My hubby and I decided to home school our kids long before we were married, in the early days of our courtship we knew that sending our future offspring to school would not feel right.
We felt that modern education was lacking in heart and basic commonsense and that kids were being churned out of school with little more than book learning which left them I'll prepared for adult life. Kids that found it hard to achieve academic acclaim seemed to us to be swept aside, their own individual potentials unrecognised or quashed by the system.
To our eyes society saw children as a bother and the best way to sort this out was to get them grown as quickly as possible like an intensively farmed chicken, society was force feeding the kids with enough adult tripe of ill gotten, to quickly acquired independence, leaving the youngsters as a whole confused as to where they rightly fitted into society; "Am I a girl or a woman"? I am suppose to be a girl but the clothes hanging in the kids department are as provocatively cut as mummy's, I can get high heels not just the plastic cheap ones to play dress up around the house but proper ones to wear when I'm going out or even to school, there is make up marketed to and for me! and I can buy padded 'TRAINING' bras, etc (I know I am using only girls as an example but that is what I'm raising, parents of boys are also lamenting of similar worries). Is it no wonder kids don't have clue as to where they fit in and how much or how little is expected of them.
The t-shirt in this picture has graced many backs besides my own, when I was in my teens it came back to my childhood home where I squirreled it away in my chest of drawers. Since then it has travelled the world with me till the present and has graced the backs of my children. If it survives years of storage maybe even my grand kids will wear it.
I remember owning the t-shirt in the picture and understand quite clearly what it meant, it was my favourite and I would wear it anytime it was available to be worn, I felt powerful and visible when I wore it, I was about 6 or 7 years when I wore this t-shirt and I knew it meant I had rights and that those rights should be respected. Today's society talks about the rights of the child but when we treat children as mini adults and ask them to grow up quicker than is necessary then we are not truly respecting their rights, we are instead stealing their innocence and their very short childhood years away from them in return for a confused sense of self. Ending up with a 'grown' society constantly looking backwards in the attempt to relive their childhood that they have come to realise they didn't experience.
But I digress.
My eldest was home schooled till September of 2008 when she started school, this was due to her request to start and though it went against every fibre of our being we gave her our blessings and allowed her to go off to school because we practice the belief that kids should have some control over the education they received with our guidance.
So my eldest has been going to school for just over year and some months now and she has settled well, made some new friends and has found her footing. Entering school at a later age than most with certain home truths in place she has been able to mesh with others while maintaining her individuality. I hope these strengths will keep her in good stead, the teenage years and the challenges they bring are on the horizon.
The girls doing work side by side in the evening before dinner.
This year though we have realised that her academic education although she is in school is starting to suffer somewhat and as such we have found ourselves in an area that most parents are in but which we never wanted to be in, that is the evening practice sessions of extra work.
The hours of family time are so short now because of the schools hours cutting into the day and now we have to fit in an extra hour an evening into what should be playtime with siblings/ chatting and cooking with mum/ just watching a little TV to unwind. I find this both irritating and unfair, what exactly is the point of sending your child to be educated by others when they are so incapable of doing so properly (yes I know the system is not great and there would be always short comings). I certainly believe if society was truly more family based then school hours would be much reduced and that parents would have the opportunity to work much more flexible hours to better suit their family life and its needs.As it is at the moment our decisions on the matter to continue outside schooling is on a knife edge and will be assessed closely over the next few months. Our descions on the matter will not be made lightly either way, I just wish it was an easy descision to make.Blogshop: http://kellascreativewishes.blogspot.com/
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I was able to gather enough stuff from around the house to represent the American State of Hawaii, (I took the picture just before we went out the door hence the cardigan but you get the drift).
A Tropical Fruit Salad, which I added a tin of pineapple chunks and cherries to, these were bought on the way to the meeting as I didn't have any in the house, so yes I had to walk with a can opener. The brownie leader must have thought I was a bit do-lally but completely understood when I replayed the scenario from this morning and this afternoon.
Its called a 'Purse Necklace' which she created all by herself... A budding jewelry designer in the making maybe? She's just too cute!!!
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