“Hi there, nice to meet you I’m B-Dub.”
“Hello B-Dub, how are you doing today?”
“Well, actually it’s raining pretty hard outside and my kids are running around the house screaming and hollerin. I think they are trying to wake up the baby.”
“Oh, you have kids! How many and how old are they?”
“Well, Punk #1 is 9, Punk #2 is 3, and I am watching my friend’s baby- he is 5 months old.”
“Wow! You sure do have you hands full!”
“Tell me about it!”
“Wait, shouldn’t you oldest be in school? Doesn’t that give you a break?”
“Actually we are homeschooling for the first time this year.”
“Homeschooling? Like you are teaching him at home?“
“That’s the idea.”
“But why? Don’t you worry about socialization? Like, that he won’t develop any social skills? Or that you won’t be able to teach him everything he needs to know?”
“Well, ummm, not really. See he attended public school from kindergarten to 3rd and it didn’t go so well. We kept trying, but it really wasn’t a good fit for him so we are going to give this a try. Not to mention that the social skills he learned at school were mostly related to the “Bully” department, so now I’m thinking that he doesn’t need those influences in his life. Maybe when he is a bit older he can handle the pressures of public school better without falling into that role-“
“But what about teaching him! How will he even learn anything from you? My kids wouldn’t take instruction from me.”
“True, it is sometimes difficult. We just focus on content rather than how long it takes to finish a project. We don’t have a time table to stick to- no deadlines at all. He can take as long as he needs to master a concept and he doesn’t have to worry about 25 other kids in the class. Not as many distractions. Sometimes it IS really hard for us to get through a lesson but we just keep trekking. It’s a learning process”
“Yeah, but what about YOU. Don’t you think that you are taking on a bit much? “
“Yeah, mostly I feel like I am just barely keeping my head above water. It’s all new; we are just trying to figure everything out together…”
“But is it worth all that stress? You could just let someone else deal with it.”
“True. But I don’t want to anymore- our lives were more stressful when he went to public school. Now we have to figure out how to be a real family. I have to improve my patience and learn to keep my cool. So it’s been good for me too. We are both learning tons!”
“Well, I wouldn’t ever choose it for my family, but good luck. Hope it works out well for your kids and that they don’t turn into serial killers or anything cause they were never socialized.”
“Yeah, thanks, me too. I think. “
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