I know I shouldn't worry... I mean, my daughter is only 3. But it seems like everyone I talk to about homeschooling outside of my husband a couple we're friends with and other homeschoolers (We are BLESSED to live in a community where homeschooling is so popular!)... which leaves my family and most of my friends... is against our decision!
I didn't want to do it for the longest. I felt unqualified and the fact that my house is a mess and we don't really stick to strict routines... I thought I couldn't do it! But I'm growing to love the "school" time I have with my daughter. I love answering all her questions. She's like this little sponge in that she soaks up EVERYTHING. *lol* I love reading to her, and teaching her. We do flashcards, and she picks up on a lot of things really quick!
Doing these little things, dipping our toes in hs... well... it makes me feel like I can do it. I know I don't know EVERYTHING, and am VERY deficient in Math, but lucky for us... dh is EXCELLENT in math and is a great teacher.
(He tutored for the longest, and I'd still like to see him in a teaching position, especially with younger kids.) I feel like we can do it!
The responses I've gotten, because I feel the need to know everyone's opinions I guess... or they ask me what we've done this week in conversation:
"You'll ruin that child if you homeschool her"-- my stepfather
"Homeschooling is great. Don't homeschool Julia. She needs to be around children, you don't ever get her out" (a lie!)--my grandmother
"But what if it fails? What if you have to put her in say-- 3rd grade, and she's behind the others? Then her self confidence will be low"-- my mil
"You're not qualified to teach. You are not a teacher and will do your child a disservice by TRYING to teach her."-- my sil
Ok. My mother in law and grandmother... they're the only ones that actually hurt. My mil has supported us, and at one point told me it would be FANTASTIC for us to homeschool. THEN when the "good" school (I've heard it's excellent, actually) changed it's bus route to include our road, she changed her mind.
Guess what? I WANT for us to go at our own pace. I WANT to challenge her and myself. I WANT to keep her here with me. We WILL get out. We already do. She goes to Sunday morning and night church (including sunday school) and on Wednesdays she goes to Mission friends, which is Wed. night's version of Sunday school. We go to the park once a week, and we go to story time at the library on Wednesdays. On whatever day dh is off, we go out to do errands and out to eat. We don't just "stay at home".
Honestly-- what is so controversial about homeschooling? What about it makes people SO uncomfortable that they have to make rude comments to those who choose to do it? I want to tell them that they can just get over themselves, but I won't. I was raised to be more courteous than that, although you wouldn't believe it from the comments from those who raised me. What ever happened to "treat others the way you'd have them treat you?". Seriously. *sigh*
Anyways. I'm getting all riled up and my daughter is only 3. She's still a bit away from actual "school". I guess what I'm going to do is just... do it. Lord willing, we will homeschool her. I'll keep a blog showing what we do during the day, and will probably still get comments. I'm sure we'll still get comments even if she does good. I just don't WANT to care, but I do.
(I'm glad I live 2 hours away from my family. They're toxic to me. I love them, and I'm sure they love me. But they SURE don't show it.)
I didn't want to do it for the longest. I felt unqualified and the fact that my house is a mess and we don't really stick to strict routines... I thought I couldn't do it! But I'm growing to love the "school" time I have with my daughter. I love answering all her questions. She's like this little sponge in that she soaks up EVERYTHING. *lol* I love reading to her, and teaching her. We do flashcards, and she picks up on a lot of things really quick!
Doing these little things, dipping our toes in hs... well... it makes me feel like I can do it. I know I don't know EVERYTHING, and am VERY deficient in Math, but lucky for us... dh is EXCELLENT in math and is a great teacher.
(He tutored for the longest, and I'd still like to see him in a teaching position, especially with younger kids.) I feel like we can do it!The responses I've gotten, because I feel the need to know everyone's opinions I guess... or they ask me what we've done this week in conversation:
"You'll ruin that child if you homeschool her"-- my stepfather
"Homeschooling is great. Don't homeschool Julia. She needs to be around children, you don't ever get her out" (a lie!)--my grandmother
"But what if it fails? What if you have to put her in say-- 3rd grade, and she's behind the others? Then her self confidence will be low"-- my mil
"You're not qualified to teach. You are not a teacher and will do your child a disservice by TRYING to teach her."-- my sil
Ok. My mother in law and grandmother... they're the only ones that actually hurt. My mil has supported us, and at one point told me it would be FANTASTIC for us to homeschool. THEN when the "good" school (I've heard it's excellent, actually) changed it's bus route to include our road, she changed her mind.
Guess what? I WANT for us to go at our own pace. I WANT to challenge her and myself. I WANT to keep her here with me. We WILL get out. We already do. She goes to Sunday morning and night church (including sunday school) and on Wednesdays she goes to Mission friends, which is Wed. night's version of Sunday school. We go to the park once a week, and we go to story time at the library on Wednesdays. On whatever day dh is off, we go out to do errands and out to eat. We don't just "stay at home".
Honestly-- what is so controversial about homeschooling? What about it makes people SO uncomfortable that they have to make rude comments to those who choose to do it? I want to tell them that they can just get over themselves, but I won't. I was raised to be more courteous than that, although you wouldn't believe it from the comments from those who raised me. What ever happened to "treat others the way you'd have them treat you?". Seriously. *sigh*
Anyways. I'm getting all riled up and my daughter is only 3. She's still a bit away from actual "school". I guess what I'm going to do is just... do it. Lord willing, we will homeschool her. I'll keep a blog showing what we do during the day, and will probably still get comments. I'm sure we'll still get comments even if she does good. I just don't WANT to care, but I do.
(I'm glad I live 2 hours away from my family. They're toxic to me. I love them, and I'm sure they love me. But they SURE don't show it.)
Thankfully I have gotten huge support from most people in my life- my mom hs my youngest sister, my SIL has same aged kids as I do and she hs, my younger sister plans on hs'ing, a lady from church who is older but her youngest kids are my kids ages- she's a great friend and she homeschools too. Plus we have our hs group, several of the families are old friends of ours from "sister" churches to ours. However, my dh's parents were very opposed to hs, FIL was a ps teacher for 30 years and MIL has always doubted my ability to do anything as good as her. 
The church we are affiliated with is very conservative and yet hs is very unpopular and was really looked down upon by a lot of people. But my older friend started hs'ing her kids 12 years ago and she really paved the way, took most of the criticism and by doing a wonderful job has really deflected a lot of it. I am entering our 4th year of hs'ing and am very proud to be a part of this movement, it is catching on more and more, certainly not like wildfire, but I know quite a few hs families now and seeing how awesome all these kids are they are breaking all the old stereotypes of "socially akward/weird homeschooled kids" and the naysayers just don't have a leg to stand on anymore! 
I am SO proud to be a homeschool mom, I'm secure in our decision, I am thrilled with my children's progress and emotional development at home, I don't shove my beliefs down other people's throats but I will not be ashamed of being a hs mom! 
I had to survive the frustration first couple-few years of MIL constantly bugging my ds about what he was learning at home, every time we saw them she would openly ask my ds "So Alex, did you do school today"? As if she couldn't trust me to actually do it. Then she would grill dh because so often ds would shrug his shoulders or say no- cause he was only 5-7 yrs old and the relaxed way we hs felt more like fun and adventurous learning to him than "school" (reading, science, history, art and fun math stuff, learning to write by using paints, sidewalk chalk and window markers, etc). My dh pointed out to MIL when he was in school he'd get home and mom would ask "what'd you learn in school today" and the kid usually replies "nothing" with a shrug- yet that never bothered her. Plus ds was defensive of MIL's constant probing so he liked to change the subject. Dh had to tell her several times to stop doing it. But over the years she could not deny the proof that our kids were learning! DS is at least a year ahead in math and both kids were reading novels at 6 (not cause I pushed them, they just loved reading and caught on fast), so MIL really couldn't judge my ability to do this. She has really changed her views! My ILs are now fairly supportive of hs'ing. They see how our kids are free to grow and blossom w/o the peer pressure and conformity of the ps system, the benefits of flexibility, and also seeing her other granddaughter (BIL's dd) go off to kindy at age 4 and seeing how she cried every day she went to school, hearing some of the things she was taught, and seeing how much she changed she became very glad our kids were hs'd! In fact, a few months ago, MILs sister was visiting and was openly hostile and incredibly rude to me about homeschooling- in front of my kids!!! She ranted and raved about how "you can't raise your kids in a box" and how she "just couldn't do that to my children, to stunt them so bad socially, and they would have no friends at all, and they would surely go wild once they got to college" then proceeded to give examples of some very strange families she knew who happened to hs (they would've been weird no matter their school choices!!) and how messed up their kids were, etc. Yeah, thanks for comparing me with them. I was so mad I hardly knew what to say, especially since MIL was sitting right there. But my MIL immediately went to bat! I nearly fell over as MIL started singing the praises and benefits of hs'ing and touting some of the problems with public schools these days, and then openly challenging her sister to find any fault with "my wonderful grandchildren". Shut her up pretty fast! 
