What Can I Teach? Trolling?

In the evenings, after the kids are in bed, I like to go online (particularly on Facebook these days, though I’ve favored other sites in years past) and browse. I often try to help out homeschoolers with questions by sharing my knowledge. Tonight I did this as usual. When a homeschool parent asked about how to find evaluators, another woman made a comment that made it sound as though the school district would somehow limit what she could teach her child

A Homeschooling Twist to an Office Visit

I was at a government office this morning with my 4 yr. old. Apparently an employee meeting was going on for a good part of the time we were there as many employees suddenly disappeared and the speed at which people were being seen slowed down considerably. The time dragged on, but my little guy was behaving quite well given the situation because he’d made friends in the waiting room and had convinced several other small children to join in his imaginative play. Having a snack on hand didn’t hurt either.

Despite having an appointment, we’d been there for two hours when we were finally seen by the woman we really needed to see.  When we entered her office, my little guy asked if she had any toys in her office. She didn’t. But she gave him a clipboard with a piece of paper and a pencil, and he was soon happily drawing smiley faces and doodles.

So far, so good. We were almost done. I was hungry, since it was now lunchtime, and I was ready to get out of that office and get on with the rest of my day. I couldn’t wait. And then something unusual happened.

My little fellow walked closer to show me his drawing. I complimented him on writing his name on the paper and pointed out that I was happy to see that he’d used a lowercase letter in his name in a spot where he usually (incorrectly) writes a capital letter.

“Do you homeschool?” the woman asked.

I don’t usually discuss much of anything than the weather and the business at hand with government employees, so I was taken aback. “Yes,” I finally answered.

It turned out that she was looking to begin homeschooling her five-year-old. She’d looked for local homeschool support groups and found one that didn’t meet during the summer. So I talked about my group that meets year-round, as well as how she didn’t have to register her child for the upcoming year but could homeschool unofficially for a year if she liked and about the number of homeschoolers in our area (likely more than ten thousand in our county alone).

Funny, when I left the office, I didn’t mind the wait as much as I had before. And she commented that she was so glad that I’d ended up in her office (rather than seeing a different woman whom I’ve dealt with for years).

Cheryl

But Why Say That?

“Can I include audio books as reading materials?”
“Can my child study [a particular country], in depth, for world history?”
“Can I decide that my child’s done with the school year even though he hasn’t completely finished the curriculum?”…

I see questions like these (and others) online all the time. I like trying to share what I know to try to help these homeschool parents who are trying to figure out what they’re doing. And I understand that other people are