You guessed it, this post is all about things that bug me.
1. People who home school without a plan. I watch a lot of You Tuber's and many of them home school their kids. Now that's not a bad thing if you have a plan, if you follow a program, if you are making sure that you are teaching your kids properly and that you are making sure your kids have a chance to socialize properly. One family I watch lives in Utah, they have 9 children, some of which are adopted. They are by their own admission "unschooling" their kids. I asked if they follow a curriculum daily and was told "no, our kids are responsible for education at their own pace, we encourage them to do what they enjoy and not get caught in the binds of a strict state designed curriculum. Most given days the kids are "playing", building forts, chasing one another outside, going on hikes with the mom and dad, making jewelry, yada, yada, yada. They do not take state mandated exams and it is up to the parents to decide when they are ready to graduate. HOW CAN THIS BE OK? The other day on a trip to a big box store looking for a gift for their dad, one of the young daughters, who appears to be about 12 years old did not know what an outside Thermometer was used for (something you might learn if you went to school) she by the way spend much of her time making earrings to sell. Another son recently who is old enough to have two jobs went in to the thrift store looking for toys that he is obviously to old for and he was being dropped off at work early because he was bored, there was nothing to do at home (how about Math, Science, or Reading). I guess Utah does not have any strict guidelines for home schooling, in my opinion they need some. The good thing I've seen now is that they have enrolled their youngest two in school for a bevy of reasons, both have speech problems as they were born in another country, one of them is down syndrome and cannot guide herself in education, this makes me happy. Then their oldest who would be a senior in high school has decided to go to school for all electives in things he enjoys, apparently the school is OK with his having done all his core work on his own, I guess some schooling is better than none. Then today they mentioned two of the middle aged kids have decided to go to school on a short day program, thank goodness. I believe those kids are bored stiff and need some socialization outside of their home and church activities, sometimes when their parents turn the camera on them and ask them what they are up to they say "nothing". What makes me really sad is that so many people think this is the way to go and it worries me that we are raising a generation of self indulged kids with no idea how to work with time restraints and schedules. Kids need structure, they need guidance and discipline and they need to know they can't live their whole lives getting up when they please, working if they feel like it, learning if they "like" it and not just because it's what will help them in the future. If you're going to home school, do it right and don't think your little ones can "do it on their own without their parents guiding them, they cannot".
2. Contractors really drive me crazy, mostly because they work on their own schedules and never show up on time. We've had them here a few times over the past few weeks, lots of "we'll be there by such and such a time", they they either don't show up at all or they literally show up hours later. There's nothing we can do though, we certainly need their skills.
3. Cell Phones at the Dinner Table, it drives me insane especially when everyone has one pulled out to text, check Face book, emails etc. and no one speaks. Put your DANG Phone away for 20 minutes.
4. Bugs, bug me ... especially when you live in a condominium and the association should take care of treating for the little and big pests and they sit on it. Spray, treat ... kill them and make sure they don't come in my house.
Sorry nothing super positive, just a few things on my mind that I needed to get out of there.
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