Wednesday, November 09, 2005

Responding to a Comment...

I have been meaning to respond to this comment from Nick regarding a previous post.

great blog, question on homeschooling tho, do you think your children will be at a disadvantage in not having mixed with other children, and do you think there will be any conflict when they are older about things that as a mother u do not want them to know, but as a teacher u want them to know to be informed young adults?

Its a large assumption to say that because our boys don't attend school that they don't mix with other children. The fact is that they do mix with other children all the time. I think I stated before that our boys spend an average of 8-12 hours a week with other kids in various activities. By homeschooling do we have more control over the children that our kids mix with? Absolutely.
1 Corinthians 15:33 Do not be deceived: bad company corrupts good morals.
As parents we are responsible for instilling morals, which in turn means having some say over who our children spend time with. This doesn't mean I would ever tell my child they couldn't associate/talk to/play with another child. Just that I might want to be nearby to supervise.

Secondly, there is nothing, absolutely nothing, that I don't want my children to "know" or learn about. Sure there are things that might be uncomfortable to teach, and things that I might tell them to ask their dad (they are boys afterall) but there is no information that I wish to withhold from them. I just want them to learn to find, and if necessary dig for, the truth and not accept something just because an adult, a teacher, a newspaper ect. says its so.

Thanks for visiting my blog Nick, I hope that answered your questions.

8 Comments:

Blogger Jamie said...

People ALWAYS assume that our kids won't be 'socialized' because we homeschool. I would rather those 'uncomfortable' subjects be talked about at home with Mom & Dad than some other adult. Like you said, it's important to find the truth and I would urge my children to search the Bible to find the truth, not just listen to us. But, so many teachers don't know the truth (even in Christian schools), so...

2:42 PM  
Blogger Almond Tea said...

I'm a political liberal who is all about choice. Which for me means, if you want to homeschool - you should have that option and if you don't want to homeschool, that's fine too.

I know you that you have stated that your boys spend 8-10 hours with other children doing various activities. I'm wondering in those 8-10 hours, are those children the same ethnic and socio-economic background as your family? How do you introduce diversity (and I'm not talking religous diversity- as far as I can tell from your blog, that isn't something you are willing to support). I'm thinking about an introduction to racial, economic, and disablities (both physical and mental) that your boys would receive in a public setting.

4:43 PM  
Blogger Amie said...

Our boys are introduced to diversity in a public setting as they do things day to day with me. The grocery store, the library, waiting rooms, the park, the beach, our neighbors. The important thing is that in our home we teach our boys that we are all God's children and equal in value regardless of any difference. This is the attitude (I pray) they will treat others with their whole life, whether they meet them when their 5 or 50.

10:43 PM  
Blogger Melissa said...

*clapping* Well said Amie and I say this as a mother who sends her children to public school. It's families like Amie's that give homeschoolers a good name :D

9:01 AM  
Blogger Me said...

Very well said.

3:36 PM  
Blogger Genevieve said...

My question about homeschooling is what do you do if one of your boys wants to learn something you don't know? Like what if he wants to learn to speak a language you don't speak? Is that something you might consider either hiring a tutor for or sending him to a class for?

11:18 AM  
Blogger Amie said...

There are many options, two of which you listed. A few examples I can think of off the top of my head: One family I know has used satellite classes for foreign languages. One homeschooling mom who happens to be a math professor teaches higher level math to homeschooled students at our church. Our local homeschool group has enrichment days twice a month for classes such as drama, foreign languages ect. We will start doing that next year.

Its all about finding and using resources, which I think is a cool thing to learn in itself.

1:37 PM  
Blogger Genevieve said...

oh, that's cool. i didn't realize there were groups for homeschoolers... that must be a great support system when you're ready for it. I think you're right, figuring out resources is lots of fun. I don't have kids, but I am all the time trying to figure out new classes and things that *I* want to do myself, which is sort of similar.

10:44 AM  

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