Madeline "officially" missed her first day of kindergarten at the public school yesterday. While I don't think we ever truely considered sending her, it gave me a moment of pause to think that she was now doing something different than the majority of her peers. Then a good friend of mine called and talked about how she and her children (about the same age as mine) were doing, and the struggles and joys of raising very independent children. I was reminded of one of the many reasons we have chosen to homeschool. We do not want our independent daughters to have to conform to all of those things they must at school. We want them to learn to think for themselves, not follow the pack. We want them to develop their creativity, not get caught up in the monotony of conformity. When I think of Madeline in particular, I always think of a story I heard once about a teacher who told her student that her picture was incorrect because she drew the grass purple instead of green. I wonder how many teachers would tell her to stop coloring her grass purple instead of seeing the beauty of her creativity.
We want them to love learning for the sake of learning. Children are born with that great desire to seek out answers and information. They are great observers and learners! I always find advertisements this time of year so sad. I hope that children are not as sad about having to go back to school as the ads make you think they are. New clothes and locker decorations should not be the excitement - learning should be.
I think we will stick to being nonconformists!
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