Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Homeschooling: Dealing with Doubting Relatives

Homeschooling - Gustoff family in Des Moines 020Homeschooling - Gustoff family in Des Moines 020 (Photo credit: IowaPolitics.com)by Linda Dobson, Parent At The Helm: http://www.parentatthehelm.com

It’s one thing to paint your house, only to have your mother-in-law stick up her nose and mutter something about nausea. It’s quite another to soul-search, decide that the very best thing you can do for your children is to create a new family lifestyle, then listen to her wail that you will ruin her grandbabies forever.

Yes, many families and circles of friends contain one or more well-meaning persons who will question your reasoning skills. This isn’t really surprising.

Isn’t just about everyone you know, and are related to, the product of more than a decade of schooling? Doesn’t it make sense that your decision to take a different approach for your children will be seen by some as criticism of their own upbringing? Some might even say, “Hey, I went through all that malarkey, and I turned out okay.”

As tempting as it may be, this is not the time to inform Uncle Albert that you think you’ve pegged his personality disorder.

Homeschooling and Doubting Relatives

Instead smile, secure in the knowledge that no matter how miserable they are making your life today, your relatives and friends may sing a different tune with the passage of time and the actual reality of homeschooling, as opposed to reacting to their preconceived notions.

“Well-meaning relatives wondered if we weren’t depriving our children of opportunities to make friends, if homeschooling was legal, what kinds of textbooks we planned to use, if we would keep up with the public schools,” says Kristi Schrampfer. “I even had a family member tell me that we couldn’t possible teach the kids enough, since we weren’t experts in everything (what teacher is?)”.

To read further, go to: http://www.parentatthehelm.com/8092/homeschooling-dealing-with-doubting-relatives
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