tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17019672.post4730686640868725564..comments2024-03-25T02:43:49.115-05:00Comments on Karen Edmisten: Finding support for homeschoolingKaren Edmisten http://www.blogger.com/profile/04446214835142625161noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17019672.post-87913854103713101082007-09-14T15:14:00.000-05:002007-09-14T15:14:00.000-05:00Thanks for all the feedback and great comments! A...Thanks for all the feedback and great comments! And, yes, Beck, you're it. :-) And here I thought I was being clever and discreet.Karen Edmisten https://www.blogger.com/profile/04446214835142625161noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17019672.post-70205681864368750542007-09-13T23:43:00.000-05:002007-09-13T23:43:00.000-05:00I just had to add that today my one "supportive" f...I just had to add that today my one "supportive" friend came up to me to ask about homeschooling. Her oldest daughter who is the same age as my oldest is struggling in the school environment (same school that we use). I finally felt confident and knowlegeable enough to let her know my experience so far.<BR/><BR/>Today was a good day. Somebody verified my own struggles with the school my childen were in(2 still attend). It made me feel empowered!momto5minnieshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17613910555331899148noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17019672.post-13438246475497084032007-09-13T06:22:00.000-05:002007-09-13T06:22:00.000-05:00I really needed to read something like this. This...I really needed to read something like this. This year is very "different" for me. I have two in school, three at home (well only 2 school-aged). Many days I feel all alone. I do have 2 friends that really understand my decisions, but most probably can't see it ... even the priest at our parish/school. I do belong to the local "Christian" homeschool group, but I don't feel like I fit in their either. When I first started the homeschool thoughts, I met a few Catholic homeschoolers ... very nice, but also "different" than myself.<BR/><BR/>It's such a struggle sometimes to find ones place in the world. Most days I feel like I need to make my own path.momto5minnieshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17613910555331899148noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17019672.post-88591435611045664922007-09-12T19:32:00.000-05:002007-09-12T19:32:00.000-05:00Hee! Am I the online friend? I loved this post. An...Hee! Am I the online friend? I loved this post. And I love how much support people have shown me for my desires to homeschool - that's wonderful. This is an imformative, helpful post - thank you so much.Beckhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13953517447164263617noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17019672.post-82696307492646010012007-09-12T14:56:00.000-05:002007-09-12T14:56:00.000-05:00Karen, We too went through the years with no kindr...Karen, We too went through the years with no kindred spirits, to years of many kindred spirits, to essentially losing those kindred spirits when we became Catholic. Our homeschool journey was nearly done at that point anyway and we still maintained tenuous ties until Abby finished high school. Ironically, the only close friends I have within our parish are now homeschooling (they weren't even open to it when I became Catholic, but sought out my support when they decided to begin) and I teach their kids weekly through the school year.<BR/><BR/>I think that your experiences with homeschooling and the struggle to find supportive friends has paralleled our experiences in the Church. Perhaps if all of us had become Catholic together, if we were doing the typical parish stuff, it might be different, I don't know. I know that Abby has found a far different experience in the Burlington area where she has people she knows in nearly every parish. She finds our parish to be not very friendly and feels no particular connection to our priests, while she feels a great connection to various priests in Chittenden county. <BR/><BR/>I think that for me the lack of a truly close friend in the area is sometimes one of the most difficult things. However, this is really not so much due to being Catholic, or being a homeschooler as it is due to the fact that I am simply more bookish than most of the people I know. The few people who are readers at all are more interested in the current book on the NY Times best seller list than in Chesterton, Wangrin, Belloc, Lewis, Williams, Howard, Sayers, or even Tolkien. I have had to create among teenagers and twenty somethings a group of people whom I can talk with about those authors and their ideas. This group is not a formal group, it's simply young people whom I occasionally get together with (individually, not collectively). As nice as that is, the fact is that twenty-somethings lack the experience of life to really be the sort of kindred spirit that I could sit down with over a cup of tea and a piece of chocolate cream pie to commiserate, to talk about mystical theology, romantic theology, the nature of poetry, the relationship of fantastical literature to our spiritual lives, etc. (oh and maybe the difficulties of changing bodies and the joys and pains of life with adult children as well).<BR/><BR/>What I find, like you in your homeschooling adventures, is that there isn't one person who can do all that, but that sometimes there are numbers of people who can do some of it. So I live with the twenty somethings for discussions and fall back on other people for the more mundane conversations. I also probably simply have fewer of the supportive encounters than I did as a young mom in La Leche League. <BR/><BR/>It is possible to homeschool without much support outside of the family other than books. I know because that's the way our early years were. It's great to have the big supportive group. I know because we had that as well. There truly are advantages to each scenario. Having no particular group can keep you from isolating from the rest of the world or it can lead to isolation. Having a support group can bring opportunities or it can become a millstone around your neck as it creates too much busyness or becomes a social clique. <BR/><BR/>I suspect that the same is true in my case. It would be far too easy to escape into a Catholic ghetto with my one or two good friends and let my other acquaintances simply go their own merry pagan or Protestant way. As it is I'm simply too social to isolate and so I have to continue connections with people who are often less than kindred spirits. I don't have the option of going to a more favorable location because I am as locked in place as a monk vowed to stability.<BR/><BR/>We find support and friends where we can and when the encounters are infrequent they are cherished all the more.Lizhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05127202199834183627noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17019672.post-49410997929940999312007-09-12T13:44:00.000-05:002007-09-12T13:44:00.000-05:00Great topic, Karen. We all need to look for that s...Great topic, Karen. We all need to look for that support. It would be very difficult to survive without it!Jane Ramseyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13456875269041136328noreply@blogger.com