'I taught her that!'

Yesterday, my wife and I were having a little conversation, and Maureen, our youngest walked up and handed us two 'ticket's to a tea party'.  The interesting fact is that both tickets had our names on them...well, not our names, but 'mom' and 'dad. 

It was the first time either my wife or I could remember where she had written something entirely on her own without tracing or copying an already written word.  It's not like she is early, or late on this...more to the point was my wife's reaction.  Other than some pre-school/day care between ages 3 and 4, all of Maureen's learning has been homeschooling.  This hit my wife harder than anything else.  There was a tear in her eye, as she even whispered to me 'I taught her that.'

Yes you did honey, and I'm very proud and happy. 

I was not always 100% behind the homeschooling thing.  I had some doubts about my wife's ability to pull it off...not a question of intelligence, or ability, but more of discipline...that she could dig in and be stubborn and push our older daughter to learn something that she didn't want to learn.  So far though...I'm very pleased.  The more that I read about our public schools, with class sizes growing every day, and more furloughs and half-days being added, I am very thankful that my wife is interested in making the sacrifice that home-schooling represents. 

If roles had somehow become reversed, and she was able to make enough nursing that I didn't need to work...I'm not sure I could pull off being the teacher.  I don't mind guest hosting a class, or holding court while we go on 'field trips' to museum's and such, but, every day teach the boring stuff like math and dangling participles?  Nope.