I had to post this, since it relates to that parenting seminar mentioned in my previous post.
We are a homeschooling family. No, we’re not vegans, we don’t grow all our own food, I don’t make our clothes, we’re not “religious nuts” trying to shelter our kids from all things evil. Yes, the kids are learning “real things, like math and reading, they do have physical education, and they have a better social life than I do.
I do like some of the comments I get. Most people who ask how long I plan to do it are just curious. So I say, truthfully, that I don’t know. I hope to send them to school eventually, but by then, they will be old enough to choose for themselves. Some people, though, ask because they think that you can’t possibly do it all the way through high school. For those people, I give the same aforementioned answer, but I long to say, “I plan to homeschool through graduate school.”
At the parenting seminar, I posed a question about how to handle my 3-year-old’s challenging behavior when she doesn’t want to go to one of the group activities. I couldn’t believe that the woman leading the seminar had no better advice than, “You’re trying to parent two different children the same way. Maybe you should reconsider and send them to school, or at least send one of them.” I politely said that we felt their educational needs couldbe better met at home (while inside, I was thinking, And you think the public schools are going to take interest in their unique personalites?). So her advice was to hire a sitter or ask another mom to babysit, or have someone else take my son to the activities (which are actually for both kids). Wow, yeah, I’ll get right on that.
Fortunately, there was another mom there who is familiar with homeschooling and had great advice for me. Once again, I think I’ll skip the parenting experts. Geez, I hope they don’t comebeating down my door with CPS workers next week ’cause I’m not sending my kids to school.
