Answers about Home Schooling and a High School Dream

As a home schooler, it's no surprise that I get a lot of questions about homeschooling. I've been thinking about it a lot recently, and I thought I should answer some of those questions now. These are the ones I get a lot from friends and strangers alike.

"Why are you home schooled? Why not go to public school?"
Like it or not, there are a ton of problems with the public school system. The problems don't apply to every school, but some that I've heard about are things like bullying, problematic or incapable teachers who sometimes can't control a classroom, social classes in the school society, etc., not to mention that the average score on each section of the SAT is now below 500. That's scary. I did, in fact, have a choice of going to public school or being home schooled for high school. Maybe I was too scared to try public school and face the unknown, but honestly, I do not regret being home schooled one bit.

"Do you sleep in everyday?"
No. We don't get up as early as you who are in public school, but we don't sleep in until lunch time (I'm not exaggerating. Some think that I sleep in that late.). Our parents would throw a conniption if we did that. My best friend gets up at 3:30 for swimming, and another friend must be up by six because he attends NOVA classes. I know that my other friends get up at a range between six and seven. As for myself, I get up between seven and eight -- I'm just not a morning person unfortunately.

"Do you do your homework in your PJs?"
Yeah, I do. Ok, well, only in PJ pants. It's really comfy, you should try it sometime! Just kidding. I know my best friend does homework in PJ pants, but I don't know who else does. That aside, yes, it does happen.

"Do you get homework? Do you get a lot? Is it hard?"
First of all, what makes you think we don't get homework? Yes! We get homework, just like any normal student does. As for the amount and difficulty, it depends for everyone. It also depends on how many and what classes we take. For me, I'm working on homework for most of my time. I have a bit of a procrastination problem that I'm still working on fixing, but I do have a life aside from homework. I'd say the hardest class I have right now might be the NOVA calculus class I'm taking, only because of the amount of work. It's an honors class, so that's kind of expected.

"Does your mom/Do your parents teach you?"
Well, yeah. But when we get to the middle school or high school levels, most of us take classes at a co-op, or home school group. The sizes of these groups varies, but we pay a teacher to come teach a class or classes. My group is small (the high school group is between fifteen and twenty students) and we have two teachers. But my mom teaches history and science, while my dad teaches our math. I'm taking the NOVA class, of course, but dad still helps me with my homework when I'm stuck.

"Do you stay at home all of the time?"
This question isn't as frequent, but it does pop up from time to time. But frankly, I don't understand why I/we get this question at all -- no offense. We aren't unsocial freaks who live in a dark room with our homework all day. We do sports, clubs, and go out to places all the time. In fact, the best part about being home schooled is that we go where we want during the week and.....nobody is there. Take, for example, the library. If I went there on a Thursday afternoon, I find that it's devoid of any kids and teens alike. It's practically empty. Of course, there are always the weird stares that scream, "What are you doing out of school?? Are you some kind of delinquent??" which is kind of funny.

"Aren't you worried that you miss out on homecoming/pep rallies/clubs/prom?"
No? Not really. I don't know what any of that stuff is like, so I don't suppose I miss it. I do have one exception, however. Ok, so time for a little secret of mine to be revealed.
*Deep breath*
It's kind of my high school dream to go to a dance, like prom, before I graduate. I reallllyyyyy want to go to a high school dance just that badly. I see it in movies, read it in some books, and I always get a bit of a longing for it. I want to get all excited weeks before a prom. Go out with my girlfriends to pick a stunning dress. Have a guy ask me to the dance. Get all dolled up on the big night. Hear the doorbell ring and know that my date is waiting outside for me. Meeting and giggling with my girlfriends about the excitement when I get there. And the magical experience of the dancing, like in the movies....
I don't know everything about high school dances, but yeah. I suppose that's something unusual coming from me, for those who know me. But seriously, I want that. Hey, I have a feminine side. I'm not a total "tomboy". :-P

Anyway, if there are anymore questions you want answered, I will happily answer them. But just know that home schoolers are not, I repeat, are not aliens. We're just educated in a different way.

~K

Busy!

I haven't written here in a while. I've been unbelievably busy! Even now I should be studying...I have a calc test tomorrow afternoon. It seems like 24/7 I'm yawning and wishing that I was in bed. What's making it worse is this sudden cold weather. *shivers*

School has been going well, and I have a test coming up like I said. I started my Japanese class last Saturday, and it's a bucket of fun. My sensei, or teacher, is a short elderly Japanese native. Of course, Japanese can't pronounce "L," and since my name has two of them, she always pronounces it like Koreen-san*. All of her L's come out as an R sound, but I knew ahead of time about the L's and R's. It's perfectly fine with me, plus before class started, I was curious to how my teacher would deal with my name. Aside from that, she's pretty funny sometimes. For example, this past class six of us stepped up to the board to practice writing Hirogana. Once, when she rechecked someone's writing, she saw her own exemplified writing and exclaimed, "Good! That is much better!" Then she did a double-take and saw that it was her own hand-writing. "Oh, no wonder it is so good! That's mine!" Much laughter ensued. But she's a wonderful teacher with a good sense of lightheartedness. Oh yeah, it's an adult class and only two of us are gals. Everyone is so nice and loves to act my age.

That aside, well, not much else is going on. I should probably get back to studying before Awana tonight. Ugh.

~K

* -san is the Japanese honorific for Ms., Mrs., or Mr. Something like that. :)