may the next generation be better at spelling

Earlier this week I purchased a jean skirt. I was on the fence about it because I was worried it would be too modest and I don't want to head down that path. I wore long jean skirts and dresses many a time in my past and they weren't really outfits I'd like to repeat. Recently I've seen many a fashion bloggers very fashionably wearing a knee-length skirt so I bit the bullet and bought one. Everyone knows an outfit seen on a slim and trim instagram model will look exactly the same on a 30-year-old mom who forgot to go to zumba two times this week. 

ALL THAT TO SAY, the purchase lined up with the start of my homeschool mom career. Christopher has gotten a lot of milage to jokes about homeschool moms in jean jumpers with their fourteen children in matching clothes trailing behind. I almost canceled my purchase. (To be honest, I did buy it from a boutique owned by a Christian homeschooling family but that was just a coincidence.)

As a homeschooled child, I heard all the stereotypes and misconceptions. I heard surprise that I knew how to socialize and had friends who weren't homeschooled. Random people would quiz me about presidents and math facts. No one dares do the same to public schooled children! I was told how to raise my hand if I had something to say, as if I didn't know. I was asked if I, or someone I knew, was in spelling or geography bees. I wasnt bcauz Im bad at spelin, but I knew a boy who went to the finals of the National Spelling Bee. I can't count the number of times I heard, "I knew someone who was homeschooled and he was rude/a failure/could never get a real job." That can be said about students from every educational background. People asked if I spent the day doing whatever I wanted or if homeschooled kids were allowed into college. Everyone thought they were so clever to ask, "if you don't get all your schoolwork done, do you have homework?"

As a second-generation homeschooler, AB wants to set the record straight from the beginning.