Another Reason We Home School

Like most home schooling families, we have many reasons for our decision to teach our children at home rather than send them to a traditional school.  We have our own educational philosophies and lifestyle preferences.  All that good stuff, and if you really want to know all the reasons we home school and the weight we give to each of those reasons, we can sit down and have a long chat someday.  In the meantime, there's this one sticky reason for home schooling that resurfaces every so often...

I think my children might flunk out of elementary school if they were in a classroom.


Okay, maybe not really.  But if you can forgive webcam induced blurriness, consider this worksheet:

If I were a classroom teacher checking this paper, I'd have to give the kid a miserably failing grade.  At best, he'd have two out of seven correct. (If the photo isn't clear enough, that first one is a completed example, so no credit for knowing you can't catch a windmill).  And no one would blame me for sending him home with a failing grade.  To all appearances, this kid needs some academic help.

Then again...

He had very good reasons for marking his paper as he did.  

Can you sit on a flagpole?  You can sit on a flagpole if it's lying on the ground, but not if its standing upright.

Will a rosebud smell sweet?  Yes, but also no, because some of them don't smell sweet.

Will a classmate sleep in a pigpen?  They MIGHT.  (This answer was confirmed when a friend told me her daughter climbs over the kennel fence to play with their dog.  You never know what a kid will do for the love of an animal!)

Are you upset if you are homesick?  I don't know.  (Being home schooled, the concept of homesickness might be a little foreign to him).

Can you bake homemade cupcakes?  I'll admit he didn't have an explanation for his dual answers on this one.  I waited for him to point out that he's not allowed to use the oven, being a kid and all, but he didn't think of that.  I guess by this point in the exercise the kid was too confused by all the trick questions - or by all the complexities he had read into the questions - to think straight.

Which brings me to the first question, having saved the best for last:  

Will a wishbone bring luck?  REALLY?!?!?!? Truthfully, I don't think this  question is at all fair.  What answer do they want?  Do they want to know what the crazy, superstitious cat lady says about wishbones, or do they want the answer of a rational human being who has discovered that breaking a wishbone brings nothing more than a further fragmented carcass to one's life? Whatever the teacher manual says, I'm glad he answered "no" to this one!

So, um...  Anyhow.  I'm thinking it's a good thing that my kid has an understanding teacher who has the time to listen to his rationale and appreciate the complexities of what appears to be a simple exercise.  I'm not saying he wouldn't find that in a classroom, of course.  I'm just awfully glad we've put him in a situation in which he has a chance to explain his offbeat answers...  and I'm secretly - or not so secretly - proud of him for seeing all the possibilities.