Monday, December 22, 2008

Lesson in Economics and Life


As some of you know, by my incessant text and e-mail messages, Gabriel, Cali and I did the majority of our Christmas shopping last week. But did you know we caused quite a stir among the retail people and other shoppers?

If I had a dollar for every time a person asked my kids or I, “Why aren’t you in school?” or “Aren’t you supposed to be in school?” or “Is school out already?” I would probably come out ahead with what we spent on Christmas gifts.

When people think of homeschoolers the first thing that usually comes to mind is uneducated, out of control and rude. While I would be the first to admit my kids can get out of control, uneducated and rude I don’t tolerate. And because they are homeschooled, I expect more from my kids, and during our recent outings, they didn’t fail me once.

Every time they paid for their purchase, they said thank you and wished the clerk a Merry Christmas. (Not “Happy Holidays” like we hear so much lately) They read the name tags and those names they could pronounce the kids addressed them by name. And for every inquiry about “school” we responded that we homeschool and are learning about economics. Which when put together with Gabriel and Cali’s great manners, brought smiles to many faces around us. Isn’t that what life is about?

For me the past few days provided me with many very proud memories and reinforced the fact that my kids are indeed learning important things. Because not once did they turn away because of someone’s disability or race. And not once did they fail to respond because the other person was different. I hope we all will remember to spread the love all throughout the year, not just at Christmas.

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