Wednesday, August 11, 2010

the journey

i was talking to a friend the other day who started homeschooling this year as well...
she was having a conversation with some of her friends about socialization~ the first question everyone asks when they find out your child doesn't go to school.

do you think that putting your child with 25-35 children who are roughly the same age, in the same room with each other for hours on end, 5 days a week is socialization?
are you willing to have your child bullied everyday by another child?  ignored by a teacher that is distracted? etc...
that scenario just does not cut it for my friend.  
what do you think?

2 comments:

  1. Hmm. I think about homeschooling a lot. Especially on days (like today--only the fourth day) when I have to force my kid to get ready and go to school.

    He's happy to have three of his favorite friends in class with him, but bummed to have two "troublemakers" (his words) from last year. And there are at least two other disruptive kids I recognized on the first day. 27 kids, one teacher. Ridiculous reading workbooks, what seems to me like a boring approach to math (not the teacher, as far as I know--it's the school's adopted curriculum)...and he doesn't eat lunch when he's at school.

    I am going over and over in my head the pros and cons of asking his teacher to exempt him from the weekly homework packet, and of telling other parents that I'm going to do it (if, indeed, I do). Wondering if I should enroll my boy in the math enrichment program, which is supposed to be very hands-on and fun, just to make it more interesting--but of course this program has homework too, and extends the school day by almost 90 minutes.

    I fantasize about experimenting with a quarter or a semester at home.

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  2. really interesting thoughts misa. seeing kai this year and how much happier and calm he is, is great. our trip to the homeschooling conference was really wonderful as well. also, it's taken us a year to weed out what we don't want and have opened ourselves up to new journeys.
    we start our nature classes in berkeley and oakland in about a week, so this will be our semester in the woods. we are still learning and growing. tomorrow is homeschooling day @ the academy of sciences. off we go to the city. i think that was another thing i missed the year kai went to school- we never went anywhere, because of the schedule.
    i so appreciate your thoughts and send you love tonight,
    jen
    ps
    we loved that day @the oak tree with your family. we should meet there again soon:)

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