So you had a bad day.
One thing I've learned from 10 years of homeschooling, never look for sympathy from outside the homeschooling community. Most well meaning friends, family, or acquaintances will respond to any complaint with "Why don't you send them to school?" Which is silly. I love what I do. If I didn't, I would send them to school.
I also loved attending an art focused high school, teaching gymnastics, and doing juggling shows. If any of these had caused a bad day, I could easily complain about it and get all the support I desired. No one suggested I switch schools, because they knew I loved art. No one suggested I quit my job, because you have bad days on the job. With running my own entertainment business, everyone agreed that it is hard to be self-employed. Even when you are doing something you love.
So what's the difference? Why is it assumed I have an automatic escape with homeschooling? Because it is still the exception, not the rule. We fit in no category but our own. We are not stay at home moms. We are not career women. (I use women for the sake of simplicity, nods to the homeschooling dads in the audience.) We work without pay, doing what we believe is important. Teaching our own. However you have decided to teach them, you are a rebel simply because you have turned from the well traveled path.
It's funny, as I was preparing this week's series, a woman asked me if my children were back in school. I said no, I homeschool. Her response was, "Oh! I assume you have some experience in teaching?"
"Well yes," I said, "but I've learned more from kids than I ever did teaching."
5 comments:
You can get your own baby for free, and people will trust you to bring it through the fragile stages of infancy and toddlerhood, and teach it to walk, talk, love, play, etc. but after they get to be five, you have to have teaching experience, or you're a danger to your offspring.
*eye roll*
I always say, "Nope, I don't have any experience, but I'm doing all right keeping ahead of my second-grader. Even if it means staying up all night the night before, mastering that three-digit addition on the old giant dice. Thanks for your concern."
I can't believe those who think that it would somehow be easier to juggle a school schedule with a new baby. I mean, for school you have to get up at a certain time, make a lunch (unless you want a "nutritious school lunch"), get everyone dressed and out the door, and then do the whole thing in the reverse in the afternoon (and that doesn't count the hours of harping about homework, filling out endless school forms, parent/teacher conferences and the PTA). Jeesh, I homeschool because I'm lazy--that's what I always say LOL I could never send my kids to school. I am an enemy of the clock!
BTW, my verification word is aimtit, which reminds me of my breastfeeding days, which, coincidently, is when I stopped watching clocks and started learning from my children.
faerie rebecca-LOL! We're night owls too!
Night owls here, too! Rofl at the above comments!! I can second that lazy comment, when my three kids where in elementary, middle and high school, I spent three hours in the am running them to school then I'd try and get some sleep which equaled never more then four hours before I had to turn around and do it again. That equaled six hours school transportation a day, eight hours working the midnight shift, evenings helping with homework and cooking dinner, so on average I ran on four hours of sleep and started showing signs of serious sleep deprivation.
Homeschooling is a MUCH better option! Oh and for those who question why I drove my kids to school, the bus stop would have ran the same time spread, except earlier and later. It was only two miles from the school so it really didn't save me the 15 mile drive one way. Plus it was on a major high speed hwy! No Thank YOU!
When people ask me if I have teaching experience, I tell them 12 years (because my oldest is 12, and we've homeschooled from the beginning...but I don't explain THAT part) :)
Post a Comment