Some
people say that one of the big reasons why they choose to send their children
to school is because of all the fun things they would be missing out on. Proms,
sports events, dance or music recitals, etc., You get what I mean.
But let me tell you what happened
on this rainy Thursday morning at home. It was the intramurals at the public
school across the street. There was a parade. Students were cheering for their
teams or grade levels. Of course, there were also sports events. This was one
of the rare occasions where students do not have classes and get to socialize
and play instead. It is a day a student do not want to miss. However, not every
student plays a part in all of these activities. Right after the parade, which
was a requirement for all the students to participate in, my kids’ friends came
over to our house.
The night before, James asked me if
he could go to the school to see their friends compete. Hearing the band and
all the cheers at the parade made me think that my kids were over at the
school, curious at what the intramurals is all about. But it was the other way
around.
Having a bad headache, I slept in
that morning. When I woke up, I saw my boys and two of their friends watching a
movie. “Life Is Beautiful” was playing on the screen. We already saw half of
the film and both James and Adam found it appealing. They have a lot of
questions about it. They found it very interesting, and so were their friends.
Wikipedia tells us that the movie
is about “Guido Orefice, a Jewish Italian
book shop owner, who employs his fertile imagination to shield his son from the
horrors of internment in a Nazi concentration camp.” I saw this film when I
was a kid but had forgotten most of the details, so I sat with the gang to see
the other half. Adam acted as the translator for some of the dialogue that
their friends missed. The latter part was about the character’s experiences at
the concentration camp, which showed us the unfortunate conditions of Jewish
men, women, and children during this period in history. So I kept thinking, we
already covered history, geography, language, and arts for the day. Besides, I
know that this film would create a spark that would lead to great conversations
for our family.
Being a witness to this assures me
that my children do not miss out on the fun things they might be doing in
school. First of all, the fun stuff only happen occasionally. Secondly, not all
students find them fun or interesting, as proven by this anecdote. And lastly, if
you really want your kids to participate in recitals, sports, etc., you can do
so as a homeschooler. These are available even for children who get their
education outside the walls of the classroom. In fact, if these extracurricular
activities make them light up more than anything else, they would have more
time and energy to pursue them because they do not have to sit inside the
classroom for the whole day!
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