As my son goes to school today after 4 years of homeschooling, I am tempted to look back and wonder if it achieved anything. At first sight, it seems that it was not a great outcome as it did not achieve anything that I had promised myself and other stakeholders. The primary responsibility lies with me as I turned out to not be as involved as I had wanted to be. I have not spent time with him, as I thought I would, for I realise that I don’t have the temperament to deal with kids, let alone teach them. That was the first wrong assumption I had when we undertook the journey. 

The second assumption was that he would be self-motivated to study. It turned out that this assumption was flawed to the extent that he became good in things that caught his fancy like military hardware, but things that were difficult for him, like writing English, he ignored completely. The discipline of a regular curriculum brings in the ability of doing tough things too, I guess.

The good thing that got achieved though is that he knows how to learn, when he is interested in something. He has read a lot of history through different sources, has interned at the museum, learnt woodworking, Japanese, Sanskrit. Things others have done alongside school surely, so not an outstanding achievement, but nevertheless skills that will come handy as he goes through life. He doesn’t think he knows it all and that is something I am proud of. He is curious, knows that a lot of things are not as they seem at first look and multiple perspectives exist. And he had a good time, slept enough and was available for anyone who was free during the day :-).

As he starts school again, I hope this new chapter in his life is a happy one and keeps him curious for more experiences.