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Wednesday, April 23, 2014

The Dougie

Nice person at Wal Mart: So what did you learn at school today?
My honest 4 year old: How to Dougie!
Person to me: Oh, I wish they'd teach kids more useful things now aday.
Me to person: I also, taught her the running man and the cabbage patch. ~Pause to let it sink in.~ She is homeschooled.
Thus began the nice person's attempt to mimic a guppy.

Most people would take offense at the comment and I kinda do but when you refer to 12-20 kids sitting in a class all day led by 1 teacher the dougie seems unimportant. There is so much to do! So little time! How can they possibly be teaching the dougie!?

But when you refer to homeschooled kids. It's usually a 1:1 to 1:5 ratio. I don't know many homeschool families with more than that ratio. (Either small families or older kids help with younger kids.) Stuff like the dougie can become part of the lesson. For us it was my way of teaching rhythm in music. See the dougie follows a 4:4 and the cabbage patch can be used on a 3:3 but that's beside the point.

It's fun to leave people guessing. Unfortunately, I guess it will just add to the stereotype of the lazy homeschool parent. Maybe not. Let's keep 'em guessing.

Teach me how to dougie,
Yahsa

Sunday, April 20, 2014

The Homeschool Argument

Dear Nosey Nancy,

Yes, my Husband and I really did decide TOGETHER to homeschool the kids. No, I didn't just steamroll him into it and he decided not to argue. Nice to see what you think about our relationship.

Yes, we WILL be homeschooling for the near future at least. We have our reasons. If you'd like I could TELL them to you but I will NOT discuss them with you. Again he and I decided together.

Yes, I'm sure those homeschool kids your youngest daughters saw during the once a year mandated testing were totally awkward. You would be too if they took you from your job placed you in a different facility to test you all day long and you knew no one there. Not only that, imagine all the people there are from some small hillbilly town where everyone knows everyone, they all grew up together, have their own little cliques or circles, and have a well established pecking order that doesn't allow for outsiders.

Truth be told you've never met a homeschooled kid. Neither have your kids. They have seen them, from a distance, in a situation where the odds are highly stacked against them. They were scrutinized as an outsider and led to believe that no one there wanted to be their friend. Which from the sound of it was true. So instead of critiquing our lifestyle how about you come to a homeschool group meeting and see what really goes on there?

Until then please don't worry, we got this.

Love,
The Unworried Mom

Saturday, April 12, 2014

Changes coming soon!

In an effort to remember to post more often I will be reformatting my blog.

Now, I will have more mommy specific things! I hope you look forward to the new format as much as I do!