I hothouse. It's the opposite of an ego boost for me. I'm smart enough to know almost everybody will have an opinion of it and for the most part they won't be saying they would do it this way. It's no compliment to me. (the results of hothousing are no compliment to me) I guess my kids have a high iq. It's just a guess at this point, no testing. I didn't teach early academics to "give him a leg up". He would have looked plenty impressive learning all this in school in front of the teacher. I started teaching "all the boring parts" of academics so he would learn what he needs to learn so he can do what he wants to do. I discussed unschooling with my husband. He said we didn't have the money to do it right. It's true. I want to take my kids up the Apalachan trail, and down the Mississippi river, and to the pyramids in Egypt. I'm not angry, hurt, or mad fanofphysics.
I type up these thoughts I had behind making my decisions to share with you & I wrestle wether to hit "post" because I know from my limited experience that people generalize what they read and think, "do those reasons apply to me? do my reasons apply to her choices?". Since we're moving past phonics I've started studying ideas about reading comprehension. That skill, comparing what you read to your own life, is a skill that is taught to improve reading comprehension. Yup, we were all taught that in school.
One more thing that lead me to become a practicing hothouser. Where we used to live I thought I was going to homeschool my son. Actually, as I re-read this I see that maybe I'm just naturally a hothouser. I had two younger sisters I helped teach. I helped teach classmates all through school. Etc. It might be in my upbringing or it might come natural but I don't teach my kid academics to impress other people. For one, they're not that impressed. Two, I'm smart enough to know that. Lastly, they're more impressed if you're a stepford wife with perfect kids.
