ANSWERS TO RANDOM STRANGERS ABOUT HOMESCHOOLING

Imagine yourself in this situation. You are a normal everyday parent. You believe in God or you don't. You send your children to public school or private school. You are living your life as normal as the next fella when circumstances arise and you find yourself making a decision you never thought you would have to ponder. You are deciding whether or not to homeschool your child(ren).

It may be that your child is having difficulty with rules and regulations at school. It may be that your public or private school has shut down. It may be that you or your spouse is now working afternoons and will never be able to see the kids. It may be because you found out that your child can go to college early if they homeschool...whatever reason, here you are contemplating Home Education of all things!

You are a normal gal or guy. You never really gave it much thought before now but the more you look into the idea the more you see that there are other normal people, just like yourself, who are having a wonderful time with this kind of lifestyle.

You jump in with both feet and begin your new life. You are enjoying the kids, though freaking out a little that YOU have decided to do this but other than that things are going along smoothly.

One day you are wandering around town, in the middle of the day with your children when "IT" happens. You and your children are minding your own business at the grocery store, park, field trip, zoo, museum, nature hike, play date, Science Center, or some other random social activity when a complete stranger walks up to YOU, taps YOU on the shoulder and says,

"Why aren't they in school? Did the school have a day off today?"

You are now staring at a random stranger contemplating your response. For the very first time you are forced to see yourself through their eyes.  You now have to say...out loud...

"We are a homeschooling family."

You are about to experience the wonder and awe of the human mind. You are about to witness ignorance at its best. That random stranger, after hearing your answer, will react emotionally to YOUR family...whom they have never met before this conversation....as if you have committed a purposeful attack on their very life.  Yes, it will happen to YOU, my good friend.

After you have given your answer, the Random Stranger will say one of the following statements and you...YOU...could very well be standing there, stammering...wishing you had a response....but you won't! Why? Because you did not realize that you are now one of us!

You are now considered....dunn...dunnn....dunnn...."Not Normal!"

To other people you have morphed into whatever that specific person's idea of a homeschooler happens to be. YOU are..."that" homeschooler!!!

Some people understand that homeschooling is a difficult choice made by practical parents. Some may ask questions out of legitimate inquiry, but some people are flat rude, judgmental, nasty and they...need a jolt!

These answers are NOT funny...they are just true.

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HOMESCHOOLING ANSWERS TO RANDOM STRANGERS

Random Stranger: 

"Why aren't your children in school today? Did the school have a day off?"

You: 

"We are homeschoolers."

1. RS: "I don't have the patience for that. You must be a saint."
You: "If you are doing homework 2 to 3 hours a night, you're already doing it...welcome to Sainthood.  We just don't have to do it after a hard day's work and we don't have the stress of having to get it done in some bureaucratic time-frame."


2. RS: "Is that legal?"
You: "Yes."

3. RS: "Do you have a teaching degree?"
You: "Do you have one? You are teaching your children every night when they bring homework to your home. Does your child's school have courses for parent's to take that will give them a degree to teach their own children...after the kids have been at school all day and are tired...and you are tired from working all day....and you now have to force them to get the work done on time, know it on time and memorize it on time or else?  'Cause....that's the degree I needed when our kids were in Public School."

4. RS: "Do you have a teaching degree?"
You: "Do you have hemorrhoids?"
(rude personal question begets rude personal question)

5. RS: "What gives you the right to do that?"
You: "Their birth certificate."

6. RS: "What about Socialization?"
You: "Between sports, camp, clubs, homeschool organizations and field trips we've decided we're going to have to cut back. We just have to decide where."

7. RS: "What about Socialization?"
You: "They weren't allowed to talk in class for 7 hours a day and only had 3 minutes between classes to chat, so we thought we'd take them out of that situation in the hope to teach them to socialize."

8. RS: "What about College."
You: "I know what you're thinking. You've heard about Harvard and Yale grabbing homeschoolers left and right and that colleges are now recruiting homeschoolers but we're not going to push that in our family. We're just going to send them to the local community college when they turn fourteen like many homeschooling families do. That way they can graduate homeschool with an associate degree when they are seventeen or eighteen instead of just starting their higher education."

9. RS: "You can't possibly teach them Algebra and Chemistry!"
You: "Do you remember your Algebra and Chemistry?"

10. RS: "You can't possibly teach them Algebra and Chemistry!"
You: "That's what the community college is for." or "That's what our Co-Op is for." or "That's what tutors are for." or "Sure I can." or ...you get the drift

11. RS: "You are abandoning our public schools! It's our responsibility to fix the schools."
You: "Are you saying private schools need to fold also? The Public Schools get my taxes...they are not entitled to have my kids." 

12. RS: "Why would you want to shelter your children like that?!"
You: "Shelter them as in keeping them in the same class with the same kids for 13 years, day after day, year after year?"

13. RS: "Why would you want to shelter your children like that?!"
You: " Well, the horse and buggy became too cumbersome so I learned how to drive a car.  We go on field trips and outings nearly every week...unlike most traditionally educated children who may have a field trip once a year."

and my personal favorite...

14. RS: "My brother-in-law/sister-in-law/fiancee's cousin....Homeschools and their kids are bratty/stupid/too shy/too assertive/too fat/too skinny/lazy/clean house all day/talk too loud/breathe too hard/don't have any friends/talk to their friends way too much......

You: "Yes, I'm sure it's because they are homeschooled.....Public Schooled kids are perfect."

NATURE STUDIES

FIELD GUIDES ONLINE: Print information and pictures or read about animals online.

ANIMAL DIVERSITY WEB

REDUCING THE PAIN OF SPELLING CLASS

Spelling class has long been one of the most hated classes of all time. Barring those who strive to win a spelling bee, most children struggle with this class and, like me, grow up holding "spelling class" as one of the worst ideas to ever enter the universe. I am firmly convinced that the person who created spell-check will back me up on this.


Memories of writing words....over and over and over and over....leaves me flinching in agony just thinking about the wasted time I was forced to spend hearing, writing, getting it wrong, writing it again....getting it wrong again on the test. Whahhh...


When we began homeschooling, I made a commitment to myself that I would save my children from this horrible fate. :o)

There are a few ways to "do" spelling that will give results and lower resentment.




1. Have a time of reading where you and your child read together. You read, they read..It doesn't have to be a long reading, just a page or two per day in a literature book or some book that the child enjoys. After reading time is over, have the child write a few sentences from that book. (older children can write a paragraph) This helps with handwriting, spelling, word recognition and punctuation.

2. Find spelling games that you and your child can play together...scrabble....the scrabble card game "slam"...etc.. Make spelling fun instead of a chore each day....

3. Find online spelling games that your child can play on their own.

Fun Spelling

Spelling City

Spin and Spell

4. Find worksheets that the child can read and fill out themselves.  Worksheets reinforce reading, analytical thinking and writing.

Spelling Courses (printable curriculum 1st - 7th)

It helps to "Switch-Up" Spelling Time each day...rotating ideas so that Spelling is less about "hearing word, writing word, messing up the word, writing it again" How boring...and....every single day the child "perceives" that he is being punished because he made a mistake on his spelling word...he has to write the missed word over and over as "punishment."

This often creates a daily struggle.  Switching-Up the spelling class each day can be a step toward setting the child up for success and less about focusing on their spelling flaws...which...by the way...can foster low self esteem in the long run for the child.

If we keep spelling fun, interesting and even participate in it with the child, "Spelling Class" can, instead, reinforce the love of language, enhance family bonding and give us a chance to enjoy some time with our children each week in a fun way. Kinda sounds like a no-brainer, huh?  Why didn't my teachers think of that?

LITERATURE AND POETRY

Shakespeare Online

This website offers links to all of Shakespeare's works online along with articles and analysis of his life and works - and much more! When you get to the site you will find links to quizzes also.

TEACHING KINDERGARTEN BOYS....AND VIDEO GAMES IN HOME EDUCATION

I was recently asked to give some advice about home educating Kindergarten boys. At first I wasn't sure I had any insight to give, but then it dawned on me; I have home educated 5 sons so far and I do have a few tricks up my sleeve to create a happy, fun homeschooling environment.

My best advice is to teach in short bursts for the written work and spoken lessons. Boys, especially, have a natural tendency to zone out or begin “playing” during long, boring lessons. When the child is doing worksheets or listening to his parent teach, it helps to allow the child to roll a car under his foot or allow him to hold a squishy ball or toy in his hand. It actually helps the child focus on the task at hand, longer.

Just think about yourself during a long boring meeting at work or during a lecture. How often do you fiddle with a pencil or jot down a note just to pass the time and allow your brain to zone for a second? Now imagine you are held "captive" and cannot leave because the speaker has forbidden you to move, make a sound or even look away for a second. THAT is how our children feel if we make them "sit still," "stop moving around," "stop playing with that pencil," "stay in your seat!" We are holding them captive, for all intents and purposes. In allowing the child to have a release for their mind, a little zone out toy like rolling a car or moving around a little bit, we are actually creating a more conducive learning environment. They are learning more because they aren't focusing on how they will "move" next, without getting caught.

Our children are people, just like us. And, just like us, they need freedom to learn. Our "sit still" tactics only make them want to move around more. (Just like I feel when church service lasts way longer than I had anticipated! LOL)

One of my sons actually sat on a large exercise ball while doing his written work. He would move about a little bit, but the work was completed in a better, quicker fashion because he could use one side of his brain to think and the other to move.

Now, mothers, remember that we are teaching, not dominating our children. Our focus in home education, hopefully, is to instill a love of learning for our children. We need to lose the notion that our kids will sit, listen and focus at all times. It's not going to happen. They will bounce on the ball, fall over and laugh their head off. That is part of the fun. At some point you may want to sit on the ball and fall over too. Having fun with our children and acting goofy with them, and in front of them, helps SO very much to lighten up our homeschool day. It shows the kids that we aren't stuffy, boring people and also creates an environment of relaxation for the kids to do work and feel comfortable doing their work at home.

Expect some play, expect some focused lessons and expect to value the time spent with our children. They are home for a very short time, and then they are grown, gone and on to live their lives. Along with reading, writing and math, hopefully they are learning a great sense of humor and a relaxed, stress free focus to carry into their lives.

Incorporating video games and computer time also helps most children to stay focused and not “zone out" during school time. Games and computer time are great motivators when used as positive re-enforcement. When given more game/computer time for focusing during written lesson time we are encouraging education for longer periods of time in both the written lessons AND the game/computer lessons! That being said, it is important for us moms to play the games they are playing. We need to play the video games and the computer too. This is important for two reasons.

We need to know what our children are playing so we can assess how to "save" the game when "time is up" and how long a person needs to play the game to get to each level. Setting a timer for 15 minutes and expecting a child to turn the game off "right now" is truly frustrating if it takes 30 minutes to reach the next level or cut-off space so that all of their hard work can be saved for the next day.

Just imagine...We are baking a cake. (go ahead...imagine that you are making your very favorite cake and you have all the ingredients just waiting to be put together...Oh yummy!) We have been working on this cake for 10 minutes now and we have JUST tasted the mixture and it is SO good! All of the sudden, just as the oven is at the perfect temperature to put the cake in, we hear a timer (bell) go off. Then we hear our boss say that we have to stop baking the cake right now. Why?! Because...well, because time is up and baking a cake is fun so we have to be timed ya know! But, but...hey! We explain to our boss that it takes 30 minutes to bake the cake so now we have to throw out all of our hard work because the boss says we should only be allowed to do this fun activity for 10 minutes...even though it takes 30 minutes to actually DO the activity! Not only that but the boss won't even LISTEN to us explain WHY we need 30 minutes to bake the cake!

Too bad. We have to toss the cake in the trash and go to time out because we are being unreasonable and won't stop trying to explain. Yes, that's frustrating! And guess what! Tomorrow, when the boss tells me I can have time to make a cake (have computer/game time) if I do my work well...I'm going to mess up my work on purpose and be a pain in my boss's hiney because making a cake (playing a game) is NOT FUN if I can't actually MAKE (play) the cake (game!!!)

The next reason we need to play the games our children play is so we understand the lessons our children are learning while playing the game. If it's educational, we need to know what is being taught so we can incorporate those lessons into the school day. If the game is a shoot-em-up, tactical game, we need to understand the reasoning and strategic skill our children will develop while playing the more fun games.

Even the most "fun" games have value. It's our job as parents to find the value and understand the appeal of the game for our children. Let's not forget that they are wonderful way to bond with our children. Our 17 year old son STILL speaks fondly of the times I would play Metal Gear just to beat his score when he was a pre-teen. Oh yes! I beat him and beat the game and I still rock! He has never forgotten those bonding moments.

For Kindergarten, written work for more than 1 hour per day is usually fruitless. Video lessons, playing outside, climbing…etc…are really the main focus for young children. Gross motor skills rule in Kindergarten. Fine motor skills will kick in as they get older and play video games longer. Using a pencil and crayons will help those fine motor skills develop, but over-use can really deter the child from wanting to do it for the rest of his life. Short, 15 minute, writing and coloring sessions are key to developing skills without creating a hate for using the skills.


I wish I had been taught in this fashion. I would have probably spent way more time doing work and much less time standing in the corner at school for “acting up.” :o)

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