If ignorance is bliss....

...then I met the happiest person ever last week.  Unfortunately, she presented herself as a grumpy old lady so it was hard to see. It made me wonder what others really think of people who educate their children at home. She clearly had a incorrect picture of our life so I thought I would clear up a few things. I know she will not read this, but I will feel better if I can clear up just a few misconceptions for others.

1 - It would appear that some people (**cough** see the above mentioned grumpy old woman), think that homeschoolers "do school in our jammies" so save SOO much money on school clothes that it is ok to rip us of on other things. While it might be true that we stay in our jammies some days (admit it, you do too!), we do venture out of our house occasionally and people freak out when the family shows up in matching footed jammies. Therefore we do, in fact, still have to buy (or knit) our kids new denim jumpers each year, which costs money.

2 - Contrary to popular beliefs, our kids do have a social life. They are active in sports, church, and the community. We don't hog tie them in a cave and we do even encourage our kids have friends. If you think otherwise, it might be that we don't want them to be friends with your kids......hmmm.......moving on.

3 - We are not all homeschooling for religious reasons. While I LOVE that I get to teach a Biblical world view of things and teach the kids how God really is in everything, that was not our main reason for choosing to educate our children at home. We, personally, pulled ours out to give them a BETTER education overall.  We choose to not waste time teaching something they already know, and to instead spend more time digging into new things. We have no idea what God has planned for their futures so we are doing our best to prepare them for whatever path they end up taking. Religion aside, if we were not giving our kids the best possible education and didn't believe that we are preparing them to be contributing members of society, we would quit tomorrow. Imagine all I could get done without three kiddos around all day long.

4 - We don't think that homeschooling is the right choice for everyone or look down on others for not doing it. Honest. If you are annoyed that we homeschool, maybe you have some guilt you need to deal with and quit trying to put it on me. I am so thankful that we have choices to do what we believe is best for our children.  When I was younger, I went to public school for 5 years, was homeschooled for 5 years and attended Christian schools for 2 years before attending and graduating from a private university and proceeding to teach in the public school system for 3 years. Phew. I think there is a time and place for everything and again, I am glad we have choices. I'll respect yours if you respect mine. Heck, I'll respect yours even if you don't respect mine...I'm just nice like that ;o)

Do you have any burning questions about people who educate their children at home that you would like to ask? Bring it on. I'll gladly give you my .02 on it ;o) Hate to have too many people running around being blissful ;o)