Just a note to see what everyone is doing lesson wise for Thanksgiving? We are new to homeschooling and I did not realize just how much info there is out there for virtually everything….aaahhhh…where do we start. Luckily we have T4L!!! I think it is so cool that we can access multiple grade levels that way we can sort of search for the topic that we are covering and utilize all resources.
My family is visiting this week and I have a cousin that teaches in California. I can not wait to share time 4 learning with her. She has a BA in education, but there you have to have a masters to teach….so she runs an after-school program for k-8. Hopefully there will be some kids there that this program would help. I know that she has all different degrees of learning abilities in the program….and all different degrees of parental involvement.
I am also a little selfish….my parents are skeptical about this homeschooling thing, so maybe if she looks at the program and gives it a thumbs up they will get more ”into it.” Don’t get me wrong…they are supportive…but …. How do you other homeschool mom’s deal with that?
The kids and I were talking about what we were thankful for….. I am thankful for the privlidge to teach my children, for guidance from the Lord, and for great curriculum like T4L!!!
Kat
November 20, 2007 | 10:36 am1
I too have had a lot of support, but not complete support. My grandparents (who I live next door too) are just stuck on the “traditional” school. They try to be supportive, but just can’t wrap their heads around why we don’t send the boys to “school.” Even though they have difficulty understanding homeschooling, they try to voice any concerns to the kids, so that’s good.
My lack of support came not from family, but from a friend. She actually went as far as saying that my decision was stupid. I was very hurt for a long time, and even second guessed my decision and myself for quite some time after that. Needless to say, we don’t have a lot to say to one another anymore…the homeschooling is not THE reason why, but one of the reasons that we just grew apart and realized that we are on different paths for our families.
I don’t know that there is a good way to handle those that don’t support. My suggestion is just keep doing your best. Even the family that supported my decision was concerned from time to time…wondering if I was teaching everything that was needed and wondering if he was interacting with other kids often enough. In time, everyone realized that Bailey was flourishing and was really learning AND since the addition of Time4Learning to our lives, he’s having fun while he’s learning.
I hope that your Thanksgiving is wonderful and that you enjoy the time with the family. Good Luck with everything! :o)
Tracy
November 19, 2007 | 3:57 pm2
We have been surrounded by support with the exception of my father-in-law. It is a tough situation for us because we have joint custody of my nephew who was orphaned when he was 7. My nephew attends public school and that makes life a bit tricky when I try to say “public schools suck”….. Of course, with my nephew I have not been quiet about some of his work and they have agreed that the school system is not the best but NEVER would have home schooled him. He is a great kid but it has been a challenge, “why is it okay for him but not yours” is always in the background.
Home schooling is scary enough but to have one member saying it was wrong makes things tough. Thankfully my father-in-laws only argument was the social aspect and my kids are so involved and social that it has only taken about 3 or 4 years to let him see that.
There is a TON of information for every possible holiday and it can get overwhelming. We try to hit the high points of every holiday and if I was more organized I would go more into it but can’t always get my act together. And if you think about it, what do they do in public school around holidays, color photos of turkeys or w/e and read a book or two… We do that.. So i figure anything extra we do is great.
We will be leaving the day after Thanksgiving this year because I have to install a tile floor in my grandparents home. My boys are excited about the trip but it will give me 10 hours for them to do some of the extra reading or w/e on the way down.
Last year we went to CT just before thanksgiving and the whole extended family participated in a traditional Holiday Feast with everyone in costume and then we went to Plymouth Rock and toured the Mayflower. That was truly a learning year and incorporated everyone in the family into their schooling! Getting your parents involved in something like that would be cool for not only them but you guys as well…. (well, not the trip but the dinner…..)