v_malott

Hello,
I've been subscribed for a day and have been sitting back, reading
the archives, and following Flora's newbie thread with interest. Not
to throw this in your face, Flora, but MAN, I'm realizing just how
lucky I am.

We're going into our third year of homeschooling in the official
sense: that is, sending in "required" notification for the state of
Ohio for our two compulsory-aged children. My husband and I have
five children altogether, between the ages of 9 years and 11 months
(g, b, g, b, b). I have made some lame attemtpts to structure their
learning in the past. It usually happens around the time of
those "back-to-school" ads and I get myself all geared up to "do
something." Fortunately, I quickly come back to my senses and fall
back into our peaceful unschooling mode of life.

Anyway, our oldest daughter attended Catholic school for K (which was
a pleasant experience) and 1st grade (which was psychologically
damaging). By the end of 1st grade, I was so fed up with the school,
her teacher, and the principal that I was tempted to never send any
of my kids back there. Still, we registered for the following year
and came within a month of sending our son to K there. A week
following K orientation, I decided once and for all that we'd be
homeschooling and it was the best thing I've ever done for our family.

My mother is bewildered by how I could possibly manage to homeschool
my kids with all five of them being home all day. I think this is
just because she had two kids, 7.5 years apart and worked full-time
when I started going to middle school. Still, she is very supportive
and LOVES when I send her articles by John Taylor Gatto and John
Holt. Having worked with school officials (county superintendant)
for most of her working years, I think she realizes how corrupt and
political the whole business is, and how most of it doesn't really
care about kids and real learning at all.

My in-laws are also incredibly supportive. I think my MIL is just
happy that I chose to stay home to raise her grandchildren. They
were concerned about the socialization issue at first, but they know
how active we are with the local support groups and other homeschool
families that it isn't a concern. They see how bright and articulate
the kids are, how well they can speak to grown-up strangers, that
they don't really care what or how they are learning.

My DH isn't completely aware that what we're doing is called
unschooling. He just knows that we don't sit there all day plowing
through text books. There's a part of him that would like to see
certain things improve, like our son's handwriting (why? he's only 7)
and our daughter's math facts (why? she can do math when she's
sufficiently motivated), so there's a little bit of deschooling left
for him. I'm proud of him, though. He "teaches" 7th grade Sunday
school and the other teachers get so frustrated with him when he
rallies against efforts to try to standardize and test the students.
When confronted with the question "Well, then, how will you know that
they 'get it'?" His response: "I talk to them!" Imagine that!
yeah, most of the kids are there because their parents want them to
be there, but they definitely enjoy the change of pace for their 7th
grade year.

Enough about me,
Valerie in Cincinnati, OH