{"id":18144,"date":"2011-06-14T17:00:49","date_gmt":"2011-06-14T21:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thehappyhousewife.com\/homeschool\/?p=18144"},"modified":"2011-06-14T17:00:49","modified_gmt":"2011-06-14T21:00:49","slug":"negative-reactions-to-homeschooling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thehappyhousewife.com\/homeschool\/negative-reactions-to-homeschooling\/","title":{"rendered":"Negative Reactions to Homeschooling?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The following is a post from Tabitha<\/em>(wife to Tom, homeschooling mom to 8 kids ages 14 to 1, learning something new all the time)<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

(aka, how we started homeschooling…)<\/em><\/div>\n

\n<\/em><\/div>\n
My husband and I first considered homeschooling our children when pregnant with our first child. We were both still in college. I was in a secondary education program, taking classes to finish my degree. One of my electives for graduation was a home education course. It was supposed to help teachers-to-be prepare for this growing movement. It turned into an experience where I was shown a new option which was made real by the child visibly making himself a part of my existence. It became my favorite class overnight. The speakers, the materials, the different presentations all had an immediate impact on my thinking as I considered this person who was joining our family and how he would grow and learn. I brought my husband to classes. I asked the professor endless questions.<\/div>\n
I never looked back.<\/div>\n

\"2<\/p>\n

My husband took a little longer. It was a, \u2018let\u2019s see\u2019 kind of approach. Michael was born a month after this half-semester class ended. I finished my degree a month after he turned 1. By the time he was 2 he knew his ABC\u2019s and numbers, even though he didn\u2019t talk very well. By the time he was 4 he had taught himself to read. No, I wasn\u2019t forcing my child to memorize flash cards or spend hours a day on drills. I was simply playing with him and his little brother and sister.<\/div>\n
No, this isn\u2019t typical, but my husband and I were watching what a child CAN do with simple support and guidance at home. By this time my husband was much more supportive of homeschooling. We had started telling friends and family about our plans. We both have brothers who are teachers. We both were products of the public school system. We both had parents who were very involved in the public schools including school board, PTA, volunteering, and odd jobs within the schools.<\/div>\n
At first, we were criticized. Both sides of the family had negative thoughts to some degree about the idea and figured we\u2019d change our minds once we hit kindergarten age. They got to know Michael and realized he was advanced in many ways but instead of seeing that this was due to our approach to learning, insisted this was more of a reason to get him into a school early. We simply explained that we were going to homeschool and left it like that. I heard many sounds of disbelief and disapproval, but a kind of acceptance that this wouldn\u2019t last long and we\u2019d see the light sooner or later.<\/div>\n
As each of our children grew, we found more reasons to homeschool in their personalities, their strengths and weaknesses, their needs, their learning styles, and even their interests. The reasons we had to homeschool never included the quality of the schools we lived near, safety, teachers, curriculum, though those were all things to consider. The reason simply was that we were doing what we felt was best for our children, both for their education and their growth.<\/div>\n
Our family and friends saw some of the same things we did in our children.<\/div>\n
We started seeing gifts from grandparents that we could only call \u2018educational\u2019. (we took this to mean that they wanted to help, not that we weren\u2019t doing a good job!) We started getting questions about how the kids were doing with schoolwork and what they were learning. We started hearing from friends who were considering homeschooling. We started hearing what family had told others about us. We realized that while we may not have won over anyone to homeschooling (which wasn\u2019t our goal), we at least had earned support of our educational choice for our children.<\/div>\n
Over the years, we\u2019ve seen the negativity completely disappear from family and friends. They see our 8 children and that they are well behaved, intelligent, well rounded, and happy. I don\u2019t take the credit for this, not my kids or the change in family. They have read the same news articles I have. They have seen the same changes in schools. Some of them have tried homeschooling themselves, or at least looked into it. They might be just keeping their thoughts to themselves after 10 years of voicing them and seeing that they had little impact.<\/div>\n

Morals of the story:<\/strong><\/p>\n

    \n
  • Show, don’t tell.\u00a0 We let our families and friends interact with our kids rather than try and prove they were doing well.<\/li>\n
  • Listen, don’t argue.\u00a0 We heard the complaints, but didn’t try to counter them with arguments of our own.<\/li>\n
  • Don’t criticize back.\u00a0 We didn’t tear down anyone else’s educational choices, just went on with our own.<\/li>\n
  • Wait.\u00a0 Let critics see results over time.<\/li>\n
  • Answer questions about homeschooling without trying to ‘convert’ anyone.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    It\u2019s not worth fighting anyone about whether you homeschool or not. They have no input to your children’s education.\u00a0 I trust that each parent who is truly interested in their children will help their child learn and be their best in whatever way they can, whether it be through home education, public school, private school, charter school, tutors, or some mix of all of the above. We can all just support each other without tearing down. We all have the same goals. After all, isn\u2019t a balanced, happy adult what we all want our children to become?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

     <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    The following is a post from Tabitha(wife to Tom, homeschooling mom to 8 kids ages 14 to 1, learning something new all the time) (aka, how we started homeschooling…) My husband and I first considered homeschooling our children when pregnant with our first child. We were both still in college. I was in a secondary […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wprm-recipe-roundup-name":"","wprm-recipe-roundup-description":"","_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-18144","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-real-life-homeschool","7":"entry"},"yoast_head":"\nNegative Reactions to Homeschooling? - The Happy Housewife\u2122 :: Home Schooling<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/thehappyhousewife.com\/homeschool\/negative-reactions-to-homeschooling\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Negative Reactions to Homeschooling? - The Happy Housewife\u2122 :: Home Schooling\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The following is a post from Tabitha(wife to Tom, homeschooling mom to 8 kids ages 14 to 1, learning something new all the time) (aka, how we started homeschooling…) My husband and I first considered homeschooling our children when pregnant with our first child. 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