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The Imperfect Homeschooler |
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Patience
When people find out that I homeschool my children, they almost always say something along the lines of “I could never do that. You must be a really patient person.” Most of the time, I respond that I wasn’t patient when I started (my husband can vouch for that), but that my patience developed over the years. I don’t go into too much detail because I’ve discovered that most of these people don’t really want to know how to become more patient. They’re just grabbing onto the first excuse they can think of to explain why they can’t (read: don’t want to) homeschool their children. But the question of patience is an interesting one. My mother-in-law has commented many times that she is amazed by my patience in dealing with my children. Please don’t be fooled by that: I am not always patient with them. In fact, in certain situations, I have to send myself into time-out so I don’t wring someone’s neck (especially if that someone is a teenager). But I do think that I have more patience than I once did, thanks to many |
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years of trying to get my children to understand concepts and ideas because I want to help them learn. It is so rewarding to see the light go on when some challenging idea becomes understandable, and that light won’t go on if I’m breathing down my child’s neck.
You'll find the rest of this article along with many others in The Imperfect Homeschooler's Guide to Homeschooling. Click here for more information.
© 2007 Cardamom Publishers/Barbara Frank
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