Six vital things all homeschoolers must have/do - Page 2

[Kreeblim]

Originally Posted by SpiderMum 

4. And I quote: "mom needs to cook nutritious meals, like our state specifically requires in schools, not pizza rolls"

OMG this is AWESOME!  It will be so much easier to feed the little monsters each day now that I know that frozen tater tots should be classified as a vegetable because we home school!  Those greasy golden potato nuggets were my FAVORITE part of school lunch when I was a kid and we had them AT LEAST twice a week (when it wasn't a french fry or potato chip day)!  They were the perfect compliment to hot dogs (with added calcium in the form of bone chips) and pizza (which was great because you could pick ANY topping you wanted as long as you picked grease)!

And here I was feeding them fruits and vegetables and stuff.  Pffffft.  Maybe that's why they don't like to sit at their desks.

Edited by Kreeblim - 1/10/11 at 6:58pm

[luv my 2 sweeties]

Originally Posted by jojobean 
  This sounds like me before I had kids.  

        

[elisheva]

Originally Posted by Kreeblim 

 It will be so much easier to feed the little monsters each day now that I know that frozen tater tots should be classified as a vegetable because we home school!  

And ketchup. Don't forget that ketchup is a vegetable, too, according to the school lunch plan!!

[AnnR33]

SNORT is right! That IS entertaining. I also bet this person needs to pull a stick out their ..... oh you get the idea. LOL

[onlyzombiecat]

1. Keep a clean and NEAT house.  No clutter or mess at all.

It's a nice goal but is always a work in progress because we have stuff and are here using our stuff. We don't live in a bare room with all our possessions in a locker or cubby. We don't have separate staff to clean and cook and teach and do all the other tasks.

2. Have desks for the children to work at.

We own 4 desks and dd has a table but we usually end up working at the dining table or sofa anyway. What's the point of this? Is this person saying that homeschoolers would just have to work on the floor if they didn't have a special school desk?

3. have a daily schedule and get up EARLY like every other school child.

I think there is value in having a regular daily routine or schedule but it definitely doesn't need to start at 6 or 7 AM or match a school schedule at all. I think getting sufficient sleep is more important and learning can happen at any hour of the day or night.

4. And I quote: "mom needs to cook nutritious meals, like our state specifically requires in schools, not pizza rolls"

Nutritious meals are important but I don't believe that school lunches are really the gold standard of nutrition. My dd hasn't had pizza rolls for months. ;)

5. Physical activity daily, like at school.

I'd say my dd moves much more than a kid in school because she isn't expected to sit at a desk or stand in line. Getting her to sit still is the challenge.

6. A designated lunch & break time daily, not when "the phone rings & mom want to go chat".

Whatever. I almost never talk on the phone. We take breaks between every subject. We are done in 3 or 4 hours anyway- usually before lunch time.

This person obviously thinks schools/institutional care are the ideal model for kids in all respects. Does this person even have children?

[onlyzombiecat]

I just looked at the local school's lunch menu. Meat every single day. Things like corn dogs, pizza, hamburgers, mac & cheese, chicken nuggets, fries or tator tots almost every single day. Yeah they didn't have actual pizza rolls on the menu but these are the high government standards for school food that homeschoolers should copy?

If dd were going to school I'd be packing her lunch anyway based on this.

[kittywitty]

Originally Posted by cappuccinosmom 

lol.  Particularly hilarious as I went to public schools.

They were *filthy* and the food was *garbage* and this was a "good" school in a solidly middle-class area.  Puh-lease. 

The person kind of skipped over the whole issue of education entirely.  This is all surface stuff, and irrelevant.

Amen!!! The food at all the schools I went to was just horrifying. It was a good day when there wasn't a roach or what looked like vomit on your plate! And all junk-fries, pizza, cookies, pop...

[MrsJewelsRae]

1) Um we do have a clean house, but we do actually LIVE in it all day.  If she wants to play that game I would expect I should be able to eat off her floors any time since she has all day to herself with her kids in school..  (stereotype much!?)

2) Desks?  Does she make her children do all their homework confined to a desk after school or in the kitchen or family room where most kids want to be and learning happens best when you are comfortable.  We will happily continue to school in the kitchen, in front of the fireplace, on a blanket under the shade tree in the front yard, out by the creek with a load of books, or sprawled on my bed, tyvm!   BTW, We picked up desks from the garbage and the kids were interested in them for about a week then never sat in them again, they're long gone.

3) Many ps kids are sleep deprived!  My kids are up at 6:30 am, I never have to wake them up in the mornings. 

4) Um, "nutritious"!!!!????  I would have to come waaaaaaaay down in my standards to feed my children a meal that could compare with the schools pathetic standards of nutrition!  I feed my kids more nutritious meals in a week than most schools would serve in a year!  Oh, and I also don't have vending machines in my house, last time I checked. 

5) Pretty sure she'd be horrified at how much physical activity my kids get- like hours every day!  Oh the horror, they should be at their desks studying their reflections in the perfectly spotless veneer while eating chicken fingers and tater tots and juice with high fructose corn syrup in it! :p

6) Breaks?  You mean a 15 minute recess that when I went to school was enforced no matter how dang cold it was outside, and we would huddle together shivering, desperately waiting for the bell to ring so we could go back inside and escape the -20 windchill? 

What would we do w/o the expertise of non homeschooling parents!!??  And the article she linked to was disgusting, offensive and quite comical, not to mention really poor reporting, she named not one source, not one quote, no studies, no facts, no proof, no evidence whatsoever.  *Whatever*!!

[lizzie]

That's so absurd it's kind of fantastic!

[ancoda]

Moominmama-  Around here they do provide free school lunches at 2 of the local parks and at least one of the schools to anyone under 18 through most of the summer.  We went to it a few times this last summer and the meals were just as scary as I remember them being from public school and every Friday was pizza from a local place that does $5 pizzas.
 

 

My son does have a table in his room where he does some of his work so that his younger brothers do not distract him, but most work is done together in the living room or outside.

My house is cluttered/ messy.  My meals vary from quite nutritious to not so nutritious but still better then school food.  My 8 year old son is a night owl and therefore sleeps later then his brothers.  All of my kids get lots of physical activity, both in doors and outdoors.

[phathui5]

My kids actually do get daily physical activity, unlike most kids in school.

They take yoga at the Y on Mondays and sometimes Tuesday too. Wednesday they have swim lesson and gym class. Thursday and Friday they play in the gym at the Y. Yesterday, for example, 10yo ds and I played raquetball. They also get to play Wii Fit when kids in school are sitting at their desks.