Another awesome post by our homeschooling guest-blogger at Ordinary Time
From the title you may think this is going to be about answering the myriad of questions children pose throughout the day. But, it is actually about the questions that other people ask our children. You know the ones: all those nosy, intrusive questions you get when you are doing something that is outside the norm.
In my 13 years of homeschooling, I have noticed a trend. Maybe it’s that people don’t talk to me anymore because they don’t want to wade through the sea of children which surround me, or maybe it’s because it is really the case, but the general public seems more at ease with the whole notion of homeschooling. At the beginning of our homeschooling journey, I could expect at least one comment, if not more, from complete strangers every single time. As a result, my oldest daughter and I would practice managing these questions. We came up with ways to respond so that we were still being polite, yet we didn’t give in to the scrutiny which came our way. She became very adept at answering in a confident manner without giving too much information away.
Fast forward to last week. Due to some rather intrusive, judgmental questions my children were asked by an uninformed museum docent, I realize that I have not given my younger children quite the same bit of practice that I gave my older ones. Instead of speaking up confidently about why they like homeschooling, they instead sat mutely with mouths agape when asked if they were homeschooled because they didn’t like going to school. Frankly, my mouth was slightly agape as well, because it was so unexpected.
Just to be prepared, we will be doing a bit of role-playing around here. Maybe I’ll even make it into a game… write various, odd questions on slips of paper and have a child draw a question and practice answering it. I know from my own experience, if I have an answer planned, I am much better at speaking up than if I’m trying to formulate an answer for the first time.
So how about you? Do you have to field many nosy questions these days? How do you prepare your children... or do you?
~"E."
2 comments:
You know, if my children were asked why we homeschool, I don't even know if I would have a succinct answer. He homeschool for SO many reasons, and the longer we homeschool, the more reasons we have. I used to have a pat answer when people asked me, "We have explored all of the options carefully, and are confident that this is the best decision for our family and what the Lord desires of us." But now, I prefer the humor route. Eases the tension. I answer with a quick, "We like to train them into the cult young." I think I'll teach my kids to do the same, with a blink wink and a smile afterward. ;)
Yes, us homeschoolers seem to have to field many nosy questions. I usually hate when an adult seems like they need to question the child to see if they are happy when I'm standing right there. When my kids were younger they were more shy so I would speak up for them and I think doing that and them hearing my responds taught them how to answer. They now answer on their own and I am quite happy with their answers.
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