Fringe Benefits

This past summer I told a woman in my neighborhood (who happens to be a former elementary school principal) that Greg and I had chosen to homeschool Chloe's kindergarten year, and she grimaced and proceeded to lecture me for fifteen minutes on the gravity of what I was getting myself into. Although I had to suppress a few defensive verbal jabs I longed to throw back in her direction, part of me was grateful for the acknowledgment that this is, indeed, a big responsibility. It's a lot of work, it can be very time consuming, and the way I spend my days has been overhauled since the third week of August.  I haven't seen an episode of House Hunters in weeks - sweet goodness.

I've been thinking a lot today about the phrase fringe benefit. I looked it up in the dictionary and it's defined as "any nonwage payment or benefit granted to employees by employers; compensation in addition to salary." I guess I consider my salary the tangible evidence that my children are learning well under my instruction: they can sing all the words to the hymns I am teaching them, and Chloe is progressing very well in both reading and math - there's a paycheck. Sam and Max are learning to write their letters and they know the days of the week and the months of the year - there's a paycheck. But in addition to my salary, I must say that the fringe benefits from these past few weeks have been lovely. Herewith, a few...

Extra time for snuggling and reading together in the morning...

 

Art class in jammies...

 

And last, but certainly not least, the opportunity to exercise your own creative take on patriotism...

 

Old reruns of House Hunters simply can't compete with a three year old elephant in shiny pink cowboy boots reciting the Pledge of Allegiance in perfect diction.