I will not be scheduling any new photography sessions until after the new year. I am going to try to begin a little informal homeschooling with the boys and just spend more quality time with them.
Happy Thanksgiving, Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year!
I'm going to be with my family (YAY!). Where will you be?
Liz
3 comments:
Maybe you don't want to get in to it on the blog, but I am really curious about your plans to homeschool and if that is something you want to do long term. I always do "at home preschool" with my boys because why would I spend money to send them to a strangers house to teach them things that we work on everyday at home? Plus, I just want to keep them at home with me as long as possible.
Ha! Don't you know me by now, Laurie? I'll get "into it" anywhere, anytime. :D Especially if the topic is something I'm passionate about, like politics, marriage, birthing, vaccinations, and . . . HOMESCHOOLING! :D
I am definitely planning on homeschooling long term. And for many reasons. I'm not just some crazy religious fanatic, though I would like the chance to teach the boys solid gospel principles in our home and give them the best chance at making truly informed decisions. And I'm not just some crazy anti-public school, anti-government lunatic, though I do disagree with the length of the school day and the in-class teacher-child ratio. There are a lot of deciding factors that have encouraged me toward homeschooling.
I'm also lucky in that I have many great, quality homeschooling examples to learn from and emulate. It wasn't hard to get over the media-driven, uneducated stigmatization of homeschooling children as anti-social nerds. In reality, many homeschooled children are more wholesomely socialized than public school kids due to the fact that they aren't just dropped into a classroom full of kids their same age for seven hours a day. That's not real life. Instead, my kids get to interact on a daily basis with people of all ages. They know how to socialize and speak respectfully with elderly people because they interact with elderly people every day. They know how to socialize with babies, because they are constantly around babies. They know how to work in the home (or will as they grow older and have more chores) because they're left in the home to do so. They know how to serve others because instead of being stuck in a classroom all day, we're out and about looking for service opportunities.
Last week the boys and I joined a San Diego homeschooling Meet-Up group at an ecological preserve near here and went on a nature walk with crayons and colored pencils and paper. We collected acorns, saw beetles, played with dirt and burned branches as we talked about the effects of wildfires on nature. They loved every single minute of it and I thought about how awesome it felt to be able to do stuff like this with my kids while other children are stuck inside most every day, sitting at desks and being lectured to. Public education does not offer an ideal learning atmosphere. In my opinion, it doesn't instill in children a LOVE of learning.
Of course, there are trade-offs. My house is almost always messy because I don't get those seven hours to clean up. But I'll take the messy house any day over the alternative. I had children because I want to be a mom, not so that I can let someone else's authority, be they peer or teacher, direct the formative education of my precious kids.
I'm going to be with your family too. :)
Post a Comment