Homeschooling
As our friends and family know, we home school our 4 children. Of course, that can always bring out the usual set of questions. There are times I had thought of writing all the questions and answers on paper and hand them out to the newly shocked person. When most people first hear that we home school I think they take the worst case stereo type that we "teach" our children 12 hours a day, we don't let them out of the house for fear they might meet non-home schooled kids, we want them sheltered from the rest of the world, we don't socialize them (like puppies?), and all kinds of interesting questions. We had one friend whom we've know for a few years tell us that because their kids go to school and our kids don't, she said their kids felt they didn't have anything in common with our kids. Which was very odd considering when they are together they play and do things together like any other kids.
Well... I would like to say that we do "teach" our kids 12 hours a day. Probably longer! It isn't structured or even all out of a textbook. It doesn't follow the Provincial curriculum. My goodness, when they aren't learning from their textbooks we actually teach our kids how to cook, how to sew, how to look after and clean a house as good as kids can clean, wash dishes, cut grass, plant a garden, weed the garden, and reap what it grows. They also learn about what the bible says, which is not allowed in most public schools.
Contrary to popular belief, we do let our kids out of the house to meet other kids. When we lived in Spruce Grove the kids were always outside playing with the schooled kids when they got home. Where we live now, on the acreage, we haven't met as many but my son still goes over to one of his friends in the next subdivision.
We do shelter them from some of the rest of the world. Things like peer pressure to wear the "right" clothes, Pokeman type fads, occult and wizardry type things, WWE, first person shoot-em-up video games (my goodness...We don't even have a Game Cube or XBox), certain videos that a lot of people let their kids watch that we don't approve for children viewing (in other words they have to be Mother Approved videos), certain TV shows.... My what awful parents we are.
Socialization. That is the number one "concern" of shocked people. They get so much socialization that it is hard to keep up. Lets see...They have phys-ed on Tuesday nights, French Lessons on Thursday mornings, Ladies Morning Out where the younger kids go to fun classes while the bigger kids go to French lessons, Big Drum on Friday afternoons, Running Club, hockey, swimming lessons, other arranged classes through the PHE, lots of field trips, visits with friends and their kids, camping with other families...Yup...They sure are un-socialized.
To summarize and provide my closing comments, I understand where most of the shocked people are coming from. Home schooling just wasn't heard of when we were growing up. Dawn and I both went to public school. Dawn also went to university and I went to NAIT. It is just ignorance of the subject that brings out most of the shock in people about home schooling. Once they see and understand a bit more they are more comfortable with it. As more and more people are turning to home schooling, for whatever their reasons, the more it becomes know. We have run into a lot of people who know someone else who home-schools and the majority aren't shocked any more. I know I sound a bit arrogant with my comments but in reality I do welcome the opportunity to explain as best I can to the newly shocked person what home schooling is all about. A person who takes the time to learn, understand, and at least accept what we and many other home school families do with our lives and kids, gets my respect.
3 comments:
Hehe, maybe just a *touch* defensive there, but I can definitely understand that after having to, in some sense, justify your parenting decisions to people. As you know, homeschooling isn't a choice we've made for our kids, but we definitely see it as a valid alternative, and in many ways a very attractive one.
Maybe some of people's concern is just from misconceptions they have, or things they've heard from other places. I know you guys work extremely hard to make sure that those social opportunities - and opportunities to have heaps of great, enriching opportunities that schoolkids don't get - are there, but I guess it's easy enough to imagine another homeschooling situation where the kids only ever see Mom... Maybe there've been some of those in the past, but it seems like there's heaps of support now from homeschooling associations, conferences etc.
Do you think there's a time at which they'll need some schooling? I'd argue that for high school age you really need someone who is an expert in each of the subject areas in order to get a deep understanding, and that the best prepared Mom and the best materials can't really substitute for that... But you know my job is teaching those kinds of specialists, so maybe I'm just trying to keep myself in a gig!
Anyway, it's a decision that's been made out of love for the kids, with lots of thought and considerable sacrifice, and I definitely admire that.
Defensive? Maybe. It wasn't really meant to be defensive or offensive but more of a comment to get some people to respond. Most people’s conceptions are due to, dare I say, ignorance of the subject. It's not their fault, it's only because they haven't been exposed to the subject matter.
As for teaching in high school...I do see where you are coming from. I am leaning toward the kids going to school even for a few classes. However we also know many parents who have taught their kids all the way through high school and the kids are doing marvellous in university and NAIT. Being at the UofA maybe you could help me find out some information that you can post here. I would be interested to find out how home schooled kids are doing at the university level. As I said the ones we know are doing well. Besides, we have you :-)
Great stuff.I wish I was THAT versatile.
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