After almost two years of officially homeschooling, why on Earth do I let what other people say affect me so much? Why should I care what other people think about my daughter being homeschooled? How come I let others make me doubt that what I am doing is best for Brenna and our family? I know the comments that are made are out of pure ignorance and that I should not take them to heart. Some people have such nerve though, saying things about homeschooling when they just absolutely have no clue what they are talking about. Go and research and read about it before you make your snide remarks. Then if you still don't agree with it then fine. At least you know all the facts and aren't making idiotic comments about something that you know nothing about.
Today at the grocery store I was checking out with this man who has worked at HEB for ages. I have known him for a very long time - nice guy, very friendly but you can tell he is a "too the point" type person. While he handed me my receipt, Brenna was kinda climbing on the shopping cart and I told her to be careful and that I didn't want her to fall. He looked me straight in the eye and told me that I needed to read my own shirt and that's why she was acting that way. I was wearing my "Warning: Parent of an Unsocialized Homeschooler" tshirt. I looked at him and said that she is acting that way because she is a kid and she is 6 and it has nothing do with her being homeschooled. Oh that made me so mad though!!!!! I left that store fuming. Why in the hell do people think that way? So if my kid were climbing all over the cart and if she were attending school then it would be okay and normal? Because I have seen kids do MUCH worse then THAT at the store. Don't think I will be wearing that shirt out in public anymore though. Don't want the assumptions placed on my daughter and me.
I have another family member as well who is so against me homeschooling and thinks that Brenna is suffering socially because she is not in school and that I am ruining her. Do I have her locked in a closet all day? Does she not interact with other people on a regular basis? Can she hold a decent conversation with other people? Does she have friends she plays with? Socialization does not necessarily happen JUST at school. In fact, there is little socialization happening at school - or at least the kind that I want my daughter to learn.
I'm just going to stop here because it is late and I am tired and also because I am being redundant. I have talked about this on my blog before and I don't feel like going off on another tangent and repeating myself. Everyone who reads my blog on a regular basis knows exactly how I feel about all the socialization crap. End of story.
I know that as long as I homeschool I am going to get all the crap and all the assumptions that come along with it. I really just need to learn to deal with and not let it affect me so much.
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
So I am going to use my classic excuse as to why I have not posted in a long time - I've been busy!! LOL
Brenna's first basketball game was so much fun to watch - as well as the two after that. We are now parents who have a basketball game to go to every Saturday morning (until February) but I love it. It is so much better being a spectator than a coach (we coached Brenna's soccer team a couple years ago). Brenna, as well as the other girls on her team, are improving every week. They have not won a game YET but I predict it will happen very soon. :) The last game was only a one point loss. There is a picture below. Brenna is to the right.
Co-ops are now over and done with. We had Report Day last Wednesday and Brenna's class got up and sang "My Country Tis of Thee" - it was very cute. I took some pictures but they did not turn out good at all so no use posting them.
Brenna is going to lose her first tooth very soon! It has been loose for a while now and her adult tooth is already growing in behind her baby one. I called the dentist when I noticed it a few weeks ago and they said to just leave it alone and let the baby tooth fall out - then the big tooth will move forward. When I first saw her other tooth growing in I freaked out. I got online and found out that it is actually very common for that to happen. It seemed like it was taking forever for her baby tooth to get really loose until this afternoon! She bit into an apple and screamed. Apparently the apple really did a number on making her tooth pretty loose and now it is barely hanging in there. The pain finally went away and now she is obsessed with wiggling her tooth. I just really, really hope that it comes out tonight and not while she's with my Mom and Dad over the Thanksgiving holidays. But if it does then oh well. She'll be losing plenty more.
She will be leaving with my Mom and Dad tomorrow to go out-of-town to my Grandparents and Brendon and I will be headed to Dallas for the Cowboys game on Thursday. We are going with Danny and Nan (my in-laws) and then will be meeting up with my parents and Brenna on Friday. Yes, I feel bad for not being with Brenna on Thanksgiving and I am having a hard time dealing with that right now but she will be with a lot of her family. She's fine with it though.
I am very excited about going to the Dallas Cowboy game. Brendon has been quite a few times but I have only gone once. It will be really fun!
Ok, I had to take a break from writing and just got Brenna into bed. Poor thing is so worried about giving her tooth to the tooth fairy. It has not fallen out yet, but she is upset about having to give away her very first tooth. She is a very sentimental little child and has a hard time letting go of anything. She is even willing to give up money to keep her tooth. She said that she doesn't want any money - she just wants to keep her tooth. I told her that we can write a letter to the tooth fairly and explain what she wants. Yes, the tooth fairly is going to let her keep her tooth and she will probably even get a couple bucks anyways. ;) And if she looses it while she's with my parents then she's going to keep it safe and bring it home because the tooth fairly only comes to your house. LOL
I have to go finish packing. I'll make a point of writing more frequently! :)
Happy Thanksgiving everybody!
Cute picture of Brenna and Tantrum that she took. :)
Friday, November 07, 2008
Busy, busy!
I was so good, for so long, at posting on a regular basis! It hasn't been too long I guess but I broke my writing streak. Brenna and I have been pretty busy though and I hardly have time to sit at the computer and check my email, much less write. Brendon and Brenna are watching a Spurs basketball game right now so I have bought a few minutes. LOL
The week before Halloween I was busy decorating for our Halloween costume party that we had. Brendon and I went all out and had a bunch of our friends over for a big Halloween bash. I decorated the whole house (cobwebs, red light bulbs, ect...) as well as the backyard and made tons of food. We had a wonderful time. Brenna went with Nan that evening to the Fall Festival at the church and then ended up going to my Mom's house early because she was not feeling well. We had planned on her spending the night at my Mom's house but not as a sick little girl! She started running a fever that night and I felt absolutely terrible leaving her there. She has always been very comfortable at my Mom's though, so if she wasn't home then that was the next best place. She ended up running a pretty high fever all weekend, along with a stuffy nose, but was better by Monday. She did miss her basketball scrimmage game on Saturday, as well as practice on Monday, but she was back to practice on Thursday. She has really been enjoying it so far. Her very first game is tomorrow morning so we are all looking forward to that. I will try to remember my camera so I can take pictures to post. She's a little nervous and I have been trying to make her feel better and telling her not to be and to just do her best. I think her Dad gave her the best advise tonight and was very straight forward - "You should be nervous and that's okay. That just means that you will try your best! Tim Duncan is probably nervous before all of his games too!" She seemed to take that better then what I was telling her. Maybe I should just leave all the sports things up to Brendon. LOL
We've still been doing co-ops with the home school group, as well, on Wednesday's. Next week is the last week. We'll do it again in February, I think. Brenna enjoys it. Me, not so much. I have come to realize that I really don't get much out of the group we are in. I guess I just don't have much in common with the other women - personality wise as well as teaching style. It makes me feel very out-of-place sometimes. We've been involved with this group for two years now and it has not gotten much better.
During the last Mom's Chat at co-ops we discussed curriculum. One of the Mom's has a daughter the same age as Brenna and they are very similar in personality as well and she has been having a lot of problems with her. She's been very stubborn and giving her such grief over the school work that they are doing -- reminded me a lot of Brenna and all of the times that I attempted to do formal curriculum with her. All of the other Mom's were telling her about the different curriculum's they use and finally I spoke up (after much debate with myself). I told her that I am very relaxed when it comes to our schooling right now and that I have tried doing the formal school stuff but that for some kids it just does not work when they are this young. I told her about trying to teach Brenna how to read when she was 5 and teaching her phonics and how she just refused and that it became such a struggle. I told her how I completely backed off and just kept reading to her and not forcing the issue and that within six months of doing that Brenna was reading on her own because she WANTED to and not because she was forced. One of the mom's spoke up and said to me that I have to have used some kind of curriculum to teach her how to read. I said no and that Brenna learned how to read because she wasn't pushed. Period. Apparently that it pretty hard for some people to understand. That is the one thing that convinced Brendon that what I was doing was right for her though. I think I am the only one in the group that is as relaxed as we are but it works for us. I happen to have a child that does worse when she's pushed and thrives on doing things at her own pace. I guess you could say that we are doing more of an unschooling method right now - which is child-led learning. I have written about it on here before. I think I was considering it last time I posted about it but now, that is what we are doing. In fact, the same person that questioned my teaching Brenna how to read made a comment last year when I was considering the unschooling method. She said, "I don't know about those unschooling people. They just don't do anything!". Well if you knew anything about it you would know that is a totally false statement.
I know people have different ways of teaching their kids at home and I respect that. But don't go putting me down because I do something that is different from you. That would be the same thing as me saying that I think it is terrible that people use structured curriculum and sit for hours a day at a table with a six or seven year old, forcing them to learn out of textbooks. No, I don't agree with that but I would never say that to a large group of people when I don't know who's doing what.
Okay, so I totally went off on one of my little tangents. I didn't mean to get that carried away. Not even sure if I made much sense or made any points at all. Just venting I guess. LOL
Well this post has taken me about 3 hours to write (taking lots of breaks here and there). It's my bed time now -- have to wake up and cook Brenna a good breakfast before her first game!!
I'll post about that sometime this weekend.....
The week before Halloween I was busy decorating for our Halloween costume party that we had. Brendon and I went all out and had a bunch of our friends over for a big Halloween bash. I decorated the whole house (cobwebs, red light bulbs, ect...) as well as the backyard and made tons of food. We had a wonderful time. Brenna went with Nan that evening to the Fall Festival at the church and then ended up going to my Mom's house early because she was not feeling well. We had planned on her spending the night at my Mom's house but not as a sick little girl! She started running a fever that night and I felt absolutely terrible leaving her there. She has always been very comfortable at my Mom's though, so if she wasn't home then that was the next best place. She ended up running a pretty high fever all weekend, along with a stuffy nose, but was better by Monday. She did miss her basketball scrimmage game on Saturday, as well as practice on Monday, but she was back to practice on Thursday. She has really been enjoying it so far. Her very first game is tomorrow morning so we are all looking forward to that. I will try to remember my camera so I can take pictures to post. She's a little nervous and I have been trying to make her feel better and telling her not to be and to just do her best. I think her Dad gave her the best advise tonight and was very straight forward - "You should be nervous and that's okay. That just means that you will try your best! Tim Duncan is probably nervous before all of his games too!" She seemed to take that better then what I was telling her. Maybe I should just leave all the sports things up to Brendon. LOL
We've still been doing co-ops with the home school group, as well, on Wednesday's. Next week is the last week. We'll do it again in February, I think. Brenna enjoys it. Me, not so much. I have come to realize that I really don't get much out of the group we are in. I guess I just don't have much in common with the other women - personality wise as well as teaching style. It makes me feel very out-of-place sometimes. We've been involved with this group for two years now and it has not gotten much better.
During the last Mom's Chat at co-ops we discussed curriculum. One of the Mom's has a daughter the same age as Brenna and they are very similar in personality as well and she has been having a lot of problems with her. She's been very stubborn and giving her such grief over the school work that they are doing -- reminded me a lot of Brenna and all of the times that I attempted to do formal curriculum with her. All of the other Mom's were telling her about the different curriculum's they use and finally I spoke up (after much debate with myself). I told her that I am very relaxed when it comes to our schooling right now and that I have tried doing the formal school stuff but that for some kids it just does not work when they are this young. I told her about trying to teach Brenna how to read when she was 5 and teaching her phonics and how she just refused and that it became such a struggle. I told her how I completely backed off and just kept reading to her and not forcing the issue and that within six months of doing that Brenna was reading on her own because she WANTED to and not because she was forced. One of the mom's spoke up and said to me that I have to have used some kind of curriculum to teach her how to read. I said no and that Brenna learned how to read because she wasn't pushed. Period. Apparently that it pretty hard for some people to understand. That is the one thing that convinced Brendon that what I was doing was right for her though. I think I am the only one in the group that is as relaxed as we are but it works for us. I happen to have a child that does worse when she's pushed and thrives on doing things at her own pace. I guess you could say that we are doing more of an unschooling method right now - which is child-led learning. I have written about it on here before. I think I was considering it last time I posted about it but now, that is what we are doing. In fact, the same person that questioned my teaching Brenna how to read made a comment last year when I was considering the unschooling method. She said, "I don't know about those unschooling people. They just don't do anything!". Well if you knew anything about it you would know that is a totally false statement.
I know people have different ways of teaching their kids at home and I respect that. But don't go putting me down because I do something that is different from you. That would be the same thing as me saying that I think it is terrible that people use structured curriculum and sit for hours a day at a table with a six or seven year old, forcing them to learn out of textbooks. No, I don't agree with that but I would never say that to a large group of people when I don't know who's doing what.
Okay, so I totally went off on one of my little tangents. I didn't mean to get that carried away. Not even sure if I made much sense or made any points at all. Just venting I guess. LOL
Well this post has taken me about 3 hours to write (taking lots of breaks here and there). It's my bed time now -- have to wake up and cook Brenna a good breakfast before her first game!!
I'll post about that sometime this weekend.....
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