How my family is involved in our homeschool...Or not...

 

This weeks Blog Cruise is "How are your spouse, grandparents, or other family members involved in your homeschooling" 

Well, this is a little tough. I would say that for the most part, they aren't. 

My husband is my biggest supporter. It was actually his idea to homeschool. 

When I was pregnant with my first baby, we were discussing how we did not want to send our precious baby to school. 

He mentioned that we could homeschool, and I didn't even think you could do such as thing! lol

I knew no one who had homeschooled, except for children who were kicked out of school.

I started studying up on homeschooling, and from then on we knew that we would homeschool. 

We told my husband's parents, and I think they thought we were a little crazy. lol

They didn't say much against it, but I think they probably thought we would change our minds. 

I think they have really come to like the idea now. 

They have a few concerns, but overall, they are supportive of our decision to homeschool. 

They usually don't say much about it. Sometimes they ask the kids what they are learning in school, but they don't get too involved. 

At least they didn't until recently. 

Yeah, they decided that my just turned 6 year old should be reading, and they started pushing him. 

They would ask him if he wanted to read them a book, or they would bring over flashcards. 

They started asking if he had everything he needed to learn to read. They would have bought him anything he needed, which was nice, but they have never offered to buy anything for my daughter, and we really could have used the help sometimes. 

But God has always provided.

My father-in-law even told my son that he would give him a dollar for every book he read. 

And no, he didn't ask first. 

I decided not to let it bother me, and allow my son to receive a dollar per book. 

He has only read 8 of the I See Sam readers, which we love by the way. 

But we are still in the process of learning our sounds, so that is why we have only gotten through book 8.

I had to get them to understand where we were coming from, and that we were moving at his pace, not anyone else's.

My son started feeling bad because he couldn't read yet. He never felt like this before. He even overheard his uncle saying that "even 2 year olds can read". 

He didn't want anyone to see his work, because he was embarrassed that he was just learning his letters and sounds. 

He started crying, and it was just awful. 

I talked to my in-laws about it, and to their credit, they realized what they were doing, and that they didn't want to hurt his feelings, or make him feel bad, and they haven't really said anything since. 

Although my mother-in-law did tell me that " Even if he never learned to read, they would still love him". 

Come on, we are talking about a 6 year old, not a 16 year old. I don't think there is any reason to worry that he may never read.

Anyhow, things are better with that situation. 

As for the rest of my family, no one really says anything one way or the other. I don't think they like it much, but at least they choose not to say anything negative. 

My grandmother has said negative comments, but not too many, thank goodness. 

We ran into her at Walmart one day, and she asked if the kids were still homeschooled, and I said yes, and she replied, " Oh, well that's too bad." I just ignored it. 

I really think that people just don't understand what we are doing, or why.

I do wish my family were more involved in our children's homeschool sometimes, but then I think that it could be too much, and I wouldn't like that either. 

Choosing their curricula, and teaching them falls mostly to me, but I am OK with that because I can do it my way! LOL

If you have a family that is very supportive of your homeschooling, then be very happy about it, but if not, you may want to look at it in a different light.

If they were more involved, you may not like it. 

Overall, I think I have it pretty easy. 

I don't have anyone too involved, or anyone saying negative things all of the time. 

I am very blessed, and so happy to be able to homeschool these wonderful children that God has blessed me with.