What was your image of homeschooling and what is your reality?

[virtual_twins_mom]

I was working full time, until we adopted 4-year-olds. In my mind (and our budget), it seemed reasonable to stay home with them for one full year until they were ready for kindergarten, and then I'd go back to work. Well, despite all my best efforts to get them "caught up" and "remediated" from their developmental delays, and even after putting them IN school, the pulling them OUT of school, then putting them BACK IN school, only to pull them OUT again, I'm still home 6 years later. And you know what? My stress level is SO much less than trying to put my little "square pegs" in those ps "round holes." Do we miss the money? You bet! Do I miss my hard-won Ph.D. and career? Yes. Would I trade these years with the kids for any of that? Absolutely not!!

[Rosie_0801]

I had grim visions of my children growing into postmodernists.

 

 

:lol::lol::lol::lol::lol:

[Jeanne in MN]

I envisioned my kids loving learning...I hear a lot of complaining.

I envisioned my kids being passionate about books...they enjoy reading.

I envisioned the one-on-one would allow them to learn easily...I didn't expect the education struggles I've had with our boys.

I envisioned my kids being a little farther ahead of their peers...they are ahead in some areas, behind in others, doing the same in yet others.

I didn't anticipate the mental and emotional struggle it would be for me to be home and isolated all the time.

I didn't anticipate the other struggles in my life making me feel like hs was a bad decision, when it was the struggles at fault not the hsing.

I didn't anticipate the strength it would take to face parenting issues, embrace them and do better.

I didn't anticipate how I'd end up with 2-3 different curriculums for some subjects!

I didn't anticipate needing/wanting all the resources I've ended up with!

I didn't anticipate having such a passion for homeschooling, learning, and all things education related.

 

It's better than I anticipated, worse than I anticipated and just what I anticipated. Is that even possible? :)

[Jean in Newcastle]

It's better than I anticipated, worse than I anticipated and just what I anticipated. Is that even possible? :)

 

Oh yeah! Well said.

[Onceuponatime]

I thought it would be a very spiritual experience for all of us. :lol:

 

My homeschooling mentor lent me lots of inspirational homeschooing books and talked in glowing terms. It wasn't till a year or so later that I realized her reality wasn't anything like her propaganda.

 

My reality crashed and burned my perception almost from the start. I became a practical "get it done" homeschooler, instead. Oh, I resisted that at first, but my children new best. :D

[nono]

My older sister homeschooled. I had no illusions. I've actually been pleasantly surprised by how much fun K and 1st have been, with my little pre-schooler and his running commentary on the entire affair. :lol:

 

I guess in our case it was a version of "Set expectations so low that you can't be disappointed."

 

Now my overall vision is still very positive, and well, I can't comment on that because I'm at the beginning of our journey. But, while our overall goals for our children's education are lofty, the nitty gritty in the day-to-day tactics is never going to be neat and tidy. It's hard work to get to worthwhile.

[Ester Maria]

:lol::lol::lol::lol::lol:

I threatened them that I would disinherit them if they ever get into the habit of explaining things in terms of "social construct", "narrative" and "meta-narrative", "paradigm shift" or "deconstruction". They barely know what half of those terms mean, though :D (ah the innocence! I envy them!), but still, one needs to exercise caution while they are young, before you wake up one day and they publish a work entitled "Deconstructing gender in Dante, with notes of power relations and narrative of the epoch" (a sad scenario which, with a slightly different title, happened to somebody I know, poor woman).

 

Want to smoke, I will be aggressively against that at the beginning, but ultimately, fine. Want to intermarry into a distant culture, I will guilt-trip you against it as much as I can, but ultimately, fine. Want not to attend university, again, I will do my fair share of guilt-tripping, but ultimately, fine. Want to join the army, Heaven forbid, but ultimately, I will agree. Want to become a nun, chas veshalom, ultimately, I will swallow it.

 

But if you become a postmodernist... That is just... beyond forgivable.:tongue_smilie:

 

[Joking. Sort of. Half-joking. :lol: There are worse things in life than ideological disagreement of this kind, of course.]

Edited April 8, 2011 by Ester Maria

[thescrappyhomeschooler]

I didn't have too many expectations, but I didn't think I have to crack down on the snacking so much. They want a snack every 1/2 hour. It drives me nuts, and distracts from getting the work done.

[Janice in NJ]

Hi! I was cleaning up my computer and I came across this old post. I only have it because someone else made a comment that I wanted to save; I saved the original note in order to have the context.

 

This was three years ago. As I re-read it the other day, it reminded me of this topic. Even on our "good" days, I never got a sense that my kids were eager to learn. THAT to me is the biggest lie. MOST of the enthusiasm has to come from me. And THIS requires an infinite amount of patience. Sometimes I just want to scream, "AT what POINT is someone else going to start caring about ANY of this more than I care? When can I STOP caring so much? When is someone else going to start wearing the I-care-about-this-hsing-thing-more-than-anyone-else-in-this-house hat? THIS HAT is trashing my hair-do; in fact, it's making me BALD! Why won't SOMEONE else wear it for one blessed minute?"

 

The other problems tend to be a subset of that issue. I was taught in the public school. The idea of being able to learn at my own pace and read whole books? That sounded AMAZING! Actually OWNING a bunch of books? Oh. My.

 

My kids have grown up with this stuff. They don't know what they don't know. They think all of the books in our house are in the way. ;)

 

Anyway - this was a good day. But I think it tells the story well. Even on the good days, there's a difference between being settled and feeling settled. I always thought I would feel more peaceful. I always thought I would feel more successful. (Note: my kids are older now. They own more of their education. They are dutifully faithful in caring, but they don't care because they love to learn. They learn because they know they must. NOT the same thing. So yes, they wear the caring-hat more now. And some days they might care more than I do. But I suspect that's primarily because I've decided to care less - this doesn't mean I DO less, but I do CARE less. ;))

 

After twelve years of doing this, I've learning that good enough is good enough. Pacing matters. I don't measure success by the goals we reach. I consider the day successful when we moved in the direction of goals. Do that everyday (or most days)? That's rockin! The old drops-and-buckets image really does hold true.

===================

 

Words from the "old me"; a post about teaching writing:

As I ran around yesterday handling "bits," I tried to jostling some of these ideas around in my brain.

 

When I comment about WTM and WEM, I don't mean to be unclear. All I really am saying is that the book offered more instruction than I realized when my kids were little. So many of the high-school level texts are really beyond what I mastered even in college. Working through them on my own has helped me to see the "why" behind so many of the suggestions at the lower levels.

 

I was teaching a paragraph writing lesson yesterday with my son - 10 years old; fifth grade. We were talking our way through the lesson. I had my book. He had his language arts notebook (as recommended by WTM).

 

First of all, did my older son have a LA notebook in fifth grade? Yes. Were we using it in November? No. I was hsing a 1st, 3rd, and 5th grader. I had forgotten about it.

 

Rewind. I was GREAT about teaching arithmetic when my kids were little. I understood that arithmetic is a "review, review, review, add on the next layer, review, review, add on" kind of subject. There is NO way to really teach algebra to a student who is missing a strong foundation in arithmetic. That stuff has to be knee-jerk familiar or the algebra haul is going to be painfully slow; the student will NEVER see the beauty in it. They will never stand on the TOP of the plateau and see the view. They will always be barely clinging to the side of the mountain - hanging there - feeling very unsafe. They will just want to get away from it.

 

There is NO way I would have taught a student how to reduce a fraction and then NEVER reduced fractions again. We went through the process. We reduced fractions together. He tried it on his own. Once mastered, I continued to have him do those problems - for YEARS! AND low and behold - we still use that skill. His algebra text requires him to reduce fractions. Still. We are still doing it. And he does it now without thinking. He can focus on the algebra because there is no more thinking necessary when it comes to fractions.

 

I just didn't understand the nature of writing. Duh to me! Just as there are very few math skills in the curriculum that are fluff and unnecessary, there are very few LA skills that are purposeless. I have always known that it is a much less precise system than mathematics, but I have realized that is because LA is about communicating ideas. And by necessity ideas were never meant to be precise.

 

HOWEVER there are conventions, and knowing them and using them without thinking is extremely useful. In fact I've realized that it is imperative if you are going to concentrate on the ideas. The conventions are worth learning, and ignorance of the "rules" doesn't make me an edgy thinker, it just makes me ignorant.

 

Connecting ideas and re-arranging the connections for the purpose of re-examining the ideas is the HARD part of thinking. THEN you have to do it again and narrow your precision in order to write with the goal of uncovering those relationships.

 

Fast forward to the writing lesson with my 5th grader. (Please keep in mind that we have NEVER done school on a Saturday morning together. Honestly, I really don't think we have ever done this. But we decided to go on a short but much-needed vaca last weekend. We took off last Friday and Monday, and my "new life" hsing a 5th, 7th, and 9th grader has very little wiggle room. We all got to work on Saturday. Oh well. Never say never, eh?) So we are there on the couch, and I'm talking about "style techniques." As we discuss, he is writing a short, but organized outline in his notebook (2-3 words for each outline point).

 

The book gives examples of these techniques. We talk through the examples; after we cover the basics about WHY the example works, I ask "extra" questions. What is the subject in this sentence? The verb? Where is the adverb clause? What questions does it answer? Can you reduce that clause to a single adverb? Is the sentence better or worse? Can you come up with a different adverb that answers a different question? How about a phrase or a clause? Is the sentence better or worse? Can you move the clause to a different location in the sentence? What do you think - better? Worse?

 

Then I point back to the items in his notebook's outline. How does this technique that we are talking about relate to the other items in your outline? What characteristic(s) are we using to group these items? If we asked different questions, could we organize them differently? If so, which items would this one be grouped with? Is that more clear or less clear than the way we have them grouped now?

 

Then I point back to the style technique that *I* just talked about. He knodded in ascent THE WHOLE TIME I was talking. I asked him if he understood the example. "Yup. Easy, Mom." However now we have been talking about OTHER things, for 2-3 minutes. NOW I ask him to come up with his own example of this style technique to put into his notebook. Any sentence. Just use the form. He sits there. He thinks. He looks at his notebook and sees the last sentence that he just wrote down that illustrates ANOTHER technique, but because it's under a similar part of the outline he thinks that it's probably worth a shot. He tweaks it a bit and says his sentence.

 

Now keep in mind that we are snuggled on the couch under a big blankie the WHOLE time. This is NOT really a high-pressure situation at all. (The couch and the blankie and the fact that his feet don't touch the floor makes for terrible penmanship in the LA notebook, but I'm teaching THINKING here. Penmanship is a big WHO CARES!!!! at this point. The snuggle factor reduces the pressure and increases the chill-out factor. Thinking is hard. A low stress-level is important. (Notice I didn't say a low-attention level, or a low-thinking level. Just a low-stress level.))

 

Back to his example. NOW he is finally ready to LEARN what the author means when she introduces this style technique. I read it to him. He wrote it down. We "discussed" the example. He SAID that he understood it, but I KNOW BETTER NOW!!!!! He hasn't used it yet, so he doesn't understand it. He still needs to be taught! (I made the mistake with my oldest of thinking that just because I talked about something, he understood it. DUH to me. Older and smarter.)

 

Remember the ole training technique.

1. You watch me do something.

2. We do it together.

3. I watch you do it.

4. You do it by yourself.

 

So we go back to the example. I get right to the point. "Oh! I get it now. OK." he says. (Remember that he cares now. He knows that he isn't going to be able to come up with an example without actually listening to me. This is harder than he thought.) He ponders. He tries. He still can't come up with an example. I start offering up suggestions. Answers really. But I offer them up in pieces through the question/answer process that we use all day long for every subject and for things like, "Where are all of my clean pants? I have no PANTS!!!!"

 

(cont. below)

[Janice in NJ]

(cont from above)

Eventually we arrive at an example that almost ALWAYS has to do with NASCAR - at least these days. I'm so tired of talking about Jeff Gordon and the race for the cup. But this isn't my LA notebook; it's his. Jeffie it is. He writes down the sentence. Piece by piece. He can't really remember the whole seven words - that's because it really wasn't his idea. It was mine. I say the sentence again. He repeats it. He's used to doing dictation, so he can actually write the last five words on his own. I'm waiting. Bored. Really bored. But still smiling - on the outside. Even though on the inside my brain is rehearsing the eighty-five zillion things that I should be doing instead of sitting here on the couch composing sentences about Mr. Gordon. Smiling.

 

Now here' the best part. I've read Struck & White. NOW I go ahead an ask him what he thinks about that sentence. We used the technique. Did it make a good sentence? He screws up his face into the "yuckie" face and says, "Nope. Doesn't sound good. Sounds dumb. Don't like it."

 

"Why don't you like it?"

We're off an running again. Plodding actually. Remember the whole time I'm trying to sound engrossed but I'm actually paying more mental attention to the "ticker" in my head that is rehearsing the 85 zillion-thing-never-going-to-actually-get-caught-up-in-life list. :-)

 

Bam. Back to reality. I snap back as I realize that he's launched into a discussion about everyone's standing in the "Race for the Cup." This has dipped into a muttering about commercials and sponsors and other things that I don't really care about. Writing. We were discussing how lousy a participle can be as an opener. Yeh. That.

 

Back to it. This takes a while and we don't do it every day by ANY stroke of the imagination. But I'm teaching thinking (relationships between ideas and the evaluation of those relationships and ideas) AND conventions (What are things called? How do they fit together into a "proper" structure? Spelling. Capitalization. Etc.) At least THAT's my goal! :-)

 

We stop and put the notebook away. BUT it is there on paper. The skeleton of everything we talked about. When it is time to teach writing again, the little man's secretarial skills will remind ME of our last lesson. Question/answer time. Review - just like the math lessons. I'll flip back through the notebook for the first few minutes asking simple questions, but my POINT is that I'm trying to offer him some mental bread-crumbs about how alllllllllll of this fits together. Slow but steady wins the race here.

 

AND because I've read parts of Horner and Corbett and D'Angelo and because I've read Strunk & White (and need to KEEP reading it until I've internalized it!!!!!!) and because I have a hint now about the thought paths that a student needs to travel on in order to write an expository essay or a persuasive essay or a literary analysis AND because I've read Weston, I can BEGIN to see all of this in SO much of the writing curriculum that I own. It's there. I just didn't see it. There are SO many opportunities to talk through the THINKING part of writing while they are little. They are EVERYWHERE. The science notebook page, the science report, the history paragraph or report, the end-of-the-book discussion. Billboards. Newspapers. TV ads. The list is absolutely endless. Connections. Connections. Connections. Fodder is everywhere. There are mental bread crumbs that a momma can drop that just naturally become a part of their thinking. The correct terms are NOT hard to learn. Learning to see the items represented by those terms in history, science, and literature is not hard once the MOMMA knows what they are. Viola. Instant review. When I see them, I point them out. Not all the time. Once in a while. But I try to shuffle through their "mental deck." I have to constantly keep asking myself, "How can I educate with this lesson? What can I review here? What can I offer up in the way of instruction? What did we cover the last few times we had face time centered around this particular arena of our 'circus,' and how can I review that with THIS material?" AND I try to relate subjects that are unrelated. If they are learning a grammar form in French, I will ask them to identify something in the middle of a history paragraph that they just wrote. "Oh. I remember this. Oh." Light bulb! This is where they start telling me about how they just learned this in French. As if I didn't know!!!! I smile. And I let them teach me how it works. I usually don't say anything. I suspect that they secretly think that their momma isn't the brightest bulb in the box. :-)

 

They own it now - the idea. OK. Maybe not completely, but they own MORE of it. (Mental note to the momma. Hit this one again in two days. Nail it down more solidly!)

 

OK. Time to make an outline. Writing lesson. Remember?

 

The whole process that I outlined above probably took about 15-20 minutes. My kids have learned how to work with me. They compare it to catching a mental freight train that is whipping by. I slow down long enough to yank them on boar,d and then they better sharpen up because the info is going to come fast and furious. Remember that we are slumped on the couch, but I allow the body to totally relax because I am going to require the brain to be steppin! Big time. They have learned that the body is going to be yanked out of it's comfort zone if they don't cooperate. Cold, hard kitchen chairs coupled with the momma still pushing the brain hard is the alternative. I've trained them pretty well in this. They like the couch, but they still know that I expect mental-on-the-edge-of-your-seat performance.

 

He slids off the couch and grabs a computer. We open up Inspiration; he likes this part, so motivation is not an issue. The assignment is to write a paragraph about chores. I like the thinking part of the assignment so I've decided not to tweak it. We discuss an angle. We classify the chores around here. We talk about WHY the chores fit within that classification in the order. I make him come up with specific reasons. Strong nouns, verbs, and adjectives. We discuss the reasons; I am trying to get him to make his reasons as precise as possible.

 

He decides that he can write the BEST paragraph about chores if he classifies them from "most disgusting" to "least disgusting." Our discussion has allowed him to realize that the word "chores" conjures up notions of dred and disgust. We start to explore what makes which chores the MOST disgusting. This quickly collapses into a vivid description of toilet-cleaning. DEFINITELY his least favorite choir. And we end up talking about why loading the dishwasher is a close second to "most disgusting" and why it is that the food that we were just eating is now repulsive to "touch." Why is it that a scrap of noodles on the edge of the plate is now almost as gross to the touch as the undefinable smells that come up from the bottom of the bowl when the brush is in your hand but you are convinced that something is somehow going to jump out of the bowl and "touch you!" You have a similar fear of being touched by the noodle. WHAT is up with that!!!!!!??????

 

I send him off to brainstorm and create an outline. He has more than enough fodder as well as enough giggles to remember what we talked about.

 

I slump back onto the couch. I'm exhausted. My brain is more mushed and unrecognizable than that noodle-bit. The 14 year old bangs down the basement stairs and into the family room and announces that he is ready for me to help him with his analysis of a New York Times Editorial for his composition class.

 

I need more coffee.

 

I offer up a not-very convincing, ok-let's-go-for-it-I'm-psyched-to-do-THIS smile.

 

"Pull up a google search and let me know what looks promising." I say with as cheerful a voice as I can muster.

 

I trudge up the stairs to pour myself another cup of black-life-juice while trying to remember what I am focusing on with this child right now. What are his "remember to work on this, mental" cards right now? AND I'm trying to beat back all of those thoughts about ALL of the other things that I should be doing WHILE I'm internally barking at all of the other thoughts that are telling me that I'm crazy for trying to do this. I step out on the porch and breathe deeply. As the cold air hits my lungs, I remember the "why" behind my convictions. Weston's voice starts flodding back into my head, filling it with teachable possibilities.

 

My coffee is getting cold. The door opens. "Mom, I'm ready. Can we get this over with?"

 

Faced with the reality that all of the motivation is going to have to come from me - somewhere - I follow the 14 year-old back inside. I faithfully start asking the leading questions as we head toward the screen. I know where I eventually want to take him as a writer even if the "end" is a LONG way off. A really long way off.

 

Isn't life grand?

 

Shower's calling. Gotta run.

 

Enjoy your morning, ladies!

 

Peace,

Janice in NJ

 

Enjoy your little people

Enjoy your journey

Edited April 8, 2011 by Janice in NJ

[Tabrett]

I envisioned my dc learning to read at 3 1/2. Spend about 30 minutes doing a couple of Math and LA worksheets in the morning (kinda of just get it done so we could start real learning). And then spend the rest of the morning reading, doing projects, notebooking and watching educational DVD's. School done by 12.

 

I thought that since I could zoom through worksheets as a child in school that my dc would have the capability to do so also. I remember being so board at school waiting for everybody else to get done.

 

Reality-So far my dc have struggled to learn to read. Our main focus in school is learning to read. My oldest dd didn't start reading on her own till 6th grade. My 7 yo still struggles. I am constantly trying to find interesting ways to get her to memorize phonograms and recognize them in words. My k'er is doing ok with reading but is still not taking off like I thought he might. I haven't started teaching my almost 4yo ANYTHING (not how to count or the ABC's) because I have been so focused on trying to get my 7yo reading.

I am so strapped for money that even if I did have time to do the projects I desired, I can't afford to buy the craft materials or the educational DVD's needed.

 

No homeschool school projects are being done because by the time we finish with math and reading, dc are so burnt out, they just need to play!

 

On the bright side, my dc DO get lots of outdoor playtime. I still have hopes that once reading is finally conquered we may still be able to school as I have envisioned. I haven't given up yet!

 

Teaching reading is the bane of my homeschool!!!!:glare:

[mbosh237]

A lot of you have touched on some of my expEctations/realities so I will just add one more that I haven't seen.

 

I expected my house to stay at least somewhat clean. Reality: my house is in constant, various levels of disrepair...but never would I classify it as clean. I have 4 kids 5 and under and we are all home all the time...what on earth was I thinking? It drives me absolutely NUTS though!!! :001_huh:

[Dmmetler]

I expected to..uh...be home! I also expected it to look more like school, and less like playing with my daughter.

[justamouse]

I keep looking at the title of this thread and laughing because reality totally dashed all my glorious expectations. And yet we go forward. :D:D

[CalicoKat]

I wasn't this exhausted, ever, in my dreams. :tongue_smilie:

 

And we always got our work done.

 

And I never dreamed I'd be asked NOT to come to the library until my dc stopped going vertical on the talll book shelving which required a ladder and the janitor to extract said child from the top. Sigh, still waiting.

 

I never expected to be frustrated.

 

I never expected interruptions.

 

I'm still surprised that none of my kids are interested in handicrafts. :glare:

 

Nope, so not my dream. But that shouldn't surprise me. Life didn't quite go as planned in many ways.

[Rosie_0801]

I threatened them that I would disinherit them if they ever get into the habit of explaining things in terms of "social construct", "narrative" and "meta-narrative", "paradigm shift" or "deconstruction". They barely know what half of those terms mean, though (ah the innocence! I envy them!),

 

But if you become a postmodernist... That is just... beyond forgivable.:tongue_smilie:

 

[Joking. Sort of. Half-joking. :lol: There are worse things in life than ideological disagreement of this kind, of course.]

 

 

:lol::lol::lol:

Oh, I'm still laughing. There's the threat of disinheritance here if our very small kids grow up to vote for the Liberal party. (Which is quite different here from the American liberal.) We are kind of joking. We will accept it from two weeks after each election until a month before each next election. During election time they would be teased mercilessly, particularly by my brother.

 

but still, one needs to exercise caution while they are young, before you wake up one day and they publish a work entitled "Deconstructing gender in Dante, with notes of power relations and narrative of the epoch" (a sad scenario which, with a slightly different title, happened to somebody I know, poor woman).

That sort of nonsense is commonly required for English majors around here. "Jane Austen from a socialist viewpoint" isn't my idea of a good time.

 

:lol::lol::lol:

Rosie

[Jean in Newcastle]

Enjoy your little people

Enjoy your journey

 

It was too long to quote everything - loved your posts, Janice!

[mathnmusic]

I wanted to homeschool since I was in high school. It had nothing to do with religion, although now it does.

 

My image was of two kids who were extremely smart and energetic. We would be out doing things all of the time and spend a fraction of our time on bookwork. I imagined we would all get along.

 

My reality has been one of four very wiggly, messy, destructive kids. The oldest is extremely strong willed and would rather sulk in his room all. day. long. than complete 10 math problems. My second has health issues. My kids fight with each other all of the time and we have zero friends. We hardly ever leave the house to do stuff because money is so tight, and they're not that smart! :rofl:

 

LOVE love love the honesty!

[kalanamak]

Ouch! Caught again.

[mcconnellboys]

I had never heard of homeschooling until I moved here and needed to do it. I think God dropped it in my lap just in the nick of time. I had no preconceived notions about it and didn't know what to expect. I was almost petrified at the thought that I'd "do something wrong" and somehow maim my children on the knowledge front. I constantly look back from one year to the next and see a million things that I always could have done better, but I still think the lifestyle as a whole is a ton better than being in the rat-race of public (or even private) school.... Now that I have one with a year of college under his belt, I'm feeling a little more sure of myself. If they can make it in the outside world, then I guess they're okay....

[Mommy22alyns]

My image of homeschooling... I'm almost embarrassed to admit it. I just thought, denim jumpers, religious nuts, and hippie freaks. Ummm. I'm sorry!

 

My reality? LOTS of patience is required, but the girls can still wear Gymboree. And I don't have to wear a denim jumper. :D

[TravelingChris]

Did I have any preconceptions? I don't really know. I first met homeschoolers 25 years ago (my dh's immediate boss and his family) and they looked like one of those Teaching Company families but they had all girls and I started out with a boy. So I never thought he would be as calm and clean as they were at church. (OF course, it turned out that he was and so were my girls once they became about four or so).

 

ANyway, early on, I thought I would do unit studies. I thought we would do much more hands on projects. I knew my son loved learning but had no idea they all would. Not learning everything- mind you. I don't think any of them liked grammar. None liked punctuation. But they were naturally curious children and grew up to be still learning adults

 

I didn't realize how strongly they would be influenced by their peers-us as parents. So my kids all like the same music we do (plus some we don't so much), all like some of our hobbies (birding, gardening, watching British mysteries), but how different they are from us too. All were much more athletic than the parents. The advantages we were able to give them helped them much more than we could ever have envisionaged. Not in some over the top way like becoming a celebrity or something, but in shaping their personalities.

 

Finally, when I started homeschooling, I had two chronic illnesses and my one dd then was fine. Second dd was born soon after starting homeschooling and she was fine too. Now, I have tour chronic illnesses and both dds have major medical issues. Homeschooling gave both of them the ability to continue their educational progress while having these issues. I am sure that both of them would have been held back without homeschooling, not because of any problems academically but because of their illnesses and conditions causing absences. That was certainly nothing I could have predicted.

[Closeacademy]

I had the vision of the perfect Charlotte Mason homeschool. We would cuddle up to read alouds, they would narrate to me, we would drill sums and be fluent in at least 2 dead and 3 living languages. It was all so rosy and perfect. With me canning in the summer, all gardening together and they would love "Little House" and "Anne of Green Gables" as much as I do.

 

The reality--my dds both had trouble learning to read. I use textbooks at the table to get the job done. They spend a lot of time drawing, reading comic books and watching "cult" TV and movies like "Doctor Who" and the various Marvel movies. They are wanting to go to comic-con or at least the local Doctor Who convention and wear costumes.

 

I've found homeschooling to be hard and a lot of work but totally worth it. My kids may not be into prairie themes but they are really cool kids with great imaginations and interesting ideas.

 

And I do have one dd who is learning a dead language--Egyptian Hieroglypics. But no one can agree on a living one although Japanese is one they are interested in.

 

:001_smile:

[Parrothead]

Don't know how I missed this one the first time around.

 

I had no preconceived notions of homeschooling. It wasn't even on my radar until the summer before dd was ready for school. She is a mid-fall baby and missed the cut off for preschool. Everywhere I called (in a two state radius) would not put her with kids who had the same abilities as her, but she would go with her school "class." Most of whom were still in diapers.

 

So I stumbled across homeschooling in the library while looking for a solution to the problem. We haven't looked back.

[derbygirl]

I thought homeschooling meant we would never get lice:leaving: