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What's the best thing about homeschooling your kids? It's hard to say. Maybe it's the joy of watching your children learn in a creative, hands-on environment customized just for their learning style and interests. Nahhh, it's actually the stupid questions people ask you. A lot of people out there who know nothing about homeschooling sure to have some surprisingly strong opinions about it, right? Here's our favorite things you should never say to a homeschooling mom.
1. Are you, like, wicked religious? Okay, some parents choose to homeschool for religious reasons. But parents choose homeschooling for a whole range of reasons -- most often because they believe it's the best way to educate their kids. A lot of the time, homeschooling has nothing to do with religion.
2. I would never assume I was qualified enough to teach my child. Who says homeschooling parents do all the teaching by themselves? Homeschoolers aren't all spending six hours at home bent over books -- it's often more creative than that. There are communities that do lessons together, tutors you can hire. There's a whole range of resources.
3. Don't you want your kid to have any friends? It's homeschooling, not prison. Kids can still participate on soccer teams, take music lessons, join Girl Scouts, play at the park with the other children. And there's no guarantee kids will always make friends at their school. Ever heard of bullying?
4. How do you stand spending so much time with your kids? I could never spend so much time with my kids! First of all, homeschooled kids aren't necessarily spending all their time with their parents. Secondly... I'm sorry you don't like spending time with your kids.
5. I can't even get my kids to clean their rooms. How do you get your kids to do their school work? Um... sounds like someone needs to work on their parenting skills.
6. Hey kid, what's the capital of Kansas? What's Pi? How do you measure the radius of a circle? Who was America's first president? How do you spell discombobulation? How many fingers am I holding up? Um, thanks for those "gotcha!" questions. It's true. We just sit around all day doing macrame and singing folk songs and now my kids know nothing. Your brilliant quizzing scheme exposed us. Here's my phone so you can call CPS.
7. Good luck getting your kid into college. Yeah... don't think that's going to be a problem. Your kid, on the other hand...
8. And best of all: WHAT ABOUT SOCIALIZATION? So, what about it? Like the whole amazing world we explore isn't enough for my kid, he has to spend six hours a day inside a room with 35 other children every day or he'll grow up a mushroom.
What are the most annoying things you've heard people say about homeschooling?
Image via Tim Pierce/Flickr
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