Homeschooling Quiz

I've been spending more time on Facebook these days rather than on this blog. I enjoy the social aspects of Facebook, whereas this blog has very low interaction. In fact, I don't even know if people are reading it. Anyway... I thought this particular quiz about homeschooling was worth sharing in this venue as well as on Facebook. I will be sharing other things from Facebook here as well.

Questionnaire about Homeschooling (used to be What type of homeschooler are you?)Share
Tuesday, June 2, 2009 at 12:19pm

Copy the questions, delete my answers, fill in your answers and post as a note. Don't forget to tag me back!

1. What time do you get up? 6:30 am. I fail to see how this questoin relates to the type of homeschooler I am. I suspect this is a question meant to see if we're sleeping in late. The more pertinent question would be what time of day do we do the majority of our homeschooling and why? It used to be in the mornings as the afternoons were reserved for piano lessons and practice, playing, napping and hikes and such. But since God has seen fit to bless me with employment at a doctor's office 4 mornings a week, and the two remaining children are night owls, we do the majority of our schooling in the afternoons now and their temperments are better suited to learning. You see, one of the marvelous things about homeschooling is doing it in a way that suits and benefits your family.

2. What do your children wear to school? Well they do wear something. Usually we begin in jammies, and then as showers occur, we apply regular clothing. Although we have been known to stay in jammies all day, regardless of showers/baths, etc.


3. What curriculum have you tried and hated? I haven't really hated any curriculum. My children might reply differently. We have tried things that haven't worked for us and so we've been fortunate to gift that to others or to relieve ourselves of it at a used book fair.

4. Who is your most inspirational homeschooling role model? Don't know that I have one. I am a gleaner, so I take parts from lots of folks that will benefit our family, whether I agree with their overall philosophy of education (and religion sometimes) or not. I have been impressed with and inspired by Treon Goossen's complete devotion to preserving the Colorado Homeschool Law for over 20 years since she helped to broker it and co-wrote it back in the 1980's.

5. Abeka, Charlotte Mason, unschooling or Classical? We are classically relaxed schoolers. I do plan in general, broad strokes, and then we go where our whims and interests take us. However, math and catechism lessons are much more formal.

6. Favorite response to “what about socialization?” Depends on whom I am speaking to. With strangers I am more general and ask questions of them to determine where they are coming from and if they have an open mindset. I won't waste my time speaking with someone who only asked the questions to impart their opinion rather to truly find an answer. For those whom I am more familiar with, I am much more specific about our ideas about what and how socialization is and how it influences us for the better and usually for the worse in an environment where we become peer dependent. I emphasis that we aren't in this quest to please our neighbors but to raise children who are in the world and not of it.

7. Favorite subject? American History, hands down and without even a forethought!

8. Favorite field trip ever? Our trip back East in the fall of 1999 where we visited Revolutionary War and American Civil War sites. My favorite tours were Gettysburg and Valley Forge. The highlight, though, was when Kaitlyn answered a question of a docent at Monticello, "Lafayette! It was Lafayette!" She awed those adults who had studied Jefferson and could not answer the question. (Of course, she awed her parents and sister too, and made us proud that she had not only been listening but absorbing her history lessons.)

9. Best thing about homeschooling? The liberty to raise our children and instruct them as we see fit. The government's only concern should be that it is being done, as I know that an educated citizenry is important. I believe the government fears the true education of its citizens, however.

10. Sports, music, or art? As it applies, and as it seems fit to each individual child and their giftings.

11. Priority for 9-year old: beautiful script handwriting, or lightening fast accurate typing? I won't subscribe to a priority for a 9-year old in general such as this. Depends on the child. However, I deem it important to have readable handwriting and to be able to type as computers and the like are such a part of our life these days and I suspect that will continue.

12. Best one stop shopping for school books? Used to be Billions of Books in Colorado Springs before it went under. I still enjoy perusing used book stores and since we're rather eclectic, I don't think there is a best ONE stop place to buy school books. It's not like there's a Wal-Mart type place to do this in my opinion. The CHEC Conference brings together multiple resources/vendors and so that's beneficial, but we're usually in search of very few things to buy there. I prefer dusty tomes found in dark corners on shelves in book stores where the proprietors really love reading and are willing to talk about books and authors.

13. One subject you didn’t get to this week: Grammar.

14. What will you do when you run out of kids to teach? We'll see what the Lord has in store for us then. For now, we need not face that question for another 9 years.

15. Ever give school books as Christmas or Birthday gifts? Not school books, per se, but biographies or series that are enjoyable to the child and could be counted as reading time.

16. Better late or early (delay formal education at home, or start as young as possible?) Most assuredly late. To foist education upon the young is a disservice to their youth. Better to wait for their cognitive development and sometimes their emotional development to achieve a firm foundation in education and establish a life-long love for learning

Well that's it!

If you care to answer the same quetions, please leave me a message in the comments and direct me to your blog so I can read and learn from your answers!