One of the goals I've had as a first year home school mom to a kindergartner is to instill a passion for learning in my son. I can't make him love school, but I can make school as much fun as possible. I can encourage him daily. I can guide him through the process. I can also create fun activities that are school related, and finally, we can go on lots of fun learning field trips with other home school friends.
Today, we took the opportunity to go on a field trip with some other friends from Andrew's home school school to the Rainforest Cafe at Downtown Disney. There we were taking on a very in depth tour of the rain forest, and we learned SO much that I never would have thought about. We learned about different animals found in the rain forest, the layers and reasons for the layers of the tropical rain forest, where the rain forest is located, we learned all about salt water tanks including how to care for a salt water tank, we got to meet 4 parrots, and the best part was that my child along with about 10 other children got to ask every question that they could think of about animals or anything having to do with the rain forest. I learned that I have a very inquisitive son who was very interested in learning all he could on the field trip even without my prompting. We also got a meal out of it as we ate bugs and such...well, not really bugs.
Also, Andrew has been learning how to count money. He's had a savings going for a while now, and he got a coupon for $5 off a Lego set. Since we were already at D-town Disney close to the Lego store, we decided to take his savings with us and detour after the field trip to buy the hard earned Lego set Andrew has been wanting.
While we were there, a Lego store worker asked Andrew why he wasn't in school. He tried to tell her that he had a field trip at Rainforest Cafe, but she wouldn't believe him. She then asked me "so they just let him wander around D-town Disney after the field trip." I explained that he was telling the truth, and she didn't believe me at all. In fact, she was extra inquisitive, and I just kept saying that the field trip just ended so he was using his savings to get something he worked hard for. It was after 1pm by this time, and children of all ages were pretty much all over the store (at least 20 other school aged children). I NEVER said I was a home school mom, but this lady was intensely judgmental that I had Andrew at the Lego store during a school day.
It got me all frazzled, but I had a precious friend with me there that kept telling me to shrug it off. She encouraged me that Andrew was clearly intelligent, and I was doing well with him at home which was clear to everyone but the clerk at the Lego store. I gotta say...makes me think twice about taking him out during the day anywhere...and I'm totally getting insurance! People are really freaky about homeschooling!
I've heard people say to be mindful that people will ask questions and try to tell on you [like neighbors] "those kids are playing outside before 3pm---that mom doesn't school them enough! blah blah blah, if they only knew---you're doing it better, ha ha!
ReplyDeletelove ya