Homeschooling is an option

My Tree is still putting on a wondeful show!
We have a French Wwoofing family staying with us right now. They have 3 kids 4, 8 and 9. It has been quite fun; their kids and ours meshing well. The oldest two are outside right now tying ropes to various trees, poles and apparatus. This is an almost daily activity for them a la circus!
The mom is homeschooling them for the year – they had to apply to take their kids out of school and were given the curriculum to follow, designed for those travelling. AND WOW. They have a lot to do. She spends 2-3 hours a day 6 or 7 days a week and is still concerned they may not finish. She told me that the writing expected of her daughter is outrageous (not in so many words) and that she’s thinking of just letting her daughter fall behind a year. Especially as she is already ahead a year of her age group. She says her daughter is in tears trying to write what is expected of her. We talked about how writing is developmental and that kids write in different styles based on their mental age and that all kids can’t be slotted into a writing curriculum. Her son will be moving on to middle school and they are quite worried about him. He’s intelligent and bored and disrupts the class. As far as I’m concerned he’s a great kid, but he is bullied at school. He doesn’t quite fit in as they don’t watch TV, he’s not into soccer and he likes to be outdoors (they live on a 15 acre farm in France) Although homeschooling is legal in France no one really does it – that she knows of. He cries a lot and doesn’t want to go to school. Let me tell you – this kid is neat! He’s like our (collective “our” as in our unschooled kids) kids….as I get to know them more and more I’ve said to her “I can’t believe you don’t homeschool your kids” She’s never really been exposed to it. She is appreciating our lifestyle although I can tell she doesn’t think I do enough with my boys. It has been nice having her here in that she drops everything to school her kids and I drop everything to read to my kids :) And do my nature walks. And look at animals at the San Diego Zoo and listen to their sounds……

Two days ago we were out in the garden planting garlic and we're talking about homeschooling. She agreed that her and her husband both don't remember much from school - all that learning for the test, and then forgetting. She like me and us wants her kids to love learning, not have it beaten out of them. The French school system is extremely strict and too full. The french culture is overscheduling kids and leaving no time for play....and they worry about this. Then she says to me, “I have just one question, What about socialization?” I said look at my kids, do they look like they have any social problems?? If anything, my kids relate better with multi aged groups than most kids. With all the woofs thru here this past summer most have been quite amazed at our kids. We've heard such things as "Your kids are never bored!" They don't watch TV much, Wow they always find something to do! Your kids are so cool! Sometimes the compliments coming from people who were initially not pro-homeschooling.....

I also had an article for her HERE. I love this article. I sent her the link – She loved it and now, sadly, she feels guilty. She realizes that her son is bullied and that she CAN do something about it. I sure hope she does. (Don’t even get me started on breastfeeding and cosleeping in France, boy she fought a lot of stigmas on that one! Thank you ZombiePrincess for that wonderful breastfeeding link here – we both laughed out loud!! The image of a grandfather waving his boob to distract fighting kids was too much!)