The Punctual Homeschool Family

You may be wondering why I have posted an impossibility as my title.  Even my family has never been too good with time, unless my dad was responsible for driving when I was younger...

So what are some of the classic lines you will hear from a homeschool family regarding time and what do they mean?  I have listed a few quotes with translations to help you understand how to deal with a homeschool family that is usually late.

"We are five minutes away"

Translation: "We left five minutes ago.  We will be there in about 15-20 minutes."

"Let's meet at around 1 pm."

Translation: "Expect us to be there between 1:30 and 2:00."

"The event will last for 2 hours."

Translation: "The event will start 10 minutes late, because we have to wait for everyone else to get here.  Also, we never timed the performance, but seriously it's probably much closer to 3.5 hours."

I give you this information not to scare you, but to prepare you.  This vital information and has helped me deal with those who are not so time conscious in my life.

Thanks for reading!

Homeschool Rap

Ok, I have never been much of a fan of rap, but I think if I was, this would be my favorite song:

In general though, homeschoolers never listen to rap.  They prefer oldies and some modern contemporary songs...at least until college age.

Legality of Homeschooling

Here are some of the difficulties faced with homeschooling depending on the state that you live in:

Homeschool Style Lunch

Have you ever experienced a Homeschool Style Lunch (HSL) before?  In case you are wondering what this, I have listed the definition below:

Homeschool Style Lunch is any lunch meal prepared by a member of the family in which experiments and guessing can ruin the food.  Example: My youngest sister served up a Homeschool Style Lunch when she added twice the amount of cheese required for Macaroni and Cheese (It tasted like paste).

These are to be avoided at all costs, or be prepared for an early supper.  Eating two suppers to compensate is not unheard of.

 

Homeschooling and Sports

Can a homeschooler play on the local sports team?

Depends.  Some states are passing legislation similar to this: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/tim-tebow-homeschool-law-gains-momentum-in-virginia/2012/01/23/gIQAFAypOQ_blog.html

The alternate route is to join a homeschool league.  Most schools schedule them as exhibition games at this point, but that is also beginning to change a bit.

Shouldn't You Be in School?

"Shouldn't you be in school?"

I remember hearing this question many times growing up.  Whether it was at a fast food restaurant, bank, grocery store, etc, I heard it pretty much everywhere I went.  When I was in grade school, my siblings and I thought it would be humorous if we invented crazy stories as to why we were not in school.  Our ideas ranged form not knowing how to speak English to how we were recent college graduates.  We would plot out exactly what we would say and rehearse it in the car during our trips.  My parents though, were not as amused by our discussion and refused to collaborate with us. 

Teaching Degrees for Homeschool Parents?

Yes, I have finally returned to blogging after a rather long absence.  My first task will be to answer another question from browneyeddog.  Here is his comment on my last blog post: "I assume your parents were your teachers at home-did they need any qualifications before starting your home schooling? Also, do you feel that you received a better (higher level) of schooling than the average high school?"

The first question is easy.  No, my parents did not need any qualifications to teach.  They were supplied with detailed syllabuses and books from the program that we were enrolled in and never put together a course for us, which made teaching a bit easier for them.  However, I remember a few times when I was in second and third grade that my father thought some of the history tests seemed too easy, which made him believe that it was his duty to give us harder tests...

The second question is a little harder to answer.  Do I think I had a better education because I was homeschooled?  If this refers to receiving a strong faith based education, then yes, I believe wholeheartedly that my education was better than an average high-school.  However, academically is slightly different.  I believe I excelled studying at home and being able to advance at my own pace, rather than the pace of a whole class.  In that sense it was better for me, but I also believe that being homeschooled slowed me down a little going into college because I lacked the classroom setting experience.  This was not a really big deal though, as I think I have adapted pretty easily after my first semester.  Overall, I think my education was better for me than going to an average high-school.

Questions or comments?  Please reply, and I will get back to you as soon as I can.

Learning a Foreign Language with Creepy Clowns!

Sprechen sie Deutsch?

The reason I ask is because our third question comes from browneyeddog.  This user wants to know if foreign languages are routinely taught in homeschool curriculums.  Yes, but at least in the top Catholic programs, your choices are pretty limited.  Most only offer Latin, but that is starting to change a little.  For example, I was told I could use Rosetta Stone to learn German instead of Latin.  My parents told me that they would allow me to either take Latin or German.  I really wanted to learn German because its part of my heritage and I knew some people who were from Germany that I thought I could have a conversation with.  It ended up being discouraging when I failed to understand most of what they were saying.

Let's talk about Rosetta Stone for a minute since I brought it up.  I used a version that had an unhealthy obsession with clowns.  They never seemed to run out of sentences and questions involving clowns!  For example, when in my life am I going to need to know how to say in another language that a clown is putting on a shirt or taking off his pants?  This only created slightly awkward situations when people would ask me what I was learning.  But I digress..

So yes, I know a little German.  However, I haven't practiced using it since I graduated, so I've probably forgotten almost everything.

If you have a question that you want answered, just comment below, and I'll answer your question in an upcoming post.

Homeschoolers and Bad Spelling?

The next question I wish to address is from Pete, a loyal and dedicated reader of this amazing blog.  He commented on my previous blog post: "i hav a sugestun 4 th nexst qestion do homescoolrs hav bad speling."

I'm glad he brought this question up, because I think there is a general misconception about homeschoolers and spelling.  Outsiders think that homeschoolers are in fact human and can be prone to spelling and punctuation errors.  This is just false.  If you have ever received a text message from a homeschooler, you know what I mean.  Homeschoolers type out EVERYTHING using correct spelling and punctuation.  However, they only use a few abbreviations just to make it seem like they are normal (lol and brb).  The main reason homeschoolers type always with correct punctuation is because they simply cannot bring themselves to deliberately making grammatical errors.

By the way (abbreviated btw), in case you haven't noticed, the question I have addressed is full of grammatical errors.  So I will correct it here to make everyone happy.  It should read, "I have a suggestion for the next question.  Do homeschoolers have bad spelling?"  There, I finally corrected it!  Don't you feel better already seeing the correct spelling and punctuation?

I suppose one never loses their obsession with grammar after being home-schooled...

Is There a World Outside the Home?

For those of you who do not already know, I have been home-schooled for most of my life (second grade through high-school).  Thus the title of my blog, "Home-schooled to College."  I have heard the usual questions throughout my life about home-schooling, and never had the benefit of social media to explain  how other home-school kids coped with their life of school at home.  Now that I have some limited experience in the outside world with college and work, I feel a slight connection with the outside world and would like to use my knowledge to help homeschoolers understand what "outsiders" are really asking and help interested "outsiders" understand more about the secret life of a homeschooler.

Now that I have that out of the way, let's tackle our first question.  Our first question comes from The General Population or outsiders: "Do you have any...you know...friends, and do you get to hang out with them often?"  When people ask this question they usually show a genuine interest in understanding how socializing with friends works when you only study at home.  What they really think is basically this: "How can you spend all day at home doing school work?  Where would you meet people?  Though it must be pretty cool to spend all day in your pajamas, I don't understand how you can have many or any friends this way.  By the way, your communication skills are much better than I expected."

Homeschoolers tend to get a little defensive over this question, however, this question is asked so much we could write flashcards (homeschoolers never run out of these) with our responses right on them so we always have a concise answer.  The responses can include anything from a home-school gym class, pro-life meeting, religious meeting/prayer group, church events, and small home-school family gatherings.  If we are able to rattle off at least five responses, watch for a slight head nod and a look of accomplishment.  Never then follow up with a homeschooler on what he or she learned, unless you are an English professor.  Consider it game over at that point.

If you have a suggestion for the next question, let me know and I will be happy to answer it!