I just about died reading this. Great writing!

Thanks for coming out of lurking. And thanks for reading.

I’ve read you for a long time. I probably found you through Doc, but it’s been so long, I don’t remember.

We don’t have a lot in common (except the part about Law-and-Order reruns), but I always enjoy what you have to say.

I just wanted to get out of the “lurk” mode and say hello.

And I’m always glad to hear of people who homeschooled K-12 and say that it worked great and their kids are doing great. It keeps me going.

As for the fundamentalist part, the answer is twofold:

1. No, I don’t take offense to born again christians in general. I’ve found that there are various levels of fundamentalist. And I’m friends with a good number of fundys — the kind that will actually be friends with me, that is. There are, of course, a great many fundys who hate more than they love. It’s sad, but true. I take offense to them, because honestly? I can’t imagine God would approve of that for them. For anyone. To hate more than you love. To define yourself in terms of the wrongness of others. To blatantly assume to know the mind of God, to know the opinion of God, and to pass judgement upon others for that assumption. These are the things I take offense at.

And 2: I put that in my “about” blurb also because I like to poke fun at the fact that most people assume (wrongly) that all homeschoolers are crazy fundamentalists. I poke fun at this because it’s what I, myself, used to think about homeschoolers before I actually researched it on my own and found out how wrong I was.

I hope this answers your questions. And many thanks for reading and coming to visit.

- RM

I was visiting Blog Nosh reading a piece by a friend and happened to notice your post because of the homeschooling label. I could not help but smile as I read because I could so relate to all the questions and pressures and excess contact/activities you are facing as a homeschool mother.

My adventure as a homeschool mom started in the early 1980′s when it was something that hardly anyone had heard of. In fact, for the first 4 years I didn’t have to worry about group activities because there WERE no groups to join! ha It has been a full ten years now since my last child graduated (yes….I taught them from kindergarten through 12th grade) and I am still glad….and so are they…..that we homeschooled. All three of my kids earned a full 2-year scholastic scholarship to our local community college and each of them shines in their chosen field. Don’t ever let anyone try to tell you that homeschooled children are missing out on education. And certainly not on socialization! Most homeschoolers are able to interact with any age group, whether a lot younger, the same age, or a lot older than they are.

I hope these will be great years of bonding for you and your children. They just grow up so very fast!

Only one other thing…..I guess you could say that I am one of those ‘born-again fundamentalist’ people you mentioned. Could not tell if you have issues with Christians in general or if it was just a passing comment. Whatever, I’m glad that it’s not just the ‘crazy fundamentalists’ anymore that are homeschooling!

A Homeschool Mom Emeritis…..Marilyn

Glad to see you here. Love your nickname, too!