I should be sleeping right now. When I'm not sleeping, unwelcome visitors like Doubt show up. And when it comes to the subject of homeschooling, ornery old Doubt has a lot to say.So I've decided to give Doubt a little time to vent on this subject of homeschooling. I'll just let him blather a bit, get it out of his system so he can leave me alone and let me get some sleep.
1. My daughter will feel that she is missing out. Of course Michael and I will know that she is not missing out on anything by being homeschooled. But maybe A. will feel, later, in retrospect, that she has been deprived of some crucial formative experience, like going to the prom. Maybe she will have bitter misgivings about the fact that her psycho vegetarian yogi parents (these are Doubt's words, not mine) kept her sealed away from some kind of picture-perfect American schooling experience, idealized in her mind because she will never know about its day-to-day drudgeries and demoralizations.
2. My daughter will be lonely. Despite the fact that I have been entertaining fantasies lately about having another child, chances are that Michael and I will stick to our original plan of having just one. And little A. with no schoolmates or siblings will yearn for companionship. Insert a few glycerin tears here.
3. We will make some terrible mistake in our homeschooling efforts. Maybe we'll take a classical approach when we should really be unschooling her. Or maybe Michael and I will forget to expose our girl to some important topic, like the periodic table or the names of the state capitals. Oh, the horror.
4. We will mess up our kid. Don't all parents, no matter how well meaning, mess up their kids? Don't all kids rebel as a protest to just how badly we've messed them up? A. will act out against our crunchy homeschooling lifestyle and she'll end up flipping burgers at McDonald's, or worse, voting Republican.
Okay, that's enough from you, Doubt. You've said your piece. Now scram. I'm off to bed.
homeschooling
10 comments:
My kids miss out on some things by homeschooling.
Of course, the public school kids miss out on TONS of things by not being homeschooled.
Hope you slept better after this post. Helps to just get it off your chest!
Thanks, Christine, that's a really balanced view. Helps to hear it. I DID sleep better after writing that post!
I think I've seen you before on the Denim Jumper, yes? Just checked out your Twitchy Girl blog - great stuff!
Hello. so. Did the doubts go away? I can answer them all for myself but I guess the bigger question is, can you? Are you really having doubts?
Hi Katherine,
Truth is, I feel more sure every day about wanting to homeschool Amelie. I think these are the kinds of thoughts that naturally come (to me, anyway) just after making a Big Decision. I haven't answered all of these doubts to my satisfaction yet, and probably won't until I actually start homeschooling. Would love to hear your p.o.v. on any of them, if you'd like to share. Thanks and hugs. ~w
Hi, I've been homeschooling for 6 years now and some of those doubts still pop up but mostly I'm confident that my kids are lucky ducks!
I found your blog today by an odd turn of events. We were at a park with a bunch of homeschoolers when a police vehicle started to slowly cruise around staring at the 15 kids aged 2 to 16 years old playing color tag. We all thought it was odd that the police would be suspicious of such a large group of children with adults in attendance. Did they think they were playing hooky? Then I thought, what a great name for a blog?! Is there such a blog name out there? So I googled it and found you! Glad you've decided to homeschool and I bet you'll have a great year if you just have acup of chamomille tea at night before the doubt monster keeps you up!
Hi Kim,
Love the story about how you found my blog! Welcome. And thanks for the wisdom. I'm actually drinking some chamomile tea right now!
Are you looking to start a homeschooling blog too? If you get one up, give me a shout. I'd love to see.
Oh yes, I've had all those too. Especially that we'll pick the wrong thing to study/do and miss out on something else. And I worry that one day she'll decide she wants to see what's she's missing at school and want to go.
So far the only hard thing for DS has been the only child thing (begs for a sibling, so hard, the old be careful what you wish for :-) ).
I think he would complain about that regardless of hsing or not. He spends more time playing with kids because of hsing IMO than school kids do (there's not much play time at school). I do work at getting him with his friends though.
Hi Holly,
What do you say when your boy begs for a sibling?
It's reassuring to hear that homeschooling gives your son more time to play with friends. Maybe this will help assuage my guilt at having an only child....
I have doubts like that ALL the time. My son is twelve though and we've just started homeschooling. My doubts are stemming more from our decision to take the unschooling route--it's hard to readjust my view of what "learning" looks like. Anyway, thanks for sharing your doubts! I always feel better when I discover I'm not alone in my parental angst!
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