You know I've been thinking about what it takes to make it in the "real world". What is it that society is looking for from homeschoolers? There are many things and being a homeschooler, you get so focused on trying to please society that it often translates into keeping your child 'above grade level' and into many different social activities such as sports and outside classes and going along, we forget to teach the important things called Life's Skills.
It is exciting for me to teach and witness first hand my children's education; watching them learn colors, words, math problems and on into reading and writing. Accomplishing those things seem to encourage me and become my main reason for homeschooling.
But when I think about it, when I take time to teach my children life skills, I am actually equipping them for the "real world". What will my boys do when they are launched into the real world where Mama is not around to do the laundry, cook, or clean and Daddy is not available for a quick twenty dollars? Beyond the textbooks, my goal is to equip my children to care for themselves and others, along with doing whatever else God has in store for them. In doing so, we- River included, have been talking a lot about money; how much things cost and the results of saving. I want to teach them the value of a dollar and the value of saving a dollar. I don't want to shame them for wanting "stuff", I just want them to identify that no amount of "stuff" brings true happiness, especially when you are a slave to the lender. In teaching this, they must also learn math, science, history and literature, so I believe if I focus on the true meaning of "functioning in the real world", I will have accomplished far beyond what society can comprehend.

While teaching money, Maximus and I was counting up all of his money that he has been saving over the years and counted over $400. After we were finished, the first thing he did was take a great big sniff! That let me know he had inherited his mama's natural love for the smell of green. The money that we counted is his money, not earned, but gift money... so I ask him what he wanted to do with it and he said "keep saving because I want to buy a Harley Davidson when I grow up"... Next year he may decide to blow it all on bubble gum, but at 6 six years old that's pretty astonishing!
And all the while, while I have been teaching Maximus about money, River brought me a "quar-quar" and "penn-penn"... at 1 years old, he can identify the two. It sounds like a fib or an exaggeration, but that is the God's honest truth!