We're supposed to be living the dream with our fancy schmancy apartment due to my husband's job in NYC... and in theory, it is going great, but the timing is wonky. We don't want to sell he house in GA and we have dogs that we can't have in the apartment, so hubby is spending a lot of time alone in NY and I am spending a lot of time alone in GA.
I am managing to keep myself busy enough with the community theatre, but this distance is just difficult. The fact that he's not exactly thrilled with his job does not help... so I am keeping an open mind about what might happen next because I certainly don't want him to stroke-out in order to make me happy with a little time in NY now and then.
I'm kind of frustrated. I need to try to enjoy my minutes in NY as much as I can while I am here because I don't know how long it will last.
Oh, and also, I am working on getting my homeschool book finished and my time in NY is the best time to work on it... so that's good thing.
How I got on the board of a Community Theatre
So after I decompressed from homeschooling (vegetated for about a year), I gave a though to what I had liked and what I did not like about the activities I'd participated in as the kids grew up. What I loved the most, was working on costumes, so I volunteered for a few local theatre and eventually, found one that would allow me to costume and learn at the same time. That was just what I needed.A year later, and a few hundred costumes later, I was asked to join the board. Hmmm... Ok. Not easy, but important. Cool.
So that is where we are right now. I love this place. I love the people. I love how we entertain, encourage, and include the community. I want to help raise money for our little theatre, so we can be a big theatre and we can get more kids engaged, we can get more community members creating. We can make more people like me more involved in the community.
With that said, here is the link to my fundraising page.
https://www.gagivesday.org/c/GGD/a/liveartstheatre/p/ahermitt
This is just one of several fundraising pages for Live arts. Today is GA Gives Day (Nov 12). Please give if you are moved at all. I thank you and Live arts thanks you.
Ps. If you want to visit the main GA Gives Day page for Live Arts, please note that I worked on most of the costumes show.
Thanks.
(main page: https://www.gagivesday.org/c/GGD/a/liveartstheatre/)
Is racism leading to homeschooling?
Apparently, yes.
According to the Washington Post, "the reasons for black kids to be homeschooled may not be the same as for white kids. (Ama Mazama's research) shows that black parents homeschool their children due to white racism."
Problems include:
Covert Institutionalized racism
Eurocentric teachers' attitudes
Racial stereotypes of black children
Harsh school punishments
As a former public school parent who is black and has black children, I can attest to many of these problems. We certainly experienced them. The worst for us was the racial stereotypes of my family in general. When we moved to GA, for example, there weren't many black families in our kids school, and it was abundantly clear that the staff had ideas about black people and just assumed that those things were true about us. I had people purchase my kids' field trip shirts because they assumed we could not. ( I'm pretty sure we made more than those folks.) I had teachers thank my husband for having lunch with his kids and ask him when was the last time he saw them (as if we were divorced). I had teachers tell me how they "understood" how hard it was to be a single parent. Since I was married, I had no idea why they would say that to me.
In short, I felt that they had low expectations about us as people, and so also had low expectations for our kids. So while we may have not realized it at the time, racism may have had something to do with while we pulled the kids out of school.
According to the Washington Post, "the reasons for black kids to be homeschooled may not be the same as for white kids. (Ama Mazama's research) shows that black parents homeschool their children due to white racism."
Problems include:
Covert Institutionalized racism
Eurocentric teachers' attitudes
Racial stereotypes of black children
Harsh school punishments
As a former public school parent who is black and has black children, I can attest to many of these problems. We certainly experienced them. The worst for us was the racial stereotypes of my family in general. When we moved to GA, for example, there weren't many black families in our kids school, and it was abundantly clear that the staff had ideas about black people and just assumed that those things were true about us. I had people purchase my kids' field trip shirts because they assumed we could not. ( I'm pretty sure we made more than those folks.) I had teachers thank my husband for having lunch with his kids and ask him when was the last time he saw them (as if we were divorced). I had teachers tell me how they "understood" how hard it was to be a single parent. Since I was married, I had no idea why they would say that to me.
In short, I felt that they had low expectations about us as people, and so also had low expectations for our kids. So while we may have not realized it at the time, racism may have had something to do with while we pulled the kids out of school.
Checking in with Adult homeschooled kids
So how are they doing?
They are OK, and maybe a bit too evolved for other people their age. Seriously, they are doing just fine navigating the real world, but they are not necessarily in sync with their age mates around them. And they are OK with that. And I am OK with that too.
Let's see if I can explain.
My 21 year old, seems very much like a normal 21 year old male. He keeps his personal life close to his chest because that's "private". He is very close to his family members, such as his sister and cousins, and honestly, that's how I get the 911 on my son. But that thing that is most clearly apparent about him is that he doesn't have any patience for nonsense... by nonsense I mean bad behavior in general. Rule breaking, lack of consideration, rudeness, meanness. He lives on a college campus. These things happen around him all the time. He typically just avoids it and will not participate. My guess is that he was not desensitized to either put up with or ignore this behavior because he was homeschooled, so as an adult, when he sees bad behavior, he can be a bit judgmental. At least he's typically quiet about it. Typically.
My daughter is similar but different. She is a rule bender and a rule breaker, if she thinks a rule needs breaking. She especially has a distaste for arbitrary rules that might be made up by an instructor, boss, or friend. No-can-do. If the rule does not sit well with her she will challenge it, or she will find a way to opt out of the situation that involves the rule. They may also be a side effect of homeschooling because we would also say "this..... does not work for me", and then move on. Whatever the thing was, whether it was curriculum, an extracurricular, a group, or a club, if it did not serve us in a positive way, we would remove ourselves from it. And we were OK with it. But as a young adult, others might see her as a quitter or noncommittal because she's not just jumping on anyone's bandwagon.
At the same time, she is also kind of annoyed with the majority of people her age. Words she uses are entitled, impatient, and negative. She says that her generation is quicker to complain about something than to come up with a solution. That is draining... especially when you are surrounded by it on a college campus.
Am I saying that my kids are more adult and evolved because they were homeschooled? Maybe. They are certainly different, and did not learn a lot of the negative behaviors that were enforced in school and they so they don't and won't participate in them.
Besides that, they are normal, everyday, young adults. Who, unless someone points it out, no one would even know they were homeschooled... however, they would probably volunteer that information.
They are OK, and maybe a bit too evolved for other people their age. Seriously, they are doing just fine navigating the real world, but they are not necessarily in sync with their age mates around them. And they are OK with that. And I am OK with that too.
Let's see if I can explain.
My 21 year old, seems very much like a normal 21 year old male. He keeps his personal life close to his chest because that's "private". He is very close to his family members, such as his sister and cousins, and honestly, that's how I get the 911 on my son. But that thing that is most clearly apparent about him is that he doesn't have any patience for nonsense... by nonsense I mean bad behavior in general. Rule breaking, lack of consideration, rudeness, meanness. He lives on a college campus. These things happen around him all the time. He typically just avoids it and will not participate. My guess is that he was not desensitized to either put up with or ignore this behavior because he was homeschooled, so as an adult, when he sees bad behavior, he can be a bit judgmental. At least he's typically quiet about it. Typically.
My daughter is similar but different. She is a rule bender and a rule breaker, if she thinks a rule needs breaking. She especially has a distaste for arbitrary rules that might be made up by an instructor, boss, or friend. No-can-do. If the rule does not sit well with her she will challenge it, or she will find a way to opt out of the situation that involves the rule. They may also be a side effect of homeschooling because we would also say "this..... does not work for me", and then move on. Whatever the thing was, whether it was curriculum, an extracurricular, a group, or a club, if it did not serve us in a positive way, we would remove ourselves from it. And we were OK with it. But as a young adult, others might see her as a quitter or noncommittal because she's not just jumping on anyone's bandwagon.
At the same time, she is also kind of annoyed with the majority of people her age. Words she uses are entitled, impatient, and negative. She says that her generation is quicker to complain about something than to come up with a solution. That is draining... especially when you are surrounded by it on a college campus.
Am I saying that my kids are more adult and evolved because they were homeschooled? Maybe. They are certainly different, and did not learn a lot of the negative behaviors that were enforced in school and they so they don't and won't participate in them.
Besides that, they are normal, everyday, young adults. Who, unless someone points it out, no one would even know they were homeschooled... however, they would probably volunteer that information.
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12 grade year of homeschooling, Finishing Strong
We are almost done with my college prep series. There will still be a video on completing the transcript. Stay tuned... meanwhile, ...
