A Homeschooler's Birthday Party

Soooooo... I've always had little "get togethers" for my kiddos on their birthdays, although for the past couple of years I've only had "family gatherings" because I learned pretty quickly that some homeschoolers are well...wanderers. Wanderer homeschoolers are those families that don't like sticking to a plan, pull their kids out of extracurricular activities and away from their social circles frequently, not giving them the opportunity to be invited to a party per say. This saddens me because out of the hundreds of homeschooling families that we've met only a few have been constant and my kiddos don't comprehend why their friends just stop coming, or don't invite them anywhere, or just fall of the face of the earth.  So birthday parties are always a tentative plan with our family. This year I didn't gamble on inviting the few friends we do have in hopes they'd show up, so we decided to have some big family fun! We rented a party room at a local party place with tons of games and racing cars and had a blast. My son, didn't even realize that his friends weren't there & I didn't get my heart broken! It was truly a win win situation! 

More on homeschool wanderers...

My husband and I have been teaching classes in our home for several years. We teach all the fun stuff like Spanish, Art & Science. Every year we advertise with the local email chains and every year we receive an overwhelmingly amount of interests. Every first class is jammed packed and everyone expresses their love for the classes but when week two comes around, half don't show up (even after the RSVP'd) or some families are just not a fit for our family. For example, their disciplining style is too harsh and will disrupt the classes or they may have a teenager and all the rest of the kiddos are very young (we're actually working on making a more flexible curriculum to accommodate the older siblings). For the most part though, most of the families that attend the initial classes fit really nicely with the constant families that we have but for some reason or another they don't fully commit. I know you're thinking, "well...just how expensive are the classes?" Honestly, we don't even charge properly! Basically there's a tip jar at the front of the classroom and each child is supposed to put $5 a class in there for supplies but its unregulated, so money is not a viable excuse :( 

The therapist in me wants to believe that these families have a hard time committing but the mama in me thinks that I'm doing a horrible job at teaching or maybe just maybe my kids are...the "bad ones" that scare off these potential bff families. All in all, teaching the classes does more for me than for my kiddos. First, it makes me thoroughly clean my casita! I clean and clean but I clean like no ones business when we are having guests over! Second, I thoroughly enjoy having something to do. Yes, yes, I know, I already have a really full schedule but I really like being productively busy! Third, I get to socialize as well, I have one family that is exactly like us (older boy, two little girls & same belief system) and their mama and I are great together! There are a few more families that I feel so so so connected to and often miss them but the stubborn Mexican says "wait, if they truly love you, they'll contact you" so I wait and wait -.- Lastly, I enjoy teaching, I feel like my kiddos get to see me at my absolute best and they get to learn from their peers as well. Overall, I love my many jobs but teaching homeschoolers just melts my heart and keeps me happy. 

Our new semester is coming up and I can't wait to get started! I'm hoping that things run much more smoothly this semester in terms of attendance and we meet new and continue to meet with our bff families:)