Intro and positive HS reaction story.
Betjeman and Barton Tea Merchants
Hello all - It's probably about time I introduce myself as I've been lurking on this wonderful group for about a week. I'm Karen, my dd is Brogan Elizabeth and dh is Stuart. Brogan just turned 3 in December and we are, of course homeschooling.
Our family and friends know that we are homeschooling but it's not something I've announced to the general population - until today.....
a bit of background info...
We've been in Gymboree Music with Teddy and his mom for a few months now. On Thursday she told us it was their last day as they were moving on Friday :-( On Friday I was talking to the Gymboree owner (Christine) about losing Teddy and his mom and she said to me "well you know they were kind of different" She said it - in not a mean way but not in a positive one either. Then she said "she was homeschooling" almost like it was a weird thing. That made me feel a bit odd - normally I'd pipe up and mention that I'm homeschooling too but something held me back.
When Christine mentioned they were homeschooling my immediate reaction was almost sadness - I wish I had known that they were homeschooling because I would have loved to have talked to her about it.
Today as we were driving to Brogan's gym class I mentioned the incident to Stuart. I was telling him how Christine made me feel like homeschooling was a bit odd and like somehow I should 'hide' the homeschooling. And yet I'm not ashamed of it - I really think this is the right direction for our family and I'm proud that I'm homeschooling. I told him I wasn't going to let people like Christine bother me.
One of the mommies in gym class works at the library. I was going to ask her how to 'suggest' a homeschooling book that I wanted to the library (hoping they'd get it in). After I casually asked her how to go about it (there's a form) she asked me what book it was - I told her it was a homeschooling book. All 3 ladies that I was hanging out with had such a POSITIVE reaction to me homeschooling - it was GREAT.
I was really stunned. The gal that works at the library told me Groton (my town) has a really strong homeschooling community and that one of the groups meets every Wednesday night at the library. She told me to give her a call and she'd get the group e-mail address for me or I could drop by and meet the other homeschoolers. Another gal knew someone who's a huge homeschooling advocate and the third gal suggested some books and was really excited and supportive about homeschooling. I swear I left gym just glowing. I really haven't checked around locally to see what other homeschoolers are out there - now I know there's a good system in place :-)
Sorry if I rambled a bit it was just a great experience. Lesson learned...I'll never hide my homeschooling again.
I'm really enjoying reading all of your messages.
Ren your "it finally happened" thread was very helpful. Here in CT the 'guidelines' say you 'need' to register in order to homeschool - however there's no law saying that you have to. If they 'catch' you - I believe there's a form you have to fill in and return within 10 days. I, however rather like Sandra's suggestion of sending them a copy if they 'need' one and chucking the original :-)
Karen
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
Our family and friends know that we are homeschooling but it's not something I've announced to the general population - until today.....
a bit of background info...
We've been in Gymboree Music with Teddy and his mom for a few months now. On Thursday she told us it was their last day as they were moving on Friday :-( On Friday I was talking to the Gymboree owner (Christine) about losing Teddy and his mom and she said to me "well you know they were kind of different" She said it - in not a mean way but not in a positive one either. Then she said "she was homeschooling" almost like it was a weird thing. That made me feel a bit odd - normally I'd pipe up and mention that I'm homeschooling too but something held me back.
When Christine mentioned they were homeschooling my immediate reaction was almost sadness - I wish I had known that they were homeschooling because I would have loved to have talked to her about it.
Today as we were driving to Brogan's gym class I mentioned the incident to Stuart. I was telling him how Christine made me feel like homeschooling was a bit odd and like somehow I should 'hide' the homeschooling. And yet I'm not ashamed of it - I really think this is the right direction for our family and I'm proud that I'm homeschooling. I told him I wasn't going to let people like Christine bother me.
One of the mommies in gym class works at the library. I was going to ask her how to 'suggest' a homeschooling book that I wanted to the library (hoping they'd get it in). After I casually asked her how to go about it (there's a form) she asked me what book it was - I told her it was a homeschooling book. All 3 ladies that I was hanging out with had such a POSITIVE reaction to me homeschooling - it was GREAT.
I was really stunned. The gal that works at the library told me Groton (my town) has a really strong homeschooling community and that one of the groups meets every Wednesday night at the library. She told me to give her a call and she'd get the group e-mail address for me or I could drop by and meet the other homeschoolers. Another gal knew someone who's a huge homeschooling advocate and the third gal suggested some books and was really excited and supportive about homeschooling. I swear I left gym just glowing. I really haven't checked around locally to see what other homeschoolers are out there - now I know there's a good system in place :-)
Sorry if I rambled a bit it was just a great experience. Lesson learned...I'll never hide my homeschooling again.
I'm really enjoying reading all of your messages.
Ren your "it finally happened" thread was very helpful. Here in CT the 'guidelines' say you 'need' to register in order to homeschool - however there's no law saying that you have to. If they 'catch' you - I believe there's a form you have to fill in and return within 10 days. I, however rather like Sandra's suggestion of sending them a copy if they 'need' one and chucking the original :-)
Karen
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]