I met a fellow hs'ing mom tonight who bashed US'ing :( - Page 2

[warriorprincess]

That's just rude. No matter what your viewpoints (and I'm one who could never imagine unschooling) I would never tell someone she was ruiing her kids or bash her like that!

[Lillian J]

Originally Posted by papayapetunia

P.S. Lillian, don't be dissin' on lawyers! Some of us are out to do some good. Although, I often have to tell myself to take off my lawyer hat when talking to people.

I have nothing against lawyers at all. But this woman actually burst out yelling in the middle of my talk - it wasn't as if she waved her hand and said "I have something to say about that" or anything. She just started shouting. And the room was just classroom size - it's not as if she was shouting from the back of an autitorium to be heard. I really thought she was a mental case and that we might have to call security if I couldn't calm her down. - Lillian

[MyLittleWonders]

I hope you are feeling better about it all today.

And, OO HOO on hitting !!!

[AntoninBeGonin]

Originally Posted by mykdsmomy

I went to a meet n mingle type thing tonight for our school (K12). I went to see if I could meet a mom that would give me some tips on the ins and outs of K12. When it was my turn to introduce myself, I started out by saying I had more of an unschooling/relaxed homeschooling mindset with my children and this mom spoke up and said "well, kids need to learn that they cant do whatever they want, whenever they want in life...they need to learn good work ethics". I was just taken aback by the way she came off. She then went on to say that her house is spotless and everything is super organized and she has a tight schedule that she adheres to and she doesnt go to bed unless everything is clean and put away, etc.
I dont know why this bothered me so much. A few of the other K12 moms were very understanding of my hs'ing preference and some of them came from being very relaxed to using k12 but this mom just seemed to bash unschooling and more importantly gentle parenting. She's like "unless you want to live in a box on the streets, you need to know how to get up early and work til the job is done". Maybe it felt like she was attacking me....I dont know....just made me feel sad

I've always thought the best reply to something like that is a raised eyebrow and a drawn out "ooooooooooookaaaaaaaaay"

~Nay

[mama in the forest]

I've always thought the best reply to something like that is a raised eyebrow and a drawn out "ooooooooooookaaaaaaaaay"

:

[eilonwy]

Originally Posted by dharmamama

K-12 prides itself on being highly structured, time-consuming, and academically rigorous. I am not surprised you found someone at a K-12 meeting who had this opinion. I think it just means you all have different ideas about what you want homeschooling to look like.

Nothing against K-12, btw. For people with certain types of goals for their kids' education, it's probably a good resource.

Namaste!

It doesn't have to be time consuming-- the program is mastery based, not work based. If your kid understands concept A, he doesn't need to spend hours and hours on it; he only needs to take the assessment and move on to the next topic. You can spend as much or as little time as your kids need to spend on just about anything.

It is quite rigorous, though. I really like it, but I'm a tense kind of person.

[cravenab00]

at one of our homeschooling group's mom's night out, there was a mega unschooling bashing going on. "I knew someone who unschooled and their handwriting was terrible" "their 12 year old couldnt add"

I thought to myself, how hypocritical.

I can just picture a bunch of PS mamas sitting around a PTA meeting and someone mentions homeschooling, and the next thing you know everyone knows someone who homeschools and they arent socialized, cant read, blah blah blah.

[Attila the Honey]

I had this same type of thing happen, only it was one on one and not in front of a group. (phew)

But, yeah, a k12 mom had the same rant when I mentioned that I was more leaning towards unschooling. Not only that rant but she went on to tell me it was impossible to do in PA and illegal and she made all sorts of type looks at me for even mentioning it.

But then, she also spanked her 2 yo in the middle of storytime because he wouldn't stop changing spots. So, I figure she and I don't really have much common ground.

[dharmamama]

Originally Posted by eilonwy

It doesn't have to be time consuming--

All I know is that when I looked into it for my 12 year old, they said that she would be spending 5-6 hours a day on her work. To me, that is time consuming. They told me they have mandatory attendance rules that require a certain amount of time logged. I looked into the public charter version of it. Maybe that's different than just purchasing the K-12 curriculum to use independently.

Namaste!

[Lillian J]

Originally Posted by dharmamama

All I know is that when I looked into it for my 12 year old, they said that she would be spending 5-6 hours a day on her work. To me, that is time consuming. They told me they have mandatory attendance rules that require a certain amount of time logged. I looked into the public charter version of it. Maybe that's different than just purchasing the K-12 curriculum to use independently.

Good grief. I had no idea. Compare that to my son and his friends who are thriving in college and have always loved learning - when they didn't do any "work" at all at that age. They dabbled in this and that, but they weren't stuck in front of assignments, much less 5-6 hours of them. : - Lillian

[MissRubyandKen]

I wanted to chime in and say it is very easy to log hours when doing K12. We aren't anymore for numerous reasons, but after all it only takes a few clicks and you can log hours for any learning that takes place, not just K12 material usage. To me it seemed as open-ended as a program like it can be. After all children are learning all the time.

[eilonwy]

Yeah, they told us that, too (through a charter school as well) but it's not actually true. There's no reason to keep a child seated and working for that amount of time unless you're trying to do *all* of the work they offer, and much of it is not required. I don't really have the energy for 5-6 hours a day, or even the 4 hours a day they talk about for early elementary. BizzyBug didn't do that much, and neither did Chibi (first and fourth), even if you count the, "Let's learn this word and then spend ten minutes on the playground running around in circles" deal I did with BizzyBug so that she could learn her vocabulary words.

I know people who unschool in PA. It's not as easy as it could be, but it can most assuredly be done.

[mary3mama]

Homeschooling's version of the 'mommy wars' sounds like.

Anyone that pushy, judgemental and defensive is best to be steered away from...

We, too, are very relaxed in our approach here...and yet we don't live in boxes out on the street...each family has different needs.

[Alana]

Im still adjusting to K12. Our "teacher" is SO confused about how I do things. It is a BIG adjustment from unschooling/relaxed hs'ing. I do love the curriculum, and have started figuring out how to makei t work for us. Generally i look at the objectives, and just work it into our day. I also do blocks of lessons at a time. I log hours for everything..ds played computer games...ok that goes under technology.

/that lady was really rude thought...but I can see my oldest sister saying that...she is just like that woman. :