Category Archives: Homeschooling

Addressing a reader’s comment on home schooling

Posted on by
5

Smiling Sally left this comment the other day:

Children are children. No one looks down on you because you home school. It’s your choice, and I think that it’s a worthy choice! So stand tall and smile at all the people like me (who are grandma-aged!

Thanks for an interesting comment, Sally.

At 5’9″, I doubt many women are looking down on this home schooling mom. Hee hee. Couldn’t resist that one.

Seriously, though. I know for a fact some think I’m crazy and making the wrong choice for my children. The critics are out there, which is fine. Longtime readers know how I feel about free speech. Of course, I happen to think anyone sending their child to a government-operated public school could do way better as a parent, especially if they are raising their child to think with a radical Christian world view.

Before any one jumps all over me: I know there are valid reasons for a Christian to not home school. Sending your child on the Big Yellow Bus just so you can have the day to yourself is not one of them. Sorry if that sounds judgmental, but it’s my blog. Free speech for Paper Bridges!

As a home schooling mom, I do get a lot of “I could never do that!” from strangers I meet. That is often followed with “I just don’t have the patience.” And I often agree with those two statements. I can’t in my own power. Without the Lord, I would’ve pitched the whole endeavor years ago.

In the next day or two, I’m going to post about why I home school – a topic I’ve yet to address here. Stay tuned, it’s got lots of potential for controversy: a demon in a local elementary school.

Oh, and today is the last day to enter the latest book giveaway, Love as a Way of Life by Gary Chapman. Follow this link to leave a comment and enter. Winner announced tomorrow.

Looking good as a home school mom

Posted on by
3

Do other mothers worry like I do when out in public?

Edmund happy to use the store’s half shopping cart/half stroller as his personal play toy. Peter chases after Lucy among the racks. Susan laughs at it all. On this Saturday morning, mine the noisiest kids in the uncrowded store. It’s a happy cavorting. Nothing broken, a blouse falling off a hanger quickly set right by Peter.

Yet I wonder.

What does the sales lady think? She’s older, probably a grandmother. I see no eye rolling, no set mouth in a firm line because my gang carouses among the sale blouses. I wish I could read the clerk’s mind.

The mother with only two children following like puddle ducks behind her, I wonder what she thinks of my traveling circus. I hear her scold her boy – he must be about five. Does she cringe at her children’s behavior as she shops?

Am I so sensitive because I feel we need to look good as a home school family?

Am I worried because I want to look good as a mom? As a home schooling mom?

Yes.

And yes.

So I shop faster.