Homeschool

Students Revolt!

by Matthew Casteel on December 12, 2010

As homeschoolers of 3 of our 6 kids, we don’t have the usual school presentations throughout the year. We team up with other like minded parents through group classes and co-ops to give our kids a chance to prove how much better they are than the other children…I mean share in a wonderful experience of mutual love and fun.

Tonight was “Speech” night. We had an array of funny, serious, persuasive and silly speeches presented from little tikes up to kids 13 years old or so . There was some of what you might expect from a homeschool group, “The Joy’s of Carrying a Loaded Pistol” (or something like that), “How to can your own home grown peaches”; and of course there was the one speech given entirely in Latin-it was hilarious!
My daughter gave a speech which was an excerpt from “Stories From Wayside School” about an awful teacher who turns her students into apples. She looks for reasons to turn the kids into apples; if they sneeze, cheat, laugh, cry, run away, get scared. It doesn’t matter. Whatever the reason those kids are destined for the apple cart. By the middle of the story, all the kids had turned into apples one by one.
But the apples revolt! (Interesting how the apples are red and they form a revolution) I knew all this reading was Communistic propaganda! I guess me and the Mrs are going to have a little discussion about hosting another homeschool co-op book burning club. That’ll teach those books whose boss.
But I digress…. The Red Apples revolt and demand to be turned back into children. When the teacher finally complies she tries her trickery again only to become a victim of her own wickedness when one of the more vain students pulls out her mirror and deflects the curse back onto the teacher.
Completely stunned and not knowing quite what to do with their new apple-teacher (a metaphor for Macintosh computers I’m sure) they are speechless when a fellow teacher walks in, not thinking his colleague would mind sharing and proceeds to eat the apple/teacher.
What made this speech so good, was my daughter didn’t know she was giving a humorous speech. She thought it was a current events speech. Controlling the flow of knowledge is a powerful thing and keeps her appreciating homeschool all the more.
Parenting: who would’ve thunk?

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The ridiculous myth of socialization.

by Matthew Casteel on November 13, 2009

 

friends

Homeschool socialization

Kids socialize, no matter what their schooling situation.  Even from the youngest of ages, kids love interacting with other kids.  Or, at least most of them do.  Recently my wife had the “wonderful” opportunity to be out shopping at an antique store when the pushy saleswoman decided to express her disdain for OUR choice to homeschool.  When my wife refused  to buy a globe from her because we needed an updated and accurate globe for homeschool, the lady told her she wasn’t pleased to hear Megan was homeschooling because this lady was a teacher.  She just hoped we were doing all we could to socialize our kids because in her school she had to work with some homeschool kids who didn’t know how to fit in.

It was insulting.  And of course, my wife had tons of perfect comebacks when she came home later.  What I find so fascinating is how most people forget that while there are nerdy homeschoolers, their are plenty of “socially inept” kids at public school as well.  In fact, we wouldn’t even have popularized the term “nerd” and “geek” and “outcast” if it hadn’t been for schools.  If public school is so great at socializing kids, why are there so many kids who have major trouble fitting in at school?  If their thinking was accurate, school would only produce popular kids.

Just something to think about.

 

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