For my Child Development class (which is online), I had to work with a group of people to create a web site about schools and socialization. Afte developing, and posting, the site, we started getting questions about homeschooling and socialization, so I wrote an essay on that and added it to the site. Now I am getting flooded with questions, ranging from "how do I homeschool when I have kids?" to "Do you feel you are depriving your kids of a normal adolescence?" In a nutshell, yes I am depriving my kids. They don't deal with bullying (except from each other), they don't have to stand in line, be taught for the purpose of testing, wait for bathroom breaks, get excluded from cliques, have to be inside all day at a desk.... so yes, I am depriving them of that. Socially, I would have to say they are not deprived. As I type this, Elf is at "school" (his "homeschool school", as he calls it), having classroom time with probably 15-18 other kids near his age.
Anyhow, the responses have been interesting! I am doing my best to answer the questions fairly, and calmly (no, I didn't say to the deprivation question what I wrote here - that's just what I wanted to say. I was much more polite in my actual answer!). I think the teacher assigned me to this group, and this particular topic, on purpose, because if she read my class intro, etc., she knows I homeschool!
Speaking of which, no, we didn't do much last week! The kids did do Thanksgiving activity books, and we did talk alot about Thanksgiving, plus they helped clean the house, Elf made the mashed potatoes, and Fairy helped M make gravy, but that's it. We did have a lovely Thanksgiving though! Everyone that was supposed to came, we ate tons of yummy food, kicked back in front of the living room fire, chatted, until eventually everyone drifted off to their respective homes, and then E trounced me in a game of chess, as always (there has got to be a way to defeat him!!!).
Today's plan, when Elf and Fairy are home this afternoon (my mom takes them on Monday mornings): a new poem for memory work, some phonics work, an intro to grammar, and then I plan to have Elf read a new book aloud... maybe a math worksheet, but not sure yet. Not a heavy load, but then he had class this morning.
How awesome that you get to be like a homeschool ambassador. "I come from the Land of Homeschooling, where children learn through interaction with the world at large ...."
ReplyDeleteI'm excited that there's someone representing us folks. ;-) But, seriously, who better to tell people about homeschooling than a real-life homeschooler? There's just a lot of misinformation about hsing out there, and you get to spread the word.
Rock on, girlfriend. Rock on. : )