How early is too early to send your children away?
I have a bee in my bonnet....I guess you could say I've been inspired again. And I'm sure to step on some toes with this topic, but here goes. I was once the mom of YOUNG children. My children are still young, but what I'm referring to is ages 2, 3 and 4.
Once upon a time I sent Sweet Pea 1 to a Mother's Day Out program. Some places call it Mother's Morning Out. Popeye and I knew by the time Sweet Pea 1 was 6 months old that we were going to homeschool him. We had prayed about it and were shown what we were to do. And, yet, I put him in this program. He was 2.75. He cried and cried for first few weeks each day when I would leave him. He attended from January of that year until May. Then I found ANOTHER one for him to go to during the summer. The Lord sent someone into my life who called me on it. "If you are going to homeschool, why are you putting him in MDO? Why not have him home with you?" OUCH!!! And I still love this friend of mine. But she had a really good point. So, after leaving Sweet Pea 1 crying at this new place where he knew NO ONE, I kept him home....he is now 8 and has been home every since.
My point to all this? WHY did I even want to put him in MDO to start with? Because everyone else was doing it? Because I needed some time to run errands without him? I think I did it because it was what all the moms I knew were doing. And since when did *I* do what everyone else does????? I'm usually the "rebel". Is there this pressure from society to "conform"? I think so.
I think all this was brought to my attention today because I have a friend who has asked me about homeschooling and yet she is sending her daughters to a Christian private school. Her daughters are 3 and 4. She feels the need to "prepare" her 4 yr old to go back to K4 in a few weeks. She feels the need to work with the 3 yr old. The 3 yr old does not WANT to write her name. The 4 yr old knew how to write her name when she was in K3. Who invented K3 anyway????? A government trying to brainwash our children earlier and earlier??? This REALLY gets my goat! I love my friend, and tried to tell her to just chill out....when R. wants to write, she will. Yes, she is different than her older sister. Sweet Pea 2 is VERY different than Sweet Pea 1; it just comes with the territory I believe.
So just be aware of what you're doing and why and if you don't want to hear what I have to say, don't ask, ok?
posted by Anonymous @ 12:55 PM
2 Comments:
I had a group of friends like that when J was little. I didn't do MDO and they looked at me as if I were crazy. Then I didn't do 3K, and they thought I was a martyr. When I didn't do 4K, they decided I needed some intervention and gave me phamplets for church schools and private schools. When we didn't do 5k, they stopped talking to me. Actually, they stopped talking to me when they would complain about the 5K classes and I would ask..."Then why would you send them there?"
Granted there are some kids that need to be away from their dead-beat parents ASAP and fed, clothed, and educated by the government...my kids aren't them. (and neither were these kids. their parent just bought into the :government school" line.
Sorry, I wrote a book.
I think this pushing kids into earlier and earlier education is a sign of deep seated insecurities in the parents.
It plays out either A) because the parents deep down don't believe they're very smart (maybe school made them feel stupid?) and so they want to avoid that for their kids by trying every possible advantage; or b) because the parents are highly educated and deep down believe that this is the ONLY good and worthy thing about them. Either way - you end up with little babies being flash-carded instead of peekabooing & the whole earlier is better, and you need 2nd language early, and violin early yadayadayada.
It's crazy and sad. And hs'ers are not immune to it. I see it play out sometimes with parents who are just a little TOO obsessed with their kids' performance in hs'ing.
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