April 05, 2002 - 8:57 a.m.
Zachary finally seems to be feeling better. His fever is gone and he's just left with a bit of a runny nose and a cough. He was up at 6 am this morning (he must have heard Daddy get up for work) and is sleeping in a bit longer now, which gives me some time to throw laundry into the washer and catch up on the news.
An article on homeschooling has me thinking this morning. Although I initially left work to raise my boys until they were school age, planning to return to the library or begin work on my MLS after the youngest entered kindergarten, I'm starting to consider homeschooling.
The final decision will, of course, depend on my boys and their temperament, their rapport with me, and their ability to learn from me. I'm not worried about not knowing it all - I know how to research. But I am daunted by the enormity of the task. Homeschooling is not something to be entered into lightly.
But I can see a benefit. In hindsight, I would have been better off learning at home. School, from my first year, was a nightmare for me. I had no problem learning - in fact, I generally finished lessons well ahead of the rest of the class. But I never handled the classroom environment very well and, like animals sense fear, children sense social ineptitude and they fell on me like a wounded chicken.
There was no such thing as advanced learning classes in our school district then. A rudimentary (and ill designed) "gifted" program was launched when I was in 4th grade. I'm not sure what the goal of this program was intended to be, but it ended up consisting of me and two other students being sent to the library every day while our peers had English. We had no supervision and no instruction and therefore did nothing. The next year, the program was expanded to include a teacher and about a dozen more "gifted" students were added to the roster. We were pulled from our History class this time to do logic problems and media projects. The next three years, until my family moved to a neighboring county (solely to change schools), were exactly the same. I entered high school with no concept of "studying," behind in English, behind in History, and convinced that I didn't need these things because I was "gifted." Augh! It took me years to get over that.
Well, that was a long tangent on a possibly irrelevant issue... I'm sure that these programs (should my sons ever be considered for them) have improved in the past 20 years, but I'm still skeptical. And I'm also certain that the social traumas of school life haven't changed at all. I'd like to spare my boys experiences like self-inflicted dehydration in order to avoid going into the bathroom at school if at all possible.
But I still have a couple years to think it over.
A question for the guestbook (on a completely unrelated topic): Anyone out there own an NOAA weather radio? The storms this week got me thinking about buying one before hurricane season cranks up later this year, but they tend to be a little pricey. I can't find one under $40, anyway. Think it's worth it? Opinions?
