As we wrap up our first year of homeschooling this week, I can’t help but reflect on one thing that happened over and over this year. It was one thing that I had to go so far as to coach my kids on. Not only that, but I found out that other homeschooling families I know had the exact same problem.
“Where do you go to school?” people would often inquire. I never noticed this before, but apparently it is the equivalent of asking an adult what they do for a living. People asked it all the time.
And, then what would my kids do? They would look confused. They would start babbling incoherently and looking around the room. I would then have to chime in, “We homeschool.” And, I’m sure the asker would then think, “They are homeschooled? What kind of education are the getting — they don’t even know where they go to school!”
I had to give them a little slack, because they had always been in public school. So, they were used to have a quick answer because they knew where they went everyday. But, now, it was more confusing to them because they didn’t go to a different building for school. It didn’t matter, because frankly, I got tired of the confused babbling that made us all look like idiots, so we sat down for some coaching.
I assured the kids that people knew what homeschooling was, so if they said they were homeschooled, people would understand what that meant. (Apparently this was one of their issues — they thought they needed to explain homeschooling to other people.) Then, we rehearsed it. I would just randomly ask them, “Where do you go to school?” and I would expect that, without hesitation, they could say, “I’m homeschooled.”
It’s funny how one little talk and a little practice made a difference.
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