We are a homeschooling family. I love that! I love everything about it, well...not everything...when you see yourself in your own kiddos and you know you have to change...that isn't fun, but a necessary part of growth spiritually and mentally.
Being a homeschooling family, you meet many, MANY other families that home school. There are all kinds of people that choose this life, and we all look different. We all have different ways of discipline, doing activities, dressing, and different ideas of how to go about educating our children at home. Are different methods wrong? I have seen all kinds of methods from Unschooling, home school co-ops, and everything in between. I'll share a secret. Okay...well, it's not a secret. Before I get to it I want to say that I don't really care what anyone thinks of me because here is the deal: 1) Scripturally, I am not wrong for doing things this way 2) Is it really anyone else's business how I go about my job in educating my kids? 3) We need to mind our own business and love and encourage each other as a whole. Homeschooling can be hard and we need the support and love from others, not bashing anyone else's methods.
Okay. Here is my secret. I am a CVA homeschooling mother! Yes...I really am! It's called Columbia Virtual Academy. Here are the basics of it...we are assigned a teacher, we check in with them once a week to share what we are learning, and once a month during the school year, we have to give a report of what each child is learning in each subject. Now...why would I go to such lengths with all this reporting...ah yes...there is money involved of course! I get approximately $1200 for Heidi and approx. $600 for Reagan (half day kindy.) What I do with that is...field trips, gymnastics lessons, music lessons (if I choose), Year passes to Pacific Science Center and the Aquarium in Seattle, I could buy curriculuum for my kids (as long as it is not religious based, but I don't use my money for this, I buy all of my own curriculuum.), and last...this year my kids got to do ski lessons that we would normally not be able to afford, it was awesome. Now this year, CVA is making a lot of changes about the reimbursement of funding, which makes things more difficult for us. I've signed up for another year, but if it isn't worth my time, I drop out. Simple as that. Question here: If I am using state funding for extra curricular activities, yet home school my kids, are my kids really home schooled?
The reason I ask that is because I ran into another homeschooling mom at the park yesterday. She is on one of the more popular home school websites (which I am not on, but sometimes attend their field trips) here in our Kitsap community and basically got slammed down because she is a CVA homeschooling mom--like myself. She was actually told that she wasn't to call herself a homeschooling mother. Because, by using CVA she was basically tainting the name of homeschooling and was ruining the purity of it. This really chaps my hide. I mean REALLY??? I didn't know there was a definition of the PROPER way to home school your child! Why such strong opinions? Why not just mind your own business, love your neighbor and get on with life?
There is so much typically that goes with that line of thinking of those who really think they have the corner on the market of what homeschooling SHOULD be and I am just DONE with that. I could write pages and pages on other ways of warped thinking with in the home schooling community, it can be almost cult like...like it's their own weird religion or something. But, enough folks. Just stop. Really. MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS. Let's love each other instead, eh? We need the entire body of Christ moving and working together as a well oiled unit. I don't care how you home school your kid. I really don't, I don't care how you school your kid PERIOD. Public, Private...who cares? So how about you try not to really care about how I home school mine or anyone else's? It makes for an much happier, drama free life.
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