The beauty of homeschooling...

It was brought to my attention by a fellow homeschooler today about the beauty of homeschooling, flexibility. We can have school anytime and anywhere. She said this in response to the fact I told her we finally got around to Science and History at 9pm last night. You would think that this would be a "bad" time to do this, but it's not. Children retain bedtime stories, right? You read them a story before bed and the next morning they babble endlessly about it, or draw pictures about it, or act it out with their friends or siblings. some might argue that reading history is a bit heavy, even science. "What ever happened to fairy tales?" was one comment.

Fairy tales are horrid. They are gruesome. They are scary. Want you child to have rip roaring nightmares read a REAL fairytale to them. Learning about how Julius Cesar was kidnapped and held for ransom money is not so bad. Learning about butterflies before you close your eyes are delightful. Do we read fairy tales at all? I tried, the kids were bored. In my opinion fairy tales are like a lot of other traditions; completely over rated and ran into the ground.

I do think it is necessary to read fairy tales, I also think it is necessary to read the bible and learn history. You will being to see a pattern emerge. My children now "see" those patterns. They jump up at the story of Moses and say, "Hey didn't that same thing happen to Sargon? Wasn't Sargon pushed out into water in a basket?"

That is besides the point, my point here was flexibility. We can have math class at 4pm, Science at 8pm, and History at 9pm. We wake up at 7am but we need time to wake up the brain, eat, do chores, and get some energy out first. We get it all done, but not like the schools do. Life is becoming less rigid. Public schools were based on work schedules most Americans had. These days schedules are something people make a week in advanced, not something they adhere to day by day. Our school system does not reflect the changing times. Homeschooling does, which is why you see a lot of people doing it today. You can be flexible and "hang out" with your kids more.

Not to mention they are not nearly as jaded and snotty as the PSK's. There are a lot of benefits here. I highly recommend this to many people, some though I am sure glad PS is there for them and their kids. Sometimes being with strangers is better for the kid than the parents.