I wanna be free...

I don't know what freedom looks like for you, but I can imagine there are as many 'visions' of freedom as are hearts that long for them.
I sent Jean-P to hang the laundry outside, something he does (or is supposed to do) as part of his house-work. That is sacrilege in India! A boy! He is supposed to be pampered and brought up in haute sociétè as far as possible (A popular belief is children are a reincarnation of god(s))
Not just that he has to work at our home, but he has to do it well! I find it easier to send him out to finish his task rather than motivating him politely to do it. Ah! Are you beginning to see my vision of freedom? Illusive! So I go out to him and tell him, the usual way, that diligent hands make a man wealthy. A beggar might just preach that to me, I wouldn't care less. It's ingrained in the Indian mind from childhood starting with Early to bed, early to rise... the day we enter public school.
But then as I sat down to read (when else can I read but the hour and ten minutes he takes to hang a load out?!) something made me squirm. Yes one of those non-freedom lines!
...for all endurance and patience with joy...
Endurance? Patience? I can't do it! I JUST CAN'T DO IT! I'd rather hang the lundry myself! To go joyfully and tell J-P joyfully that he ought to do his work joyfully is too much for me! I was brought up the Indian way! We scream at children when they fail... (See? Scream and fail?!?!) Then crying, as my freedom was snatched from me, I looked at what the Wise One says
... May you be strengthened with all power... Now that's a little better, some power is always good and ALL power isn't such a bad idea! ...according to His glorious might... Wow! Not the might of a scream, not the power of performance, but  ALL power vested in a gloriously mightily heavenly FATHER! That is beyond my comprehension! 
To think that I don't have to live for performance or to make MY way the only way, that is freeing! 
Freedom. Surely it's implications are bigger than boundary and time and emotions. Perhaps, among other things, it's a choice.
What makes you free?

Why India is a great place to homeschool

I was served tea last night, or to be precise, at midnight and perhaps that's a good thing. It's given me the time (read- all night) to think about a great deal of things in silence. The night birds are busy and for once I can hear them, over the echoes of little voices chirping inside the house. And it's probably an India thing that I can stay up all night and think and muse and write and then put every little foot for a glorious hot afternoon nap and take the refreshing siesta myself. For you see, homeschooling is a foreign word in these lands, yet there are SO many benefits here! I will try to list them, in a no-particular order, just remembering moments and ways homeschooling here brings a smile.
1. At 10 am the park is ALL ours! Yes we can go out to the park at 10 am and have nobody stare at us! No questions of why the children are not in school and no inquisitive voices asking if we are foreigners. Parents are either at work or getting the house ready for rambunctious kids to be dropped off from school.
2. The grocer, milk shopkeeper, coconut seller are happy to see us when all is still on the roads. We provide them non-happy hour income!
3. The mali gets his dose of herbal and edible weeds knowledge from us, and lets us pluck, squeeze, pull and dig out all kinds of flowers, plants and berries.
4. Books are cheap (if you know where to get them!) The house is filled with our books. Doggy eared, sugared-sticky-stuck, crayon marked, falling apart, fought over between siblings, coverless books with mosquito remaims between pages. We love them that way!
5. Homeschool families bond. There are only few of us who understand the homeschool life, and so we bond oh-so-close together. We learn from each other every time we meet. We grow together, laugh a few times and lament a lot. Or is it the other way around? :)
6. There is no shortage of "socialization". Am I kidding? We live in  one of the youngest, most populated countries. Surely there must be some five 5 year olds within 5 meters from here!
7. We learn quite a few languages for free. Yes! Free! Street Hindi, window malyalam. Again, it's an India thing where neighbours talk to each other from their windows. And because the houses are so close to each other, one can hear every.single.word. And learn the common ones over time!
8. Sonlight? Sunlight? Acha! Every once in a while a curious shopkeeper will ask  cute little kids what school do they go to. You can say anything! Really! And they'll say Acha! Too many schools around here to know by heart! We feel greatly accepted by the society ;)
9. The neighbours who do know we homeschool are often impressed that our 'school books' come all the way from across the pond. International curriculum has it's benefits!
10. Coaching, coaching. There are lots of opportunities to get coached for anything (albeit not-so-perfectly) from sport to spanish. All within one's own neighborhood. And the prices are competitive (and barain friendly!)
Each year as we 'review' our focus and goals of schooling, we remember how we've bonded and grown in character. There's no price tag on it, it's beyond important. We remember the days of cuddles and laughter and sometimes the days of tears. Either way homeschooling, public or private schooling is a privilege, not to be taken for granted!