Inspired by Nan: What do you want your kids to remember about hs high school?

[jld]

I just read one of Nan's posts addressing this from a few weeks ago (thanks, Nan!). I'm wondering how you would answer this . . .

[Murphy101]

Great question!

[Rosie_0801]

That most of it was a worthwhile use of their time, I guess...

 

Interested to hear what the highschooling parents have to say!

 

:)

Rosie

[stephanier.1765]

Patience because their mother didn't kill them during the process. ;)

 

My true answer is the love of learning. Whether they go to college or not, become blue collar or white collar, become a family man or world traveling adventurer, to always find the love in discovering new things. To dig underneath and push the boundaries simply for the love of knowing.

[elegantlion]

I just read one of Nan's posts addressing this from a few weeks ago (thanks, Nan!). I'm wondering how you would answer this . . .

 

I'm not quite sure yet...it's still forming. Nan has given me a lot to think about recently.

 

In my still hazy state of our undetermined future I'd like to think ds will say:

 

- my parents listened and understood me and my interests

- they prepared me well for life

- they helped me realize the world is bigger than what I see

- that I am special and I am loved

- that I can take a process and break it down into manageable steps. So if something seems impossible, that doesn't mean it truly is.

- that I am worthy to have a voice in this world

- how to love, how to listen, and how to communicate

- that learning doesn't stop at 18, or 21, or 55

 

 

Hence my confusion. I have life skills, my role of parenting, and academics all together. Don't have a clue how it will all turn out, but I'm excited for the journey.

[JennW in SoCal]

My son who graduated a year ago has commented to me a couple of times that he is so thankful he was homeschooled. One of the reasons is that he is comfortable in the adult world -- being an adult, taking his job and career planning seriously, caring about family. He sees many of his public schooled peers who have never had to think for themselves so don't know how to behave in the adult world. He is really disappointed in the majority of his peers because it seems they are stuck in that high school teen mentality where the most important part of their lives is the drama over who likes who and it isn't cool to take their jobs seriously. My son feels like he was biding his time to enter the adult world so he could be around adults only to find that his age-mates just see it as a chance to "party" free from the constraints of their parents.

 

I hope my kids will remember having a close family that enjoyed spending time together. I hope they appreciate being given opportunities to explore the adult world and the possibilities for their future lives. I hope they appreciate that I slowly transferred the responsibility of their education onto them. And, lol, I hope they appreciate the amount of driving I did and the number of hours I spent hanging out in the car, reading a book while waiting for them to be done with one activity or the other!!!

[Nan in Mass]

I hope mine remember reading The Odyssey while we lounged in hammocks and Beowulf in front of the fire with the dog on our feet. I hope they remember sitting shoulders overlapped on the sofa, sharing the Latin book, laughing over the Latin graffitti. I hope they remember their olympic games and their medieval feast. I hope they remember trying to make arrow heads on the beach. I hope they remember dropping eggs off the roof. I hope they remember tracking hurricanes and watching one go over their honeymooning aunt in Nova Scotia. I hope they remember how exciting it was to sign up for community college. I hope the middle one remembers the song I wrote for him to sing while he was walking through Japan. I hope they remember singing sea chanties in the cabin of our boat, squinting at the words in the candle-light. I hope they remember reading Agamemnon huddled under the tarp in the cockpit with the rain pouring down. I hope they remember my mother's rendition of bubble, bubble, toil and trouble and her Juliet. I hope my youngest remembers me buying him an icecream cone in Geneva and the clown in Quebec and how handy his French was for approaching the beautiful French girls, not the French grammar I am making him do. I hope they remember learning to telling stories. I hope they remember how many heavily illustrated library books they got to read instead of textbooks. I hope they remember that they got to learn to get owls and hawks to answer them for high school biology instead of having to memorize the endocrine system. I hope they remember doing all the projects they wanted to and choosing their own papers and choosing their own books and getting to choose to draw something instead of write it. I hope they remember making up their own science experiments. I hope they never know how much I missed them when they were traveling, and how worried I was/am about them, and how scary it was taking such risks with their educations and their very lives. I hope they don't remember the times I made them cry.

-Nan

[Murphy101]

Well heck, Nan, I can't top that! Sniff sniff.:001_wub:

[elegantlion]

Well heck, Nan, I can't top that! Sniff sniff.:001_wub:

 

No doubt! I went to a thrift store today and happened upon 20 antique Great Books published by the Classic Club. I had found a few of them last year, but I stood aghast at my find today. It's everything from Aristotle to Emerson to Shakespeare to Homer. I bought the whole lot for 20.00.

 

I was giddy as I was checking out. The ladies behind the counter, probably my age, saw no value in these books except for decorating purposes. One remarked how they were the kind of books your read to fall asleep. :confused:

 

I showed them all to ds, who did not share my enthusiasm, but aside from the books themselves I saw making memories with my son as we spend the next few years reading through them.

 

Thank you, Nan, for sharing where you have enjoyed your books. Your posts continue to expand my thinking.

[Brindee]

Well, I was planning on posting along the same lines as Nan, but certainly can't top that! However, I'll go ahead and say what I was going to say:

 

I hope they don't remember tests, paperwork, being bored to tears in class, or frustrated cuz the teacher couldn't/wouldn't help them when they needed it. I hope they don't remember daily peer pressure or being bullied. I hope they remember the joy they got out of learning hands-on. Being nomads and learning to work together (all three kids) to build a shelter with the materials they found in the back yard. I hope they remember when they wrote their names in cuneiform and hieroglyphics, made a mummy tomb with all the little pieces AND big pieces and built pyramids from Legos. I hope they remember the "aha" moments when they got it, whatever "it" was at the time. I hope they remember the "old folks" being thrilled when they presented skits and songs they'd made up for the people in a Retirement home, and the huge smiles of the kids in Fiji when they gave them a soccer ball and pencils and played right along with them---barefoot. I hope they remember the trails we went on because they were interested in them, and how much they learned--waaaay more than looking at a textbook could do! I hope they remember Chinook--the dog we sent around the US and Canada for Geography, and seeing how high their homemade rockets could go, and gazing at the actual Gettysburg battle sites. I hope they remember how they learned to work together and encourage and help each other, which made them closer than they would have been otherwise, family discussions, and the laughter while doing our R & S English (yes, we had a GREAT time with it!).

 

I'm forgetting lots of what all they did, but I hope they don't! I want them to remember what they did while homeschooling fondly, and I hope they remember the family closeness/bonds/love.

 

I hope they remember the doors always open and the light's always on for them! :001_wub: :001_wub: :001_wub:

[Nan in Mass]

Akk! I didn't mean to stop the thread! I just had fun remembering some of the high points. I love hearing about the good bits of people's homeschooling. Please don't not post because of mine.

[KAR120C]

I hope his head is full of things he wants to think about, and that there's enough substance in what we've done (and not all the ends neatly tied up) to give him something to think about for years. Enough English and enough foreign language to open the doors to literature and humor around the world, enough math to find the beauty in numbers, and enough science to give him the methods to answer his own questions.

 

Oops -- forgot history! Enough history to give him context for current events, and to be sure he knows that history is fascinating, just on its own. :)

Edited July 29, 2010 by KAR120C

[Nan in Mass]

Awesome! That says it all, doesn't it?

[asta]

A long time ago, one of my best girlfriends, upon being asked what she learned in high school, responded: "All I learned in high school was how to hate."

 

I thought about that a lot while I was HSing kid in middle school. Because, frankly, I couldn't disagree with her. When it came time for high school, we intended for kid to go to "real" high school, but in my heart, I didn't want him to. I mean, what if history just repeated itself? He is *so* much like me (and like my girlfriend, strangely). Not to mention that DH hated high school as well.

 

So I guess my answer is that I want kid to remember high school as a few years where he was allowed to spend some time with his parents while *not* being treated like a little kid and also being able to learn some cool stuff. Anything else would just be gravy.

 

 

asta

[Cedarmom]

I hope he remember all the times we sat together on the couch and did read-alouds. I hope he remeber our laughter. I hope he remembers how when he got frustrated andwanted to quit something, I kept encouraging him (not remembering the times I was frustrated too!) I hope he remembers his dad and him working on maht together, doing the white board to figule out calculus problems..

 

Now my son has come to the end of his career, and I wonder what does he remember of it? We homeschooled all the way through. He never knew anything else. I think he looks back on the years with fondness. We can both laugh at the times where we were ready to strangle each other. We can look backwith fondness at the good times. When he did his college tour, one of the things he notcied with happiness was that the math room was full of white boards. When he told me this, i pictured all the hours he and his dad had spent working out math problems on our white board. I hope my son looks back at that with joy.

[jld]

Ladies, thank you so much for your posts! How sweet and kind of sad, too -- I can relate to not wanting my kids to remember how I made them cry, Nan!

 

I think I may ask the kids what their memories so far of homeschooling are. Only dd is in high school, but I'm interested in what the other kids think of our homeschooling, too.

 

I hope my kids remember lots of free time, playing and just doing whatever they wanted. The demands of the adult world will be here soon, and a lot of that freedom will be gone forever . . .

[Rosie_0801]

I hope my kids remember lots of free time, playing and just doing whatever they wanted. The demands of the adult world will be here soon, and a lot of that freedom will be gone forever . . .

 

Odd. I don't feel that way at all. Maybe because I'm still near the beginning of the parenting journey? Or perhaps I'm not romantic enough to look back at my childhood free time and see something magical.

 

Rosie

[jld]

What would you like them to remember, Rosie?

[Rosie_0801]

What would you like them to remember, Rosie?

 

I already answered on page one :)

[Liza Q]

My 17yo recently posted this on her blog as part of a list of things she is thankful for -

 

I am thankful for my mom and everything she has done for me... every book recommendation, every carefully picked curriculum. She taught me from a young age that Jane Eyre and Star Trek are important. She likes to monologue about politics. I'd be pretty boring and dumb without her.

She also has a picture that she says represents our relationship in the post

 

So...I was encouraged that she (and, hopefully, all of them!) will have good memories! And I also hope they forget the times I made them cry :glare:

[lisabees]

Well heck, Nan, I can't top that! Sniff sniff.:001_wub:

 

I read a few Nan posts last night to ds17. When I got to the end of this one, I choked up and couldn't finish! Then, ds asked, "Why can't you be like Nan?" :lol:

[Nan in Mass]

I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Ask him if he wants to eat baked beans and tuna and peanutbutter (things that require no refridgeration) and be seasick and bitten by mosquitoes and leave all his friends behind and be stuck within arm's reach of his parents with absolutely no privacy at all for a month. There is a price...

-Nan

[lisabees]

I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Ask him if he wants to eat baked beans and tuna and peanutbutter (things that require no refridgeration) and be seasick and bitten by mosquitoes and leave all his friends behind and be stuck within arm's reach of his parents with absolutely no privacy at all for a month. There is a price...

-Nan

 

Don't tempt him! He'll be at the dock tomorrow! :)