Monday, August 19, 2013

Over Sheltered?

This last week I ran into a new situation. Z~girl volunteers on a farm in the spring and fall, but this summer she did several times when other kids were not able to show up. (the farm reserves the summer for "school" kids and the other seasons for homeschoolers) Evidently the kids learn different things in the summer than she does. Anyway, the night after she had volunteered I could tell something was seriously wrong from my mama radar. So I asked her. Then she started to sob. The kind where you can't catch your breath which is unusual for her.

She said "While I was there today I got fussed at!" Evidently she had read some feeding directions wrong and almost gave a goat the wrong amount of food. It made me realize that seriously...no one had ever fussed at her before besides her dad and I. In preschool she had never gotten in trouble (she saved it for us ;) and when she has went to Sunday school she is normally so quiet she couldn't possibly get in trouble, LOL.

It just seems odd to get to 12 and never be fussed at by an outside person. I was a pretty compliant kid in school but I know that I got fussed at plenty through my school years. It makes me wonder if that could indicate that she has been over sheltered a bit? How does one get a little "tough" if not exposed to certain things?

The only thing that really bothered me about her getting fussed at is a comment the supervising woman said that was very inappropriate I think. She said "I know you must know how to read!" Who says that to a kid? Plus, would she have said that to a regularly schooled child? :( I must say Z did say the woman came back later and apologized as evidently this task wasn't even something she had regularly done. And gosh. She's only 12! So I'm not sure if the reason she was SO upset was the reading comment. She reads probably 4 hours a day..at least. hahah! I think it really insulted her.


This picture shows one of the many reasons I love homeschooling. (I need to take more photos like this) Whenever Z is done with her online curriculum in the morning or has finished an online writing tutorial she goes into unschooling mode. We have several gaming systems she could play, hundreds of movies, and netflix but more often than not what she chooses is educational. She prefers to read, crochet, draw or take care of her pets rather than TV and games. I like that. :)

1 comment:

  1. LOVE the photo! And we very much enjoy our unschooling moments here too! It's wonderful to see our kids learning because they WANT too! :)

    Katie

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