Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy Defensive Homeschoolers?

LOL. I like it. Unless, of course, you are pressed for more information and have to decide whether or not to say "Well, he's allergic to boring teachers, underfunded GT programs, and inflexible administrators."

LOL!

The grade question is a tricky one, acs. I have the same problem the HSing woman had, though without the off-putting tone, I hope.

DS6 is clearly not a "1st grader" in any meaningful sense of the word. He'd probably be in 2nd grade this year if he were in PS, though maybe with another skip planned for next year. So how does one answer that question?

I figure most people are really asking "How old is your child," so I answer "He's almost 7" or "He started the year in 1st grade." Next year will be trickier for me, since he will start that year where he left off this one. But it worked for me for this year.

I think the trick is to answer the question being asked and not try to turn it into a referendum on HSing! LOL!

I laughed out loud at this, because I deleted the rest of my comment of "allergic to boredom and dairy." I thought if I said boredom i might offend someone!

Nope, for better or worse, we're all in the same boat here on that one!

Well, I guess I figured I could get away with it since I'm the militant PSer!

LOL! Militant? I love that!

St. Pauli Girl, Is your son really allergic to dairy? I actually know several people who DO hs because of serious allergies. My DD is allergic to peanuts and DS is allergic to eggs. Both are potentially anaphylactic and have epipens and the whole nine yards. In fact, the principal (way back when we enrolled DD in first grade) told us we should homeschool her...

Kriston,

I don't think anyone here is arguing in your sense of the term, although people are "arguing" in my (benign) sense of the term. I know the word is ambiguous in contemporary English, but I do prefer the original meaning, personally. People too often use the ambiguity in the word to shut up honest discussion concerning disagreements by dismissing it as "arguing."

Dave

Lori wrote:

>My son refused to read the rest of A Wrinkle in Time. He said the town we live in reminded him too much of Camazotz. This is one reason we homeschool.

Lori, your son is wise beyond his years! I think Madeleine L�Engle would say that he grasped the real theme of �A Wrinkle in Time.�

I hope when he is a bit older he will read through the scary part all the way to the end. It is a great book.

I had not thought of this until reading your comment, but I suppose the point of that scene (maybe of the whole book) is that Camazotz is really� Earth.

I think L�Engle was optimistic enough to hope that the earth can be freed of the influence of the black cloud. I too am enough of an optimist to hope that can be done, and perhaps some of us homeschoolers are doing our own small part to raise kids who are individuals and not just members of the mass.

All the best,

Dave

kimck wrote:
>I'm already well aware that my in-laws are going to be VERY uncomfortable with the idea of homeschooling at least initially.

Kriston is of course right that all of us who are homeschooling (and I assume this may also be true of grade-skipping and other �unusual� ways of helping bright kids) have to deal with reactions from the extended family.

In our case, my side of the family has generally been supportive (one of my cousins started homeschooling after we did), except for one of my step-sibs who teaches in the public schools (we�ve never seen each other much anyway, so we just don�t talk with each other about our homeschooling). Curiously, my mom is defensive about not being supportive enough of our homeschooling! This is kind of funny, since she really has been quite supportive, and no one has ever told her otherwise.

My wife�s family has been much less supportive. However, this has not really been a great problem. Since I am willing to talk openly about our homeschooling and answer any questions they have, we simply talk things over whenever they do have questions or criticisms.

One of the reasons I find Kriston�s take on homeschoolers� being defensive a little funny is that my main problem in talking to my wife�s family is that I have to be careful not to hurt their feelings by telling them how our kids are actually doing academically, what our kids are learning, etc. My nieces are, as far as I can tell, as bright innately as our kids, but our kids are advancing at about twice the pace the nieces are because of our homeschooling.

I have the same experience with friends, although of course the situation is somewhat less delicate with friends than with in-laws. My overwhelming experience is that it has been public-schoolers who are defensive, and I (usually) try to be sensitive to their tender feelings.

So, I�m somewhat bemused by Kriston�s belief that homeschoolers are defensive.

A year ago, one of my kids informed her cousin that she was better at piano than the cousin because she was homeschooled! Aside from being rude, the truth is her cousin never chose to take piano lessons, which is of course the real reason the cousin could not play piano. Curiously, the older girl was really upset by this (there is a seven year age difference).

We of course had a long talk with our little one, I apologized to the cousin, and our child later went on her own and apologized also.

This is a somewhat funny example (although it was not funny at the time!) of how we and are kids are finding that we need to be careful not to offend the delicate feelings of public-school families.

All the best,

Dave