A Homeschooling Pet Peeve...

It absolutely drives me insane when people within the homeschooling communities bereat anyone who disagrees with their views. I'm seeing this more and more in the homeschooling community which is why I refrain from claiming to be anything but a relaxed homeschooler. You won't find a discussion group on the proper way to *relax homeschool* because there aren't any. No board of relaxed home educators who will argue with you telling you that you are not really *relax homeschooling* because you aren't following some big name in the relaxed homeschooling movement. For the most part, I am to each his own, whatever is working for you is great.

Carnival of Homeschooling

The Carnival of Homeschooling is off to a great start in 2007! This week's Carnival is being held at Dewey's Treehouse so be sure to check it out.

Now They Hate It....

It's official, both of my children no longer enjoy their once a week blended school. They are bored, bored, bored to the point of not wanting to go next year despite seeing their friends. This was supposed to be a hands-on-experience type of school and they aren't receiving any. The teachers tell everyone what to write on their papers and the teachers are the ones doing all the experiments. Recess? No recess for the entire 6 hours of school and their gym class is run by a not so nice woman who likes to hollar. Their favorite teachers at the beginning of the year have now went down the ladder as they aren't as nice and friendly anymore, as our 8yo dd puts it, "Mom, its like they were just nice when we were new and now that we aren't anymore, they aren't as nice."

I told the kids, "Well, at least you get to see your friends." That doesn't matter they say because... "There is no free time and you aren't allowed to talk in class." When talking does happen in class it is usually about the subject matter (which I understand) but the kids are not even given a break for the entire day.

Well, if anything, their blended school experience has definately put a bad taste in their mouths for school-school, as neither can imagine doing that 5 days a week. I told them that in public school you do get a couple of recesses but that didn't matter, they were both like, "Yeah, but only about 40 minutes...big deal."