How to Get Your School Day Started Early

We got an early start on school today. This is not normal for us. I used to get 'em up bright and early, but nowadays I take longer to ease into the day, and the kids don't mind waiting until I'm ready. But we had a house showing appointment scheduled for early morning, so we had to get it together earlier than usual.

Realtors aren't crazy about us being home when they show the house, but we just can't leave for every showing. My dh would never get any work done, and we wouldn't get much school done, either.

I always wonder what people think when they see us in the house on a weekday. I imagine we cause a lot of people to scratch their heads. There's Dad in his office, working on his computer. And over in the dining room are Mom and the kids, schoolbooks spread all over. Do visitors think we're weird? Judging from the questions I've had in the past, it's very likely that they wonder if we ever get tired of being home together every day (the answer is no, btw).

Do they wonder if we homeschool because we don't like the public schools? So far we haven't had any questions like that, but I'm sure somewhere along the line, someone's going to ask us why we homeschool. My answer would be that we were homeschoolers before we came here, and we'll be homeschoolers after we move. It's just what we do. If they're worried about the schools, they can go talk to my neighbor, whose six kids have attended local schools over the 19 years both our families have lived here. One of her sons just graduated from college as a music teacher, and another is about to finish medical school and start an optometry practice. They've done pretty well so far.

Being on the market when you're homeschooling and running two in-home businesses is no fun. You have to drop what you're doing to pick up the clutter and drag out the vacuum cleaner every time a realtor calls to show the house. It gets old real quick. But it's what we have to do so we can move on.