Homeschool Friday

This is a special Homeschool Friday post, because the next 2 Fridays are kinda big family events that I may blog about, and the month of July I have set aside for something fun.  I’ve been thinking about the strereotype of the typical homeschooling mom.  Let me tell you, they do a great job of making fun of themselves at the homeschool conventions.  For instance, as I put my bags in the vehicle of the other moms I carpooled with to the convention, they asked if I had packed my jean skirt.  Homeschooling moms wear jean skirts, you know.  Then there’s the big family jokes, etc.

For instance:

(picture used with permission from The Family Man.)

Anyway, for the month of July, I’m interviewing a few different homeschooling moms.  One each Friday, so it will be 5 interviews over the course of the month.  We’ll learn about their family, their education, their philosophy.  They all don’t think like me, have the same view of education, and their parenting styles vary as much as the children they educate.  Some live near me, some live states away.  Some have grown children, some just have little ones, but all of them are currently homeschooling.  One schools at a farm, and another does school at Disney World.  Yes, I said Disney World.  One is a famous author, and another has a law degree.  I’m hoping to give a great perspective, and insight as to how homeschooling works in different families, and within different philosophies.  All of the families are from a Christian perspective, however.  

It’s so interesting to me that in all the homeschooling families that I’ve met, none of them school the same way, and I have never received or seen any judgment between families for not doing something “the right way.”  I think everyone realizes that each family knows exactly what their specific kids need.  Plus, each set of parents have their own priorities as far as what is important in their school, and it’s often custom fit for each child.  For instance, we do a lot more language study than others that I’ve met because that is really important to Knut and I.

I have one quick disclaimer, and that is I did most of this interviewing via internet, and they sent me their answers in various forms.  I copy and pasted many of the answers, and it messed up some of the formatting of the posts.  I’ve fixed what I could quickly, but I think the only way to make it run completely smoothly is to retype it all.  Since I’d rather be sewing, you’ll just have to survive the words moving between fonts and such and I don’t want to hear any complaining about it.  (Imagine me shaking my finger.)

I’m so excited as I’ve just finished setting them to automatically post every Friday at 7am, I’m so pleased at the diversity of each family.  Some of the moms are very type A (you know who you are) and some are very laid back (you know who you are too!)  Each of these women are such a treasure to me, though, and I’m so excited to share them with you.

So stay tuned…