This thread is meant to vent and share our "Zingers" and "Come-Backs": Those snappy, come-backs to whatever negative or nasty comments you may get, in regards to homeschooling. This is not to be nasty, on the contrary, it is meant to be intellectual and humorous. It is meant to help us spread the "Common Sense" about homeschooling to an inadvertently ignorant, yet usually well-meaning world. :roll: Although I could simply cover my answers with, "Because we believe this is what God has put on our hearts for our family". I still believe that some people honestly want to know more, they want to go deeper. So, in an effort to spread the knowledge to others, let us share our "Come-Backs" to others about the specifics of how and why we homeschool, along with the success stories of how you may have helped someone to understand or to come to homeschooling.......What reactions do you get?......... (Your mileage may vary) My start.... When people ask me, "But how will you know all of the stuff they need to learn? What about Algebra?" My Reply: "Well, dear.. I DID finish highschool, which by default says that the state agrees that I mastered the subject matter, at least to the high school level, yes?" (They usually have a happy look on their face, of "Oh! I never thought of that!") When people ask me; "Shouldn't the teaching be left to professionals? I mean they DO have degrees in teaching which clearly you do not." My reply: "Well dear, .... Would it be too much to ask, that for breakfast, lunch and dinner that you should send your child to a registered dietitian, EVERY breakfast lunch and dinner... don't worry, the DIETITIAN will send home SNACKS (Homework)? . . . . . . . . . . . . . I mean how could you possibly be educated as well as a degreed professional who has studied foods and nutrients, to be sure there are no HOLES in your childs' dietary needs? Which I would argue, are more of an immediate importance than their education, don't you agree, dear? ... And while we are on the subject, Has the State come by to check your menus and food stock for the "Proper foods" for your childs age and height?" ..... (at which point they usually agree that this sounds a bit Orwellian and the conversation usually turns to how much we, as parents, have blindly crossed many lines in the sand of allowing that Nanny State to begin raising our children for us.....) When people ask: What about socialization? How are they going to function in the "Real World?" My Reply: "Great question!. Are your children neglected their right to a normal social atmosphere during Summer Break? How could they possibly grow into functioning adults, if they are not kept corralled in a room with all children of the same age?. And if you agree that they survive unscathed, socially in the Summer Break, then simply add some school work to the first half of the day (Or whenever their family works) and VIOLA! You have homeschoolers!.. Meanwhile your children, in school, never get to interact with the "Outside world" on any real level, because for the rest of the day, sometimes 8 hours, they are locked into only ONE type of interpersonal interactions. I'm sorry, I want more for my child than being locked into one "Us verses Them" class system of social interaction between students and teachers. We prefer a more "Real World" social exposure" Ok, anyone else wanna help build a database of come-backs? .
Ok, what are you bar-b-queing up there to think THAT!?>? hahahahaha! I am slowly climbing out of this funk.. will PM you...
What about socialisation? "Oh yes, we are sure to bully them, give them wedgies & take their lunch money."
Dang it! You took my line...lol. When people ask how I could possibly be able to teach them all they need to know, I get to reply "well, I managed to graduate from a well respected college with a 4.0. I think I can handle a little high school algebra." My favorite, though, is when people ask me how I can stand to be around my kids 24/7, I either say "How can you stand not to?", "That's easy. I actually like them.", or "Because they don't have the crappy attitude kids pick up in PS, they're actually likable." It just depends on my mood. Then again, I can be harsh when people push me with that one. Every time someone asks me that I seriously lose some respect for them. I'm sure I'll think of more, but it's 2:20 am and I just got home from a very long night at work.
Socialization: ...Not a problem we harrass, tease, embarrass and threaten them everyday. By the way, do you remember at what age we are suppose to start making fun of parents' career choices. ....You're right, they won't be dating their teachers. .....yada yada yada yada yada and getting beat up on the bus was sooooo much fun. Like you, I miss those things and believe me, it weigh heavily in the decision making process to be sure. Believe it or not, we will take them of their pedastals to play each day when the other kids come from school. Homeschooling is not just for freaked out hippies and stuck up helicopter soccer moms any more. Some of us actually let our kids play with others. We think it is a good idea to limit socializing to after school, and since this leaves our school day half as long as the public school day, it sort of comes out even. Don't worry, we have taken measures to comensate, for example, we did not teach them manners to begin with, and we will just let them do all the things their school freinds would have pressured them into.:wink: We feel that letting them watch an hour of MTV each morning more than makes up for being socialized. I just have them lick the handle on the shopping cart each week and they stay just a sick as a kindergardner.
What about self esteme? How will they know how special they are? They get to be the teachers pet... every year, every day! They get to be hall monitor, chalk board erraser, honor roll receiver as the top of thier class!
These are all great! I just respond to most things "We just do what works for us." Around here there are not many homeschoolers, the number is growing, but still low. It IS well received here. When we are out and about and I bump into people and strike up a conversation about school or what ever and I say that I homeschool I usually get "wow! I wish I could have done that with my kids" or "Wow! That is so great that you can do that!" or "We are thinking of homeschooling our kids too.. where did you learn everything you needed to know?"
Those are exactly the people I wish to connect with. I dearly hope that just as me calling myself a Christian and wanting my actions to help others to believe.. I also hope to show others that homeschooling may be something that they CAN do. At least I hope I do! haha Most days I am probably that crazy woman who couldn't find enough cats to be a crazy cat lady, so I collect and keep kids..... hahahahahahaha!
I get those people a lot here too! They think I am so smart and so brave and so creative etc for being a home school mom so sometimes, sorry gals I tell them _------ It's not as hard as it seems! ANyone can do it, look if I can anyone can!
I get that a lot too. I just think, "If you really knew me...." I also lose a tiny bit of respect for the people that say, "oh, I NEED a break from my kids!" Um...we all do, from everybody, but that isn't any reason to just ship them off to school everyday. Besides, I think it's AWESOME to know and see and be the one that is teaching my kid!
I get what about them not being able to play and be with children there own age.. I say well they know how to respect and be with everyone no matter what there age is.. how do you stay with them all the time.. I look forward to Mondays when they go back to school. I say I enjoy being with my children they are so special and wonderful and alot of fun to be with. I enjoy watching them learn and getting it and not someone else telling me look what your child did today.
The one I get a lot is "you're so brave to homeschool your kids," and all I can say is "You're the brave one, you're sending your kid to a public school!" Amy
How about this for an answer for why you homeschool? I didn't go through all that pain at childbirth to send'em away to someone else to raise! If I'm goin' through that, then I'm gonna darn well keep'em home and raise them to be REAL, God-fearing (by that I mean God LOVING), respectable adults---something that just can't be done in ps!
I agree it's sad when people say they can't wait for school to start whether it's after summer or just the weekend. This very thing happened to my friend & I in McDonalds on Columbus Day. It was sooo crowded & the dad behind me was very vocal about how he couldn't wait for this break (Mon & Tues only for his kids) to be over. I wasted my daughter's kindergarten year in public school & I'll never get it back so it just saddens me that people who have kids just want to brush them off like that. I'll need to memorize some of these things since I usually think of the perfect retort hours later!
My neighbor said "Are you going to homeschool again this year?" I said. "Yes. Are you going to send your daughter to public school again this year?"
We all have our own unique reasons to homeschool, some are the same with others. But I tend to have several. Sometimes I tell people, "Because no one of "Means" sends their children to public school, so why would I?" I always say it as if I am saying, "No one of "Means" eats from a trash bin". Or I say that, "To me public schools are like port-a-potties. Necessary of course, but who would let their child live in one?" A Muslim family shares the tumbling class with my daughter. The subject of how we educate our daughter came up and they were actually very interested. I mention that they were Muslim, because they felt that homeschooling was a Christian only "Thing". But I was able to show them several local groups of Muslim homeschooling support. They were impressed and thankful. The man asked the typical question of, "How do you know what to teach?", to which I replied with the friendly humorous zinger about graduating public high school and how elementary is not that hard... He tilted his head, in thought as he stared at the ground, listening to me... and then continued with questions... I asked him, why he suddenly trusted a government institution to do a better job than the private sector. He agreed that I made a good point, then he of course, brought up private schools. I replied that private schools are simply the richer kids version of public schools; the teasing is still there, but the drugs are more expensive and the uniforms are extra. In fact, I would argue that private schools "Can" be more precarious, because no one would ever prosecute the mayors son, and so on..... To me public, or private.. they are the same, just different economic levels (At least around here). Of course, in response he asked about how children are supposed to learn to deal with creeps, if they do not grow up dealing with people. Of course I indulged him with our typical week schedule and added that these are REAL people, NOT manequines. They fight with us just as often as anyone else. The difference? We the parents are there to handle the situation immediately, before it gets to the "Gang style" level. (7 year olds teaching 7 years olds how to act is the blind leading the blind)........... ............And that to prepare my children to be the entrepreneurs I know they can be, they should NEVER find it acceptable to spend any length of time in a place that "Bullying" is considered normal. Because when you grow up, it is called: Harassment. And if you think it is normal, you probablywork in a cubical and you are expendable. He LOVED that. So he was still asking...... I told him about teaching myself to read and write Russian and he lit up about how he teaches Arabic. So I made a joke about how it is all over Prussia's head, and he actually got the joke and seemed to connect with us. Ancient Prussia is the land of Iran Iraq and so on..... Two weeks later, he is still asking questions. His daughter is only three, But they are the typical family for our area, in that they were already about to put her in full time preschool at a private preschool with advanced this and that. I told him the story of my boys at three. I would get mad at them for being able to count 1,2,,4,5.. etc.. But if I had them actually count the amount of m&m's in front of them, they would randomly assign numbers to each random m&m and miss-count. Then I saw a program that mentioned this phenomenon. They said that a child's brain is only able to understand the concepts of "Amounts" after a certain point (Age). For most children, the happens around 3 or 3.5 years of age. Sure enough.. when the twins were 3.5 years old, the light bulb went off. It taught me to back off. No amount of teaching can get a child, who is not ready to learn..... So, my point to him was. "Isn't trying to cram college prep courses down the throat of a three year old, kinda the same as pouring fine wine into a colander?" He chuckled and the gears in his head were turning again. Then I reminded him that if there is money to be made, ANYONE will tell you that they can make your baby smarter. Anyway, just wanted to share a recent situation where a person is genuinely interested, but homeschooling is still very foreign to them. I want to try to help them "Join the club" so to speak, without offending them or scaring them off. I think it is a great gift to give a family;the option to learn if homeschooling is right for them. And yes, sorry for being so wordy........
