TOP TEN REASONS FOR EDUCATING MY CHILDREN THE WAY I DO

Why is it that whenever you choose to educate your children differently people feel like they have the right to comment on your choices? It seems like when you home school, choose to be vegetarian/vegan/raw, or educate your children on the reality of drugs and sex some people act like they get to vote on (or worse, tell you) how you do that. I am really having a hard time with this lately. I am trying to keep my children as safe, healthy, and informed as possible. When I explain that I am home schooling my children or that we eat a raw diet people often look at me like I have three heads. I have had many people ask straight out, "why do you even want to do that?" My smart ass answer is "because I do."

However, my real reasons are:

1. I want my children to not only have knowledge, but wisdom. I don't only want them to know how to get an answer, but why they even care about getting an answer. I want them to know the reasons why they chose the answer the did, and the values and beliefs that helped them solve a particular problem.

2. I want them to know that not all people have the same values and beliefs that they do and that is not necessarily a bad thing.

3. I want to have an open and honest age-appropriate relationship with my children. While I want to be friendly with them, I do not want to be their best friend. I want them to know that people wear many different hats and none of those hats completely define them as a person.

4. I want them to know that all people make mistakes and all people fail at one point or another. Failure and mistakes are part of what helps us grow and learn, and we should view them as such.

5. I want them to realize that life is filled with temptations, whether they be food, sex, drugs, pornography, gambling, etc., and that even "good" people can be tempted by bad things and that does not make them bad. I want them to have as much information as possible so that when they are tempted (and they will be) they have all of the information they need to make good decisions.

6. I want them to know they, and the people they love, will not always make good decisions, but that one bad decision does not prevent them from making better ones in the future.

7. I want my children to feel good about themselves and their bodies. Their bodies are gifts and they need to treat them with great care and loving attention.

8. I want my children to learn empathy, understanding, the value of different points of view. I want them to learn how to honor their intuition, listen to others, and make up their own minds about difficult issues instead of just following the crowd.

9. I want my children to honor themselves as individuals, and individuals as they would themselves.

10. I want my children to be thankful, considerate of others, and willing to lend a helping hand to those in need.

I feel better now. Let me also say, I do not believe that home schooling, eating a raw food diet, and educating children on sex and drugs is the ONLY way to accomplish these things, but it is OUR way of accomplishing these things, and I feel very good about it.