You know you are a homeschooler when …

If your child get's drugs at school, it's probably Panado.

At the end of a long day you can tell how the science experiment went just by looking at the house

You have meal worms growing in a container....on purpose

If you get caught talking to yourself, you can claim you're having a PTA meeting.

Talking out loud to yourself is a parent/teacher conference.

You take off for a teacher in-service day because the principal needs clean underwear.

You can't make it through a movie without pointing out the historical inaccuracies.

The teacher gets to kiss the principal in the faculty lounge and no one gossips.

If your child claims that the dog ate his homework, you can ask the dog.

School clothes have more holes in the knees than play clothes.

The principal can give the teacher a pat on the behind and it's not harassment.

Your neighbours think you are insane.

Baking cookies for friends and family counts as math, science, geography, history, and social studies.

You’ve done a week’s worth of school in one day.

The only dress code is, “No Nudity”

School starts at 8:30, 9:05, 7:16, 8:43, … or whenever you get up.

You got out of bed after 10 and still been done with your schoolwork before the public school kids get home

You realize it's noon, and you're still in your pyjamas

You still hang out with your 12 year old brother, even though you're 19

Watching the history channel counted as history class

You come first in your class every year.

You learned all your vocabulary from reading King James Version of the Bible

You greet your friends by saying, “How art thou this morning …”

You finish your school, and then think to yourself "Yikes! today is Saturday!"

You still go to school even when you're sick.

If you have any more, please add some in the comments. Would love to hear them.

Related: Check out Is home school better than public school

Technorati Tags: Home School

First Day at School Interview

First Day at school interview by zoopy.com.

The first day at school for children of the Western Cape and Zoopy was there to cover the big day. They spoke to the pupils and their parents to find out what their first day of school meant to them.

The video interviews grade 1 pupils on their first morning at school before the bell rings. Some of these toddlers talk of their future careers and their parents talk about their school lunchbox lunch for their first day

Thanks to Zoopy.com

Wrong report cards given to matric students.

So your child brings home their report card at the end of last year. To your shock and horror you find out that they have failed and need to repeat the year. You blow your top. Your child insists that there must be some mistake, because they studied for the finals. But you point to the hard copy of the proof in front of you. They are punished, grounded, no Christmas gifts etc.

This must of been the general feeling amongst many South Africans last year. But the surprises are not finished. After the first day at school your child gets another surprise. The report card that they gave them was the wrong one. In fact your child actually passed.

This actually happened, and with some devastating consequences. We hear from friends who’s children were involved in this debacle. They told us that they know of students who tried to end their lives but taking an overdose of pills. Landing them in hospital for the Christmas season, and having them go to counselling.

All because of incompetent schools and teachers who could not be bothered to check whether they are giving out the correct results. How do you measure such a mistake. What about the emotional stress suffered. Let alone the medical bills of those poor children who saw a need to end their lives. Were some of them actually successful.

I am so glad that we home school. Where I am in control of the education of my child. I get to choose the curriculum for them. Have hands on as to what they are learning. Have experience in their education.

What are your thoughts? What would you have done in this situation? Would you have believed your child? Do you home school? What do you think of home school?

Let us know by dropping us some comments.

Technorati Tags: School,Education,Home School

How was your first day at school?

How was your first day at school? I mean you not you children. It seems that there are more emotional parents on the first day of school than there are children. It also seems that parent are more upset than their kids about going to school.

After the nice long break its back to the mad house. In our case that is more literal than one would think. As we home school. Our first day started on Monday. By that evening I had a real headache. We had a new curriculum to install onto the PC. We had to figure out how it works. It was rough.

But it has slowly turned to dome form of craziness. Yes, that is somewhat better than madness. A touch, not much though.

Home schooling is tough, despite what some might think. There is a lot of preparation, and work that goes in to it. Many choices to make. Huge responsibility.

We chose the “Switched-on Schoolhouse” Computer based curriculum this year. In the six years that we have done home schooling we have gone through three curricula. Wow I got that right See what home schooling can do for you.

Back to the curriculum. We have changed, not because the curriculum was bad, but because it did not suite us and our children. The toughest choice in a home school is what curriculum to use. Most of all I believe that it has to be one that suites your child’s needs, suites their character, and aids the parent in teaching. I will write more about curriculum choices later.

But what about you? What do you think of school in our country? With the debacle of the matric results. I mean, I know of a school where only 3 pupils passed in the entire matric class. Three, that's a disgrace.

And what about those pass results can we take them to heart. I believe a pass mark is 35% in most subjects. Wow. Would you like a doctor to work on you who knows only 35% of what he supposed to know. It does not give you any confidence in the future of our country.

We truly will become a third world country, with third world knowledge.

Our home school curriculum has set the pass rate at 70%. That means if our child gets 69% he fails. There is something about setting high standards and helping you children reach them.

Do you home school? If not would you ever consider it, and why? I would lover to know. Please drop us a comment I am sure the other readers would like to hear your side of the story.

If you have particular sad or funny or memorable story of your first day at school, share that as well.

Technorati Tags: Education,school,home school