NotSheep

I got tagged by Hazel. I think this meme is intended for families who lean more towards school-at-home, but I’ll give it a go.

1) ONE HOMESCHOOLING BOOK YOU HAVE ENJOYED
I’m not sure what this means - a book about homeschooling? A textbook that we’ve used? I couldn’t really choose. I suppose if I had to choose one book about education, it would probably be How Children Fail by John Holt. Or maybe Free Range Education.

2) ONE RESOURCE YOU WOULDN’T BE WITHOUT
It seems a lot of people have said “the internet”, and while I will agree with them, it might be for different reasons. The internet is what keeps me sane. It’s where most of the home-education support I’ve received has come from. It’s where I connect with other people who think similarly to me (because there aren’t very many of them around here).

Some of the others who’ve done this have said the internet answers all the questions they can’t answer. Well, I’m here to tell you that it doesn’t. I spent nearly two hours in a car with Jack this evening - just him and me - and I can tell you that the internet couldn’t have answered one-tenth of what he asked. “Why is that bridge there?” “Why are we not on that bridge?” “Is this a motorway? Why is it not a motorway?” “Why are you not driving faster? I like faster.” “Why does that man in the mokorbike put his foot on the ground when he is stopped?” “Where are they going?” (this said with an expansive sweep of his hand to encompass the perhaps-300 cars we could see at that moment). I actually encouraged him to sing the Bananaphone song, just to stop him from asking questions for a couple of minutes.

Believe me, the internet is wonderful. But Jack might make it implode some day.

3) ONE RESOURCE YOU WISH YOU HAD NEVER BOUGHT
I can’t actually think of anything. I’m sure there are lots, but my brain is fried (see answer to #2).

4) ONE RESOURCE YOU ENJOYED LAST YEAR
I think it would have to be our local science centre, which probably isn’t what the person who made up this meme had in mind when they wrote this question. I’m also thinking “year” as in “2005″, since we don’t do “school years”.

5) ONE RESOURCE YOU WILL BE USING NEXT YEAR
I wrote a post recently about what we’re using now (amongst other things). I don’t know what we’ll be using in 2007. Home-education is a bit like that

6) ONE RESOURCE YOU WOULD LIKE TO BUY
A bigger house, with a library. And a study. And soundproof walls. And a maid.

7) ONE RESOURCE YOU WISH EXISTED
The money for #6. Though more home-ed families locally would be even better.

ONE HOMESCHOOLING CATALOGUE YOU ENJOY READING
I’ve never even touched a “homeschooling catalogue”. Those I’ve seen on-line tend to carry resources which are… er… not really my thing. I think the closest thing to a home-ed catalogue that has passed through my hands is probaby the Opitec one

9) ONE HOMESCHOOLING WEBSITE YOU USE REGULARLY
There aren’t any that I use regularly. There are a lot that I’ve bookmarked so that I can find them when I need something specific, but they aren’t all home-ed sites, and I don’t visit any of them regularly. Unless you count email lists. Not that I’m on very many of those, oh no, not me.

10) TAG FIVE OTHER HOMESCHOOLERS
I think nearly everyone I would tag has either been tagged or would be offended by the term “homeschooler”, so I’ll just say: if you haven’t been tagged elsewhere and you want to do this, go ahead and do it. Let me know in the comments