If you have a life similar to mine, prepare for the cr*p you will recieve from family or friends who watch this show and base their opinions on what they see on "Reality" tv.... Sigh......
I'm watching too. Hopefully they'll see that it wasn't homeschooling per se, more the family's lifestyle. They moved around so much the kid had no friends. Too bad their only solution for making friends is to put him in school.
Yea, it seems whenever they choose a HS family, they always choose the ones that are "Doing it wrong". And of course, what I mean by that is that they are not actually homeschooling.... (Not to infer that there is a set way to homeschool, of course. Just that if you are denying your child a healthy home, friends or actual school work, then something is missing)
yea, they do tend to seek out the extremes for this show, though it can provide some interesting entertainment sometimes! I'm still remembering the pirate family they had on.... AARGH!
I watched part of it. I don't think the boy the was hurting for friends he had plenty. Who said you need to have been settled down and have the same friends all your life. You can have many friends in many different areas. They just like to pick on hs families no matter what we do. Yes, my family is eatting it away right now.
Hopefully when people are watching they will realize when these families get picked it's usually because they make the best tv entertainment. We can only hope that people will have enough common sense to realize that. There was one episode though where the homeschool family was depicted very nicely. The mom and dad were nice and whole family was nice and down to Earth. They didn't really point out anything negative about homeschooling on that one. There were negative things pointed out about other things, but we all have negative things about us since we're only human and all do things differently.
I watched last night and this time I think it wasn't really about homeschooling but their lifestyle. The boy kept saying he wanted to go to school to have friends but if he were not traveling all the time he would have friends homeschooled or not. The family just never stayed in the same place for more then about 10 days at a time and then they move on. I think if he would have been living in one place he would have had plenty of friends while being homeschooled.
That's the impression that I got, too. The focus was on not having any friends or being able to play sports. I think hs'ing was simply more of how they had to do school since they moved around so much. I didn't really hear anything negative about hs'ing itself, but I only watched the last half. I do think it's sad that the focus was on having to be in school to have friends. Kris, I hope that you don't feel like we are attacking your family. I think it's great that your family is able to see so much of the country. This boy's parents didn't really give him time to make friends while they were traveling around. This family traveled for rodeos/horseshows (I think. I missed the 1st half).
Pam: We are so use to being picked on we don't give people the chance anymore. Like I said yes they traveled alot but that don't make them all bad. they could stay in one spot long enough for the boy to meet friends, but there are many ways to meet friends and we have found that through e mails, snail mail and other place.
Even though I don't think this show was all about homeschooling being bad I would LOVE to see them show it in a positive light. Or they could just move on and quit picking homeschool families and pick on somebody else for a change.
Thank you mamma! My thoughts exactly! Just this week we had to address what "others" thught of hsing....Last week dd informed me that a couple of girls in her tumbling class (who, of course, NEVER heard of hsing---we live in a REALLY small town--dd is the only hser in her dancing school..) told her that "your mommy is stupid---she cant teach you ect......weeeellllllllll, I spoke to her teacher today and she filled me in! The teacher said that the other girls had really said some mean things about hsing, so she sat them all down and said, "Girls, do I look stupid? Do I look like I haven't been to school? Well guess what-- I WAS HOMESCHOOLED TOO....I got scholarships to study dance, ect........" She told me that the "mean girls" jaws liked to hit the floor! I told her how grateful I was on how the way she handeled the situation. I explained that I know kids will be kids sometimes, but since our area does not have any hsers, I wanted dd never to feel like she was wierd or anything---the LAST thing I need is a 6yo with a complex about hsing!lol! Blessings, Shawna PS---PROUD MAMMA ALERT! A few weeks ago, we attended a funeral where the District Attorney was present, my mother introduced my DD to him and he asked dd, "Where do you go to school??", DD looked him RIGHT IN THE EYE and said loud and clear "I AM HOMESCHOOLED!" She sounded so intellegent and looked so much like a sweet little girl should and acted the same way! I was soooooo proud!
Oh Shawna I am so sorry your daughter was treated that way by the "mean girls". My daughter is in a tumbling class and so far nothing has been said but I really don't know if the other girls know she is hs. I am so glad that your child's teacher sat them down and had a talk with them. Maybe they will think twice before opening their big mouths next time!
Ya know, I take a lot of flack from my family for HS'ing and stuff. They are all non-believers so giving them our religious reasons why mean nothing to them. Anyway, my neice - who goes to the best private school in our are (most expensive too, my sister is always telling me) wants me to homeschool her! She's a competition level gymnast and in the next year or two she'll be practicing 4-6 hours a day and will have less time for traditional schooling. I just found out this week that she's been asking my sister this after every time she sees my daughter (they are close in age and my daughter does gymnastics also - but not competition level yet). Told my sister that I'd gladly homeschool her if she would pay me the same as the private school LOL
