[ High School and Self-Education Board ]
Posted by Anna on 8:33 Sep 16
In Reply to: I'm going to post under you, Anna, because posted by Carrie in NC
The only reason I said that was simply because we don't have hours of extra time to spend at the computer. The precious little time we DO have to spend on the pc, we try to spend wisely.
Honestly, I don't pay attention to what the homeschool community feels about computer time. Half of my friends are not homeschoolers and most of my girls' friends are not homeschoolers but most of their friends are like us, too busy IRL to spend that much time on the computer. Maybe it's an Orthodox thing. (i.e. Most of their friends are Orthodox Christians.) Really, it is not that I feel computers are evil or demonic things ;-).
I will say this-- When any one of us in my family spends too much time at the pc, we all feel the pull away from our family time. Other than that, my reasons for saying what I did are pretty simple and straight-forward. I think each family has to decide where and how they will spend their time. We don't do sports for the same reason- no time. I guess if sports and computer time were more important to us, we'd make more time for both of them. In our home the internet is a tool, period. People on the internet are just people, yes, but we all know that the lack of face to face interaction can be deceptive so I have taught my girls to be cautious about that.
I totally agree with you about raising dc to be independent adults. Each of my girls have their own room, each room equpped with a pc that has internet access. We check what they do on the pc but since they have been babies, we have raised them and taught them to learn how to monitor themselves to do the right thing when they are on the pc or when they are ANYWHERE away from us. My girls are in grades 12 and 10 so we won't be able to look over their shoulders for long 8-). I feel at some point, older dc need to *own* their convictions about what's right and wrong.
Carrie, maybe I'm a bit ignorant about the prejudice against computer time in the homeschooling community; it's just as well ;-). If the prejudice is a problem there, then I can see where you would get the wrong idea from my post. No offense has been taken. We have *known* each other way too long to offend.
I wish I had met Devin, too. I have a couple of books that I purchased used from her a few years ago and I will always treasure them because she told me that the books had been treasures in her home.
Peace,
Anna