has to take care of their bathroom issues.  I don't know why, but I'm grossed out thinking about someone else dealing with that for them!
--If I send my kids to school, they don't get to spend time with each other during the day and play whatever they want with each other.
I know that those are all things that can happen at home after school hours, but those are all things that happened within two hours this morning.  I love being able to take life at our pace and actually getting more done.  I feel that when you're rushed or pressed for time, life doesn't go so smoothly.  I know when we're in a rush, I try to stop and take a breath and get my act together.  Otherwise I lose my patience and no one benefits from that.  We rarely have to be anywhere at a certain time.  We don't ever have to stop an activity because time's up or there's no more time allotted for it.  One day we'll concern ourselves more with getting things done within a timely manner but right now it's nice to just worry about getting things done.