04.26.06

Let the Bats Out, Please

Posted in Life, the Universe and All that Jazz at 2:05 am by Meg

I know that I should consider myself lucky.  I’ve never had any problems with my mil.  I like her, she likes and appears to respect me.  But she can drive me batty!! (and she’s only been here for 10 hours!!)

You see they like to come visit us, for a week at a time, at least once a year.  I enjoy the vist, hubby likes seeing his folks, and the kids get a lot of having time with them.  This year they came now so that they’ll be here for Girl’s 12th B-day and be able to see the play that the kids have been working on.

So where’s the problem?  Well, you see.  While no one else in the extended family homeschools and mil used to be a teacher’s aid in a special education classroom.  Wait, wait. No it’s not that I get digs and hassles for homeschooling.

No…it’s that she swears that while what I’m doing is wonderful and all that,   so-and-so, that she knows is homeschooling currently or thinking about it, can’t do it or should be highly discouraged from even trying!  No matter how much I try to explain that parents’ qualifications do not make or break a successful homeschooling experience, she’s adament that it does.

The current example that she holds up is her neighbor back home.  The family has 2 kids, older girl (maybe 3/4 grade) and younger boy (I’m guessing 1st?).  The SAHM barely reads anything (even magazines) but mil describes her as very nice. The boy is really struggling in school, getting labeled and all the rest.  ‘Mom’ comes over and talks to my mil and brings up homeschooling as an option.  And the dear woman doesn’t just listen or give her my contact info so that she can talk to me.  No, she fills that mom’s ear with all sort stories about how hard it is, how much work it takes and so on.  Now she’s very proud that she has kept someone from  making a ‘bad’ choice.

I have lost track of the number of times that I have explained to her that homeschooling is not a matter of abilities, but of dedication.  A dedicated parent will see where they need to step aside and find another way to a working solution. They will find the services and tutors to help in areas that they are lacking.  They will see their child’s strengths and weaknesses and figure out a way to let their child grow and develop their own abilities.

A lack of abilities just means that you need to be open to alternate methods and actively seek them out.  A lack of dedication will lead the homeschooling experience to failure (unless the child involved has the dedication needed to balance their parents/caregivers lack.) If I had a choice, I’d choose dedication everytime.

Will I ever be able to convince my mil? Lol, probably not.

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