Newsflash! Newsflash! Newsflash!
I know you need this newsflash like I did, so here it is.
You are not omnipotent! You do not have the ability or time or knowledge to absolutely accomplish every aspect of your child’s education completely on your own without any assistance from anyone else.
If you did, you wouldn’t need any book, nor the Internet, nor anyone ever to watch your child while you are diverted on something else for even a short time. (For that matter, you wouldn’t be reading this!) Get used to it. You need help! My husband talks hopefully and joyfully of our children’s homeschooling. He has always done so, even before we had any children. He would talk of others pitching in and helping with things they love and are proficient in. My response, even if not verbal to him, was that that is my responsibility, and a lack of doing everything myself meant that I was not taking that responsibility seriously.
I can’t tell you how much guilt I laid on myself in my earlier years of homeschooling. In honesty and frankness, I still visit that deep well and drink from it occasionally. The offerings of that well are despondence, depression, and a continual sense of failure, all of which combine to inhibit any forward motion. Moving forward out of this requires humility and a recognition of your need of help.
2 years ago as I was washing dishes one day with the assistance of a friend, I was stopped mid-sentence as I looked at her and asked her if she would like to teach my children music. She is a classically-trained pianist, and so has far more knowledge than I have in music. Tears of joy and humility at being asked came to her eyes, and thus began my children’s piano lessons in which they have grown unbelievably well, continuing to be blessed by them as is their teacher is blessed in giving them.
A year and a half ago we asked my sister-in-law to teach the children art, something she loves and has an eye for. Their artistic growth has been more than I had brought them to be able to do. So, having friends teach my children the things they themselves love, blesses them to be able to share it, and my children are blessed to learn from people who have a passion for their subject. Not only do the children learn from others who teach them, but so do I. It has also blessed me by pulling me from the edge of that well of self-imposed guilt so that I visit it less often, and for shorter drinks.
The teaching of unit studies to my children and the others at the ranch was mine alone for a period of time. When I went away for a couple of weeks, we all learned valuable lessons ranging from the fact that some were able to step up and do what they hadn’t thought they could do, to others finding they were not omnipotent and irreplaceable. All the lessons learned led to humility and were a great blessing to each, and so our moving forward in teaching the children has grown in flexibility and richness with more people included in the children’s learning.
Homeschooling has the added benefit of your own personal education while teaching your child. There are (at least) two sides of homeschooling to fall off on. Perhaps you place too much on your own shoulders, and need to be willing to ask for help. Or else, maybe you fall off on the other side, and have to learn that you’ve never accepted the responsibility of homeschooling. It’s time to step up and complete what you commit to in order to grow and teach your child. Either way, you need to recognize your need for help and be willing to receive it without guilt!
You aren’t able to “do it all”. Recognizing that will open your eyes to the opportunities for your children to learn from others, and for you to receive their help and knowledge, and so also bless them!