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The Fear of Missing Out If You Homeschool

                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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