Tuesday, January 11, 2011

The small-ish benefits of homeschooling

Homeschooling has many important benefits that I have mentioned before. There are countless more small advantages that may seem insignificant, but which we cherish.

Exhibit A: Kids sleeping in on a cold morning, and then quietly cozying up in the living room while I fix their breakfast. John was still in bed when I took this picture. Isaac is under the blanket in the armchair. The school bus had left our street about an hour earlier. I love winter mornings like this.
 
 

Exhibit B: Celebrating our first harvest together from the orange tree I planted five years ago. This year, for the first time, it produced ONE orange. Each child got two wedges - it was so funny!

LOVE Becky's expression in this photo!

“The happiest moments of my life have been the few which I have passed at home in the bosom of my family” - Thomas Jefferson


15 comments:

  1. Cute photos! I like a lot of things about homeschooling, but it just can't work in our family at all...But that's not actually why I'm commenting. Wanted to ask you a question regarding a comment made in that other blog that linked to you (Jan. 9). I know that you consider it a Biblical precept to submit to your husband. But what about the point he other blogger made - what if a woman's husband really is a supreme jerk (she used a less polite word for it)? I'm honestly interested. what would you sugget to the woman who may try or want to submit in principle but whose husband is selfish, mean, abusive, bad father etc., etc. (you can think of lots of adjectives). I'm glad to see that your husband does not appear to be any of these things, but I'm sure you know that these things do happend - and what is a woman's recourse then if she has multiple children, has never worked outside the home and has a similar worldview to you?

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  2. I love Becky's face in the last picture- so cute!

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  3. Sorry, but the "good things" about homeschooling did not involve your children learning anything! I like to lay around, too, but it's not exactly educational!

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  4. I have never commented on your blog before but I am just wondering how cold is a cold morning in Arizona? Cold enough for orange trees I suppose, haha.

    I will totally trade your cold morning for mine, it is three degrees here :(

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  5. @Anonymous... I do not think the point was that the "good things" were a learning experience, but that they are able to enjoy the "good things" around education. They are filler moments for the school-goers: getting ready, making lunch, driving there, ect...
    I do think that planting a tree and seeing it's first orange is educational, but whatever:-)

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  6. Hey...one orange is better than none! I love being homeschooled as well...only thing was that when public school children got a snow day, we still had to do school. :(

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  7. When I was a kid, I loved getting on the school bus and talking with my friends. Maybe your kids would also, Zsuzsu? Staying in the house was boring, I loved the stimulation of school.

    However, it is nice for *moms* not to have to bundle up the kids and walk out to the bus stop. It's much easier to have them hang out at home.

    I've found that lots of homeschooled kids are secretly pretty curious about school.

    Just another perspective.

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  8. Please remember that Thomas Jefferson father children by his slave Sally Hemmings, who was also his dead wife's half sister.


    “The happiest moments of my life have been the few which I have passed at home in the bosom of my family” - Thomas Jefferson

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  9. Renee,

    good question - I'll either answer that in a post of it's own, or include it in a q&a very soon.

    anonymous,

    the benefits I referred to were not what would commonly be considered educational. They were of purely social value, such as cherishing my children and helping them form strong family bonds. Worthless, i know.

    Chilly,

    don't laugh... it's been in the high 30s to high 40s at night, and mid-50s to 70 in the daytime. That's COLD for us!

    second anon,

    I too, would have thought that both the concept of planting/growing/harvesting, as well as sharing the bounty, would be considered educational. But apparently that is not the case when it happens at home among siblings.

    third anon,

    it may well be that my kids are curious about what goes on down at school. But they also know that finding the answers to their curiosity is not worth the tradeoff. You know, the tree of public education looks very pretty, what with all the new buildings, fancy books, and all. But the fruit of it is rotten. My kids are smart enough to know the difference.

    And yes, you busted me: the real reason i homeschool is because it's so much less work than bundling the kids up for the bus each morning. Although my school-age kids are quite smart enough to zip their own jackets.

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  10. hi there!

    I am commenting here because you've closed comments on your most recent post. I just want to let you know that your hyperlinks aren't really showing up. I only saw them because you referenced them. Does that make sense? I don't know how you can fix this problem but I thought you might like to know

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  11. HAHAHA!!! I love it! Yes, we homeschool so we can be so lazy that we don't have to walk our kids to the bus stop. Kinda like when my brother in law told me I wanted to homeschool just because I didn't want to have to take responsibility ....HUH??? Homeschool moms have the TOTAL responsibility all day every day and don't get an 8 hour break after they so painstakingly walked the kids to a bus stop. Oh yea, this is soooo much easier:)

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  13. Char,

    I wouldn't exactly say that non-home schooling moms get an "8 hour break" just because their children aren't present in the home for the day. There's a household to be managed (for stay-at-home moms) or a job outside the home to go to (for working moms). Or did you think that we sit on the couch eating bonbons to support our families and households if we're not homeschooling our children?

    (signed anonymous not because I'm ashamed of posting my comments here, but because I work outside the house for a living and my lunchbreak is over - no time to set up an account here)

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  14. Homeschooling moms are lazy?! So taking full responsibility for our childrens education and taking care of them all day is less work then putting their coat on and taking them to school! My child is never setting foot inside thoes government brainwashing camps. I care enough about my kids to make sure they are raised right. It is not the governments job to educate and raise my kids, It's MINE.

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  15. Hi there,

    I've enjoyed looking around your blog. I can't remember exactly when I first found it, but it was when someone from a forum posted an article about your husband and the border patrol abuse.

    I'm curious to know your opinion on embryo adoption. A very close friend of mine and her husband have been trying to conceive for over six years. She went into early menopause (she is only 29, and apparently there is a genetic component as it also happened to her mother) and they've been advised that the only way she can get pregnant is via egg or embryo adoption.

    People who have embryos left over from their own IVF can choose to adopt them out rather than have them destroyed or donated to science. The baby won't be genetically my friend's or her husband's but she will carry the baby.

    What do you think of this, morally? Obviously, it would be better if the embryos hadn't been created in the first place, but I think it is wonderful that my friend is giving them a chance at life while fulfilling her own dream of becoming a mother.

    Kate

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Your KINDLY WORDED, constructive comments are welcome, whether or not they express a differing opinion. All others will be deleted without second thought.