Four Things I'm Complaining About (they are all about new homeschoolers)

You are looking into the maw of homeschooling, gazing into its dark soul, as it were, and you're bleating in every group 'help!  help!  I need to know what to do!'  Listen, dear, we're all doing that.  Everyone. Is. Doing. That.  This is what regular homeschoolers do every single year!  

1.  I really wish that people would stop asking, in almost every homeschool group I'm a part of, how to deal with socialization of their kids in September in the light of the worldwide pandemic.  Listen, these are your options:

a) you can meet with people.
b) you can continue to not meet with people, but interact with them not in-person.

So to recap, you can go see people/places/whatever, following the guidelines set out.  Or breaking the rules, I suppose, although I like to think this isn't what these parents are asking about.  Or, you can not do that, and rely on online classes, Zoom meetings, and whatever else is out there.

I'm not sure if all of these parents are looking for some unheard of magical third way to socialize that is neither in person nor through technology, or what?  Two hot air balloons side by side?  The tin-can telephone?  Yodelling?  Stop asking this question, though.  It's very aggravating.

2.  I'm going to say this one pretty slowly here, because I didn't realize it was a question that so very many people had, but here you go:

If your kid cannot do A, then you should teach them A, and not move on to B. Here are some ways that works!  If your 9 year old cannot read, as one concerned parent in a group recently mentioned, then what you do 'for school' is teach your child how to read.  No, put the geography curriculum down.

3.  For the love of pete can we all please agree to pause the conversation about how Tasha is going to get into college as a homeschooler?  Tasha is seven.

4.  Here is an example of something that is not appropriate for a homeschooling discussion group:

Hi, parents!  My name is Jeff Jefferjeff and I'm a licensed teacher.  Would anyone be interested in having me teach an online Zoom class for elementary students?

Hi, Mr. Jefferjeff!  Just fyi, this is a homeschooling group.  While homeschoolers come in all flavours, this may not be the best place to advertise your distance ed services!