My two oldest sons...

are in seventh grade. Which means that the schoolwork requirements have been greatly ratcheted up. By steep inclines equal to Mt. Everest.

Often when it is discovered that I home educate, other moms will say, "I'm just not smart enough to do that."

Well, news flash: I am not smart enough either. In fact, the motto that has kept me going for almost four years now is "One day smarter". And in this house, sometimes it literally means, "One hour smarter".

Algebra was no fun when I did it in 8th grade. It is still no cake walk. General science and its principles of Superposition are still things I have to wrap my brain around. I am an English major but adjective and adverbial clauses can still get twisted up in this 40+ year old brain. The difference I remind myself of is that if they were in a traditional school setting, I would still have to be wrapping my brain around those concepts when helping the boys with homework.

And it would be homework and classwork assignments that I did not have the option to pick, study and be prepared for when they had trouble. I would still have to deal with the "I am not smart enough" principle.

Endpoint: being not smart enough is not reason enough for our family to not home educate. In our case, it has become one of the reasons we do home educate. The boys are still learning tough subjects but in the comfort of our home, in the flexibility that our lifestyle requires and loves to enjoy, and with the not smart enough Mom wearing her comfy clothes.