The first year I was always nervous about getting asked questions. Now I don't give it a second thought. Nobody's business but mine and really I do find most people are kind and friendly. Most people, but not all. I just don't care at this point. I go where i want, when I want.
The funniest one I got actually happened during the summer. It was our tenth anniversary, so Carl and I rented a cottage for a week at a state park. My cousin took the kids for two nights, and then Mom and Dad drove them down to the cottage to spend the rest of the week with us. Well, one day I had the kids in the Nature Center, looking at all kinds of really cool stuff. I think they were actually drawing the big snapping turtle that was in a tank. But this woman came up to me and asked, "Do you homeschool your children?" And when I told her yes, she said, "You just act like a homeschooler..." Turns out her daughter was wanting to homeschool, and was curious how I did things. We had a lovely conversation!
Is it possible that your son is 'bugging' him and he is trying to get him to stay out of his business? Just askin', cause my neighbor kids are a pain in the rear! I am at the door constantly, when the PS bus comes, I might as well kiss the rest of the day good bye :evil: IF that is not the issue, I would simply tell your son to respond, 'aren't you going into an old folk's home soon?' or he could say 'sir, you need to go buy some bean dip'........... okaaay, I'm in a weird mood, might not ought to post anymore today
Or just have your son respond by -"yep got my homework done superfast!" or he could walk up to him everytime he sees him and ask him what time it is. Then he could say, "Thanks - MAN I got my school done fast today!" After about 40 times of the saame thing....who knows? The older neighbors i our neighborhood seem to think hsing is not exactly legal. its funny. My kids are so proud of it, that I just let the kids handle it (they kinda irritate me.)
I was self-conscious at first but not anymore. Nobody has been rude to us yet. They may ask, "Oh, is school out today?" and I answer, "No. We're homeschoolers." and everyone has responded nicely. We usually have a short conversation about how much quicker we can finish up our day because the dc aren't being shuffled around from class to class, waiting on roll call, etc.
Another thing, I wonder how he would respond if your son were to ask about what he was doing? Or offer to help him with mulch or whatever.
I made sure when we moved into our house 4 years ago that all the neighbors knew we were homeschooling. I got very positive responses from everyone. In fact 1 of my neighbors had all his siblings homeschooled, he wasn't because he liked ps. Other than the occasional question about how my kids are doing (which really is like twice in 4 years) I get alot of positive feedback. We had some neighbors move in next door about 8 months ago and when I went over to meet them, she asked if we hs'ed because she saw my kids in the backyard playing in the middle of the day. I was glad she asked, because she said she was worried for a few days that I was just keeping them home! When I go out, I don't worry about what time of the day it is. We go run our errands and do our stuff when it works for us. I used to get a lot more weird looks when my kids were younger, but now that my kids are older and aren't afraid to respond, my kids just tell people when they are asked that they are homeschooled. In fact my son says it with such enthusiasm that it takes them nearly a whole minute to respond and usually they just end up muttering something like, "oh." or "good for you".
It's funny - we are so used to being able to go out and do things during the day when many places are not as busy that it has sincerely rubbed off on my kids. We were in Walmart at about 11 in the morning and it was PACKED. My ds (age 11 at the time) says, "What are all these people doing here? Don't they have somewhere else to be right now?" I cracked up!
We were at Kohl's during the middle of a school day, and there we so many school-aged kids. Rachael looked at them all and asked, "Why aren't all those kids at school right now?" "Because they're probably homeschooled like you..." "Oh. Yeah, probably...." LOL!!!
As another poster mentioned, I too prefer to be out during school hours with my dc. When we lived in the city, we'd go out to lunch and to the movies during "regular" school hours. Loved it! We still enjoy lunch out. We do the same with the grocery store and other errands, and even dentist visits (they love that we are so flexible there LOL). When folks ask, "no school today?" or "All done school?", I just tell them we homeschool. I always get an enthusiastic response.
That is a great idea thanks! No, my son was not bugging him or anything because I was with him when all these comments were made. One comment was said from across the yard as we were getting out of our truck when we got home from an errand. Other than the comments he is a nice neighbor to us. I think it is his age or maybe his lack of knowledge about homeschooling.
Funny but in my area they all know we home school by now. IF I do not have the kids with me when I am at store during the day they ask me, are the kids home working? Why are they not here? lol
Wow. Something I never thought about. Honestly, not much bothers me LOL and I'm pretty oblivious to people giving me looks and stuff, not much of one to care what others think so that's probably why it never crossed my mind. When I see kids out during school hours I just think they had a doctor/dentist appt or they have a cool mom/dad that just got them out to go have fun LOL
Well as alot of you all know, we travel for years and lived in a RV. Did tons and tons of things during the day when others were in school. All the places we went too, we hardly got ask anything. Some of the places like museums and things we visit they would ask me if I homeschool and we said yes, they would say great and then come up to us and say they were slow and would take the girls and give them one on one tours behind the scene and all over. My girls seen alot and learn alot. No we never really got question. I still believe if you and your child are out and don't cause a big scene and everyone don't look nothing happens. If you draw attention of cause you are going to get ask tons and tons of question and should. I always taught my girls in public you behave nice. Don't draw attention.
Kris is right - being out and about gives children so many opportunities. At home, I am a bit circumspect. But today we are leaving for Houston. We will spend most of tomorrow morning in the library - doing school work, yes, but also using computers and checkign out books. Tuesday morning we'll go to yoga in the park (how cool is that!). I took them last month and the instructor was very welcoming. The boys had a blast. On Wednesday, Houston *was* offering weekly lunchtime park concerts, and we'd take a picnic lunch (Now that summer's here, the concerts have shifted to evenings). Those are things that, if they were in school, they'd either miss out on or have to try and squeeze in outside school hours. No one questions them at these "special" places because I am with them.
You'll always get the nosey ol' bitty that says, "Oh dear, aren't you supposed to be in school?" I would respond, nope, not if they are really sick like they are now, better step back if you don't want to get strep throat". Problem solved! Hey, we're in Wolly World picking up antibitotics for their illness, right?
I've pretty much read ALL of these posts! LOL! We are homeschooling our kids, but they are too young to be in school right now, DS is almost 3, and other DS is 19 months. No looks yet, but I've always worried about being asked/questioned/recieve bad looks when out in public. I don't know one person that lives in my town that homeschools! (Most people send theirs to school so they can participate in football and sports. Big sporting community here.) We do get comments about how smart our oldest is sometimes though. I have only answered once, "Thank you! We homeschool him!" And I didn't get a response back :/ eerrr awkward.
Going out during "school hours" is my preference. The earlier the better. I do not worry what people will say. We are working on our 8th year and questions and comments mean little to me these days; usually. We have new neighbors and she told me that she recently retired. Then she asked if I work. For a moment I thought, here it comes!:roll: When I told her that I homeschool she got this huge smile on her face and said, "WONDERFUL!" Her grandchildren are homeschooled and she believes it is the best choice a parent can make when it comes to their children's education.
I always wait a second after the question is asked. 99.9% of the time, my daughter or son answers it, and like the previous poster, with a lot of enthusiasm and more details than the questioner probably wanted. Never got anything negative, lol.
