The crappy, cold, sunless month of February marks the halfway point of our first official year of homeschooling Belly.

When I contemplated starting a blog, I thought it would be a “homeschooling blog” in that I’d write mostly about what projects, lessons, classes, etcetera I was doing with the kids. I couldn’t do it. Writing about what the kids were learning did not excite me enough to sit up late at night tapping away at the keys (apparently writing about toilet troubles , Elton John and giant wieners does).

And yet I think about homeschooling a lot. I think about how I’m teaching different subjects, how Belly compares to her peers, our balance of homeschooler-only activities with more “mainstream” activities and how we present ourselves in public.

That last point? I think about that a lot. Because, even though there are a lot of families who have chosen our method of education in this area, we are still the minority. And there are a lot of stereotypes about us.

After watching the above “spoof”, read this, from a press release for an upcoming edition of Wife Swap:

. . .the (family) are born-again Christians who interpret the bible literally and use it as a guide for life. In the . . . family constitution, God comes first, husband. . . .comes second. The family have to serve God at all times with a cheerful heart, and they follow the words of scripture to the letter. L. . . is a stay-at-home mom who home schools her (6) children. C. . . is an ultra traditionalist father who is head of his household and calls himself the “gatekeeper,” setting the rules, enforcing discipline and expecting cheerful obedience. . . As for the girls, (Mom is) training them to be stay-at-home moms who will live out God’s calling in marriage and motherhood. Dating is not allowed for any of the children. Instead they pray daily for God to send them a spouse when the time is right. L. . .is happy to be her husband’s “help-mate,” and says that women are the weaker link. The children feel it’s ok to be at home as they feel safe, sheltered from the corrupting influences of the outside world.

We don’t fit any of these stereotypes (ok, we don’t take the kids to Hooters, but that is about it). And, yet, when people first hear we are homeschooling, I have experienced all of these reactions this year:

1. A neighbor said, “Oh, my sister-in-law homeschools her kids but they are really weird and nerdy.”
2. A mom from town said, in surprise, “I’ve never met anyone of You before!”
3. Another woman in town, with whom I was making small talk at our local ice skating rink, turned her back to me, apparently unable to find anything more to say to me.

It is important to me that people see me as a strong, independent-minded woman who wants her children to live “in” this world, not sheltered from it. Who isn’t trying to raise brain surgeons who graduate from college at 14.

I want people to see my kids and think, “gee, nice kids!” and not, “geeks” or “socially isolated”.

I know I shouldn’t care so much what other people think, but I do. But, we’re also only six months into this. Perhaps, as time goes by, I will be able to shrug off these misconceptions more easily and just get on with our lives.

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