Decisions.
I started a post the other day about some big decisions I have been mulling over lately. The first part of it was whether I should quit my job and go to school full-time, or go to school and work. I think for now I have decided to continue on working part-time and attempt a full schedule this fall. Knowing my life, this will take a lot of really good time management on my part, and basically I will probably get worn out, but I think it can be done. Whatever, it is pretty much decided for now.
The big thing, and most important decision is whether we should go ahead and home school our daughter or not. I have been working that one over in my mind for quite some time, and I think the time has finally come for us to poop or get off the pot. My husband is more reluctant about it than I, but I have read much more about it, and talked much more about it for much longer, so I am much more confident in the idea than he is, BUT he has come around and I didn't think he would ever do that. Honey, it is time. We can't wait any more for something to happen.
We have got to do this ourselves. I am ready to give it a go. Man, I can't believe how much negative feedback I have got on this idea. Our daughter knows this is coming. We were talking about this long before the school year ended, she was begging us at the end of the year to homeschool. So many people have responded in such a negative way, when my daughter or I say to them, "We are going to home school next year" they get this look on their face of sheer disapproval, and they say, "Why would you want to do that?!?"
Then I tell them, "Well, we have given the school(s) 7 years to educate our child, and they haven't done it, I would at least like to send my daughter off into the world knowing that she can read a newspaper and balance her check book, I don't think that is too much to ask, and she is not going to get it at school, I have no choice." That is the nice answer. I shouldn't explain, it is not their business anyway. My neighbor got really offended when she heard, but she works at a school, so I dare say she is a bit biased. She told me she would talk to me about it later. I haven't seen her since, I know she will have something to say, but it is not her business or decision.
She'll probably tell me it takes a village, and she needs "socialization!!!!!!" And I will laugh and say, "Yes, I think it is really important that my daughter be told she is stupid and dumb everyday for the next 7 years, while she is passed off and shuffled through until she graduates a bona fide illiterate." No dammit. We tried that. For 7 years she has been put through that hell, I refuse to subject her to it any longer. They get her all day, taking her energy, sending her here and there wasting time on foolishness, I get her after school when she is exhausted, angry, and frustrated. I can't work with that.
When your kid tells you, "Everyone says I'm stupid and dumb, and I am, Mom." You had better perk up and listen. I can't do it any longer. I can't sit back and hope it will work out, that she is just a late bloomer or something. I can't bury my head in the sand any longer. I have got to take action NOW. So that is what I am going to do.
I am scared as heck to do it. I can't even begin to describe my fear of failure about this, but I can't be a coward and blame the school, or the teachers, or communism, or anyone else at the end of the day because I am her mother, and I love her, and they don't. Therefore, I am ultimately responsible for her education, and her well-being.
For all of the negative comments, I've probably received just as many affirmations, and many offers of help. I have a curriculum in mind we will start with, my sister in law is using it with her daughter with great success.
I had her take the tests today. We will order soon. We will start slow. We will have to get into a groove. I am getting excited about it. I welcome any suggestions, resources, advice on this with much appreciation. I truly believe she will flourish studying at home.
Well, my mom was a teacher so she had that biased that I was not trying hard enough but that wasn't the case. The CASE was that I continued to be educated on the same fricken war, (The Civil War), year after year after year and NEVER learned about anything that happened in the 1900s on until I got out of school. The CASE was that the math teacher went at the pace that the "smarter" kids were at and left the rest of us behind. The CASE was that the science teacher, while he did a great job educating, was not a respectable person and I could not learn from one I did not respect. English was the same...luckily for me, English came extraordinarily easy but there were lessons I did not learn because he was not a respectable character.
ReplyDeleteI was given a lot of hell for that growing up. I was told I didn't try hard enough, I was goofing off, I was not smart enough for the math and I had an attitude.
Come to find out, I needed to be challenged and learn something other than the Civil fricken War for cripe's sake, I could get a 3.5 in Algebra if someone would just take the time to sit with me for 5 minutes and explain it in laymen's terms, (this is not an exaggeration in the slightest..it was literally 5 minutes from a school pal in college), and have respectable teachers...those teachers I didn't respect? All were either later fired or arrested for various reasons.
Kids are a hell of a lot smarter than most adults give them credit for. What I don't understand is how adults forget that. They were all kids once, too...I vote homeschool as long as the kid actually DOES school work during the day, (I've known families who don't teach their kids crap and they call them homeschooled), and as long as the child does indeed get socialized by participating in activities in the community with others her age.
Everyone has a point...just combine it and you have a well educated, rounded child. Give it a go. And your kid's self esteem will probably sky rocket.
Ok, I'll put the soap box aside now.
I have known lots of homeschool families and children. They have the most well-educated, nice, pleasant to be around kids I have ever met.
ReplyDeleteDon't listen to people talking about something they haven't even done.
You're doing the right thing. :-)
Serenity: If we can't get the work done, I would consider that a failure on my part and she would have to go back to school. It is definitely something I have considered, and have worried about. I am not sure how I will motivate her, I don't plan to fail, but if it does become the case, I will readily admit defeat.
ReplyDeleteI just don't think this is something we can play around with.
I have information on a homeschooling connection where she may be able to get together with other kids. She also has several different friends she plays with outside of school.
There is also a possibility that she can take some classes at the school in our district, for example, P.E. or special ed classes which she is eligible for.
I am really hoping this works. It is sort of a last resort, I probably shouldn't have waited this long, but I kept hoping things would work out.
I am most concerned about reading and math right now, without those she can go no further whether she is in homeschool, or public.
Teri: I don't know many home school families, but I have "heard" of many success stories. I would love to be one of them.
I'm guessing about 2 hours a day would cover what the public schools purport to teach.
ReplyDeleteMy history classes stopped some time around 1900 too. Had I not been a voracious reader as a child with a keen interest in learning about WWI WWII and Korea, I would have been clueless as to why the world is in the situation it is today.
I think modern history is intentionally ignored.