A Book Can Be Powerful
They had been asking if we could homeschool for a few weeks. I am not sure if they would remember what their own motivation for asking was. I was very hesitant, not knowing too much about it. We knew people who were homeschoolers, but I had not had a particular problem with public school in our town. I was not quite sure where their request came from.
DD1 was about to enter 7th grade, DD2 was going to enter 6th grade when I decided to go for it.
What convinced me was a change I'd observed in DD1, and the reading of a book called Reviving Ophelia . DD1 had commented on her clothes and mentioned that they were not "right". I explored further about what she meant - and it came out that she was not "one of the cool girls" - - but she "wasn't one of the kids not accepted" . She was not at the "top" of the girl hierarchy. Hmmmm. This daughter had always seemed to be fairly self-confident and had been used to hearing positive feedback - so where was this coming from?
I knew middle school could be a very challenging experience for them and that girls could be very harsh to each other. I wondered if this was already beginning for my daughters. I had picked up the Mary Pipher book and what I read in it seemed to confirm that we should go for it - and at least homeschool through middle school. Adolescent girls can be very mean and I figured we'd try this homeschooling thing out for a couple of years, the girls would grow, and they could get back into school at the high school level. (The sons needed assurance they did not have to do this!)
We started with a correspondence school and quickly abandoned that idea - finding it too restrictive. The curriculum available was quite extensive and I dove into catalogs and had more and more ideas. We tried a COOP (negative), hands on (negative) and ultimately learned that they were most comfortable reading and writing and more reading and thinking. DD2 had 2 or 3 years of band 3 times a week in the middle school - which was just enough for her.
When it was time to consider high school and what to do - they did not want to return to the public school setting. The decision to remain homeschoolers through high school was a scary one to permit them to decide. They had church, they volunteered, and they had each other. One was self-disciplined, one not so much. But they both did well and finished well.
On to community college, UMW, and then to grad school. Both finished with Masters of Library Science degrees from UNC.
Job well done, girls. A journey considered and agreed to in large part due to this book:
DD1 was about to enter 7th grade, DD2 was going to enter 6th grade when I decided to go for it.
What convinced me was a change I'd observed in DD1, and the reading of a book called Reviving Ophelia . DD1 had commented on her clothes and mentioned that they were not "right". I explored further about what she meant - and it came out that she was not "one of the cool girls" - - but she "wasn't one of the kids not accepted" . She was not at the "top" of the girl hierarchy. Hmmmm. This daughter had always seemed to be fairly self-confident and had been used to hearing positive feedback - so where was this coming from?
I knew middle school could be a very challenging experience for them and that girls could be very harsh to each other. I wondered if this was already beginning for my daughters. I had picked up the Mary Pipher book and what I read in it seemed to confirm that we should go for it - and at least homeschool through middle school. Adolescent girls can be very mean and I figured we'd try this homeschooling thing out for a couple of years, the girls would grow, and they could get back into school at the high school level. (The sons needed assurance they did not have to do this!)
We started with a correspondence school and quickly abandoned that idea - finding it too restrictive. The curriculum available was quite extensive and I dove into catalogs and had more and more ideas. We tried a COOP (negative), hands on (negative) and ultimately learned that they were most comfortable reading and writing and more reading and thinking. DD2 had 2 or 3 years of band 3 times a week in the middle school - which was just enough for her.
When it was time to consider high school and what to do - they did not want to return to the public school setting. The decision to remain homeschoolers through high school was a scary one to permit them to decide. They had church, they volunteered, and they had each other. One was self-disciplined, one not so much. But they both did well and finished well.
On to community college, UMW, and then to grad school. Both finished with Masters of Library Science degrees from UNC.
Job well done, girls. A journey considered and agreed to in large part due to this book: