What really matters

I know this is going to be a bit controversial. But there's something that just bugs me to no end.

Homeschoolers.

Not necessarily the kids.  But the parents.  I want you to know where I'm coming from.  We homeschooled our 2 oldest the whole time, and our youngest one most of the way.

Why do the parents who have taken their kids out of school, or never had them in there to begin with, want to do everything at home the exact way they do it at school?

Don't they realize the freedom there is in homeschooling?  We don't have to do anything like they do in the public school!  We can tailor everything to each individual.  If one of our kids excels at math then BOOM -- math of all kinds.  We don't have to stay in the box of 1st grade math, 9th grade math etc.  Let the child lead. If the kid doesn't like workbooks, then ditch 'em!  Find out what the child's learning style is and use that!  Do they learn by hearing, doing, writing, touching stuff? Use that!  My daughter walked circles around the table while we were doing math stuff...drove me crazy!  I asked her to sit down and she said "Mom, if I sit down, I can't think!"  Who knew?  So I let her walk around and get up and down all the time.  It helped her concentrate more.  My way of "doing school" was to do page 1, then page 2, then ...stand back...page 3!  Her way of doing school was open the book and look through it and see what pages looked exciting and then do those!  What??  But to her it worked well.  It kept her interest.  And if I'd known more back then, I would ditch the books entirely! We'd use real life situations and go to the library and play games to learn stuff.

That brings me to the part that drives me crazy.

Most people do this when their kids are little because they enjoy playing and learning.  But when their homeschooled kids get to be in "high school"  they automatically shift to "do everything like the public school" mode.  High school credits, papers, graduation at 18 years old etc.   Why not continue the train of thought that the learning can be tailored to the individual?  Are they ready to be "done" when they are 15? Then be done! Just because I'm "done" with school doesn't mean I quit learning.  Do they really need to have credits? Do they really need to learn chemistry or calculus?  Maybe..it depends on what they will be going into.

There is freedom, folks!  That's why we bring our kids home!  Don't worry about them keeping up with their "grade level" (what is that anyway--do all 30 year olds know the same information?)

Teach them to love learning!  Teach them to learn how to learn!  Teach them to be FREE!