Monday Q&A | Aldi Ethics plus Homeschooling
Every Monday, I answer a few questions from my readers. Well, at least most Mondays I do. Except for when I have a raging case of conjunctivitis.
If you have a question you'd like me to answer in a future edition of Q&A, you can leave a comment here on this post, or you can email me (thefrugal girl {at} gmail {dot} com). If you choose to email me, I'd love it if you would put "Q&A" in the subject line.
Therese sent this question to me.
When doing your grocery budget, how do you balance cheap food with `good' food (substitute for `good' whatever your personal preference may be: organic, local, fairtrade, ethically grown, fair working conditions etc.?)
I've been tracing my food budget for a while, and we appear to be spending about $700 per month on groceries (for a family of five.) But really, I don't think I could do much less without sacrificing some of the above. (We buy about 75% organic and 75% local, and in my experience organic costs about twice as much, especially for meat and dairy.) Also, I don't buy at Walmart or the $-store, and I'd hesitate to buy at Aldi if I had one here, because I'm doubtful about their employee practices.
I wrote about the organic/green versus cheap dilemma a little while ago, and you can read that post here. In a nutshell, I think that if you can manage to afford organic and local food, I think that's a very worthy thing to spend money on. It's certainly better to buy peaches from a local farm than to buy yet another purse made in China. And on the other hand, if you can't afford to be that choosy about what you buy, there are a myriad of ways to live responsibly that don't require a lot of money (things like line-drying, bringing reusable bags when you go shopping, and saving electricity).
I do want to address the comment about Aldi, though. From what I've read and heard, Aldi seems to be quite employee friendly. I think they pay their employees a fair wage (although of course there is a limit to how highly paid a grocery checker will be), and I'm guessing that their pared down business model allows them to pay more than the average grocery store. My particular store has only 7 employees, including the manager.
Since I received this question, I've made a habit of asking the employees how they like working at Aldi. So far, I haven't gotten a negative comment, and more than one employee has mentioned that their work experience at Aldi has been a lot better than at other grocery stores.
I can't speak for every Aldi store, as I'm sure the environment varies from store to store, but I feel just as comfortable supporting my local Aldi as I do supporting most any other grocery store. In fact, I feel better about supporting Aldi, since their business model is far less wasteful than other stores. Among other things, they save electricity in a variety of ways, they reduce waste by stocking a limited number of fast-selling items, and they don't hand out paper or plastic bags for free (having to pay for bags encourages people to bring their own).
I do shop very occasionally at Wal-Mart, but mostly I avoid it like the plague. That's not so much out of a virtuous desire to support other more worthy companies, but is motivated more by my dislike of the crowds, the lines, and the big-ness of the place. I like Aldi so much better...it's smaller, I can park right by the store (which is a huge boon when you are trying to herd four children safely through a parking lot), and there are never long lines.
This one is from Melissa.
I've been following your blog for awhile now and have picked up that you homeschool your kids. I have a 6 month old at home right now and am considering homeschooling him (and his future siblings) when he gets older. I was wondering... How long have you been homeschooling? How did you get started? Did you (or do you) face any opposition from family, friends, husband, kids, school district, etc? Do you have a separate "school" room in your house? Do you have a set schedule that you follow every day? And lastly about what you teach...how do you handle teaching different aged kids? Does each child have their own lessons or do you do some together?
Lots of questions! I'll try to answer them one by one.
1) I've been homeschooling since my oldest started kindergarten back in 2004. However, I was homeschooled from 1st-12th grade, so homeschooling is in my blood! I would probably have been more confused about how to get started with sending them to public school. 😉
2) I've faced very, very little in the way of opposition, since my family is quite obviously in favor of homeschooling. Although my husband is not from a homeschooling family, my in-laws haven't had any objections to the way we're raising and educating our kids either. And my husband was actually in favor of homeschooling his future children before he even met me, so thankfully that never been an issue.
3) I live in a state that is quite homeschooling friendly, so the school district has not been a problem. The laws on homeschooling vary widely from state to state, though, so you'd want to research the laws in your home state to see what they require.
4) We don't have a separate school room, mostly because we don't have an extra room! The kids do school at the kitchen table, in the office, in the living room, in their rooms, and sometimes even outside. We don't do a really formal type of homeschooling, although I know some homeschoolers operate sort of like a one-room-schoolhouse. We're just a little more relaxed than that.
5) While we don't have a set schedule, I'd say we have sort of loose routines. Generally speaking, we try to start school right away after breakfast, and we usually get math out of the way first. However, on the days that I teach piano in the mornings, we don't start school until the afternoon, and sometimes we go grocery shopping in the morning and do school later. I do make school a high priority, though, and the kids are not usually allowed to play and go outside until their work is finished.
6) The question about teaching different age groups is a good one. If I had to function like a regular school teacher while managing multiple grades, I would probably go crazy! Once my kids can read, though, they can do a lot of their work on their own. They read the book, follow the instructions, and if they get confused, they come and see me for help. This way, only the youngest kid needs my full attention. I think that learning to read the book and figure it out for themselves is a really helpful skill that will serve my children well in their college and adult years. I know it has been for me.
7) My kids do a lot of their work individually, but we do some things as a group. I read out loud to them all together, we do our catechism work together (even Zoe joins in), and this fall, I plan to do a study of the 50 states with all three kids (Zoe is not old enough for school yet, although I'm sure she'll participate with us to some degree).
Hi Kristen,
The Q&A about homeschooling came at a great time! I currently have a 4 year old son who will be in "kindergarten" a year from this fall, and my daughter the year following that. I had planned on homeschooling for k-12 myself, but due to some unforseen circumstances, will be in school myself for three more years, but will be blessed with a good paying job that doesn't have me out of the house but two days a week. 🙂 So, how would you, or anyother readers, feel about having your children in K through maybe 2nd...? Any pros or cons you could think of? Or advise? I plan to bring them home when I am done with schoool.
I seem to remember reading that Aldi pays their employees well. They are able to do so because of the low overhead. However, I'm not a fan of Aldi simply because they are German owned. I have nothing against Germany, but would much rather spend my money in a store based in the USA. 🙂
Aldi and Trader Joes ( an upscale green and organic type place) are owned by the same company. It cracks me up when people fear shopping at Aldi, especially if they are tj fans.
I have a follow up question about homeschooling. I've always been curious about how home school moms handle things like calculus etc. I know that text does not convey tone so let me assure you this comment does not have a derogatory tone. I've just always wondered how a home schooling mom handles the lessons and questions that will come with the more advanced subjects that are taught in the high school years.
@Stephanie
I had planned on homeschooling my 3 kids, but then when my oldest daughter was 5 and I started trying to teach her...I realised I am not gifted with patience or the ability to teach! I tried for 6 months and then gave up. The following Fall, I enrolled her in first grade and it was one of the best decisions I've made as a parent. My older 2 children are now going into 1st and 3rd grade and I really feel like they're getting a great education.
If I were you, I would just see how it goes. After spending 2 or 3 years in school, your kids might not want to stop going.
@Stephanie
When my son was 4-1/2, we had him I.Q. tested and the psychologist who administered the test said "he needs to be in a gifted program at school, otherwise he will get bored and cause trouble". (Please know, I'm not saying this to brag, but being gifted is a huge part of who he is and gifted kids have a whole different set of issues and it affects all aspects of their lives because they just process things in different ways than "regular" kids. I could give you an hour's worth of examples.) So we put him into a private school for gifted kids, he started kindergarten at age 5 years, 2 months. (That's early for boys, a lot of people wait until age 6 to start kindergarten with boys because they mature later.) Well, the first year, he loved it. He had some social difficulties, being the youngest boy in the class, and a host of other difficulties he's had for years (potty issues), but for the most part, he did well. He was a pretty stressed out and angry little guy, though. The demands of having to sit still when told to, having to stop doing something he was interested in because it was time to go stand in line someplace else, and having to deal with all the other kids (a very intense group!) and their changing emotions all day really took their toll on him. This got worse as 1st grade progressed, until the spring of that year, when a counselor said he might be showing signs of bipolar disease---at age 7! Luckily, we did some more research (bipolar disease, ADHD and a host of other disorders are frequently misdiagnosed in gifted kids), talked with our son and the people at his school a lot (who were of course adamantly opposed to me homeschooling him) and we ultimately took him out after just a bit of 2nd grade. By then he hated to read (because they had made him write down lists of books he read), he was convinced he was bad at math (because he'd seen some genius types in his class who were scary good at it), and he wanted nothing to do with school ever again. It's taken 9 months of "deschooling" but now he loves to read again, he'll talk about math concepts without freaking out, and he loves just exploring whatever interests him (currently, the Roman Empire and robotics). I'm sorry this is so long, but I feel really strongly that school can be an extremely negative influence/experience for some kids, in our case my son is so sensitive and just hooked up differently, and the stress of school just was too much for him. He's such a happy little guy right now. If you do put your kids in school, just always really LISTEN to what they are trying to say in words and behavior. We could have saved ourselves and him so much grief had we pulled him out in first grade when he first went off the deep end. We have no plans to put him back in school. If he wants to do it in the future, we'll talk about it as a family. Right now, he wants to be homeschooled till college!
My brother in law applied for a managerial position at Aldi. There were TONS of applicants and let's just say they pay VERY well.
Sorry for the all caps but I get annoyed at people with their "we buy 150% of our food from politically approved sources" statements.
@Julia
I had that issue as well. I was put ahead a grade and then in high school it all eventually got boring and I started becoming a total slacker. It took a long time to do that. Now I'm just smart but still a trouble maker. 😛
If I might mention something to Melissa--if you were to homeschool, given the situation you outlined, you wouldn't be jumping in with 4 kids all in different grades right off the bat. It sounds like you'd be starting with one little guy, probably in Kindergarten. K is a perfect place to start because you really aren't teaching tons of stuff yet, so you can figure things out and find YOUR style (each family does things differently) and YOUR rhythm. Then, a couple of years down the line, as you're more experienced, along comes the next child ready for Kindergarten, but by then you can handle it. (Besides, #2 has probably been hanging around and listening in and knows most of the K stuff already.)
About teaching calculus and higher stuff--some curriculum is written specifically for homeschooled students who are teaching themselves, so it is much more self-explanatory than traditional curriculum. Also, there are so many helps out there, from CD's to websites to co-op classes to hiring tutors (perhaps a college student who's good at math and good at explaining things). Also, depending on the school district and state laws, homeschooled students may be able to enroll in their local school for just one or two classes (such as a lab-science that requires specific and expensive equipment).
@Frugal Liz
Good for your for realizing what will and won't work for you and your family, and for being willing to change your plans. I know a lot of homeschoolers and for some, putting their kids in a school would be heresy and not to be tolerated. (Note to readers: I'm speaking from personal knowledge and describing specific people. This is not a broad-brush indictment of homeschooling.) (Can you tell I've been lambasted for this before?)
@Julia
Interestingly, my experience with giftie school was exactly the opposite. My school was good but didn't have a fast track so I was bored, reading ahead, trying to do next year's math etc. It got better when the school developed a fast-track math program, and even more better when my parents found an after-school giftie program, where I took extra classes for years.
I can't imagine how home-schooling would have worked for me. I passed my SAHM's math capabilities when I was about 10.
Kristen: I wouldn't be surprised if Zoe learned a lot about the States even at her young age. Little kids are like sponges - it makes me jealous how quickly they learn.
Julia, your post is exactly the reason why I am nervous about putting my son especially in school, I am hoping if it all works out, there are some family members that homeschool that are interested in helping out the first year or two. I have also been reminded that being a boy, starting a little later wont hurt. He already does so much, mostly on his own just observing others, it blows my mind. Thanks for your advice!@Julia
I think that most parents who homeschool do so because they care very strongly about their children's education. (It is too much work to do it 'just for fun':) Therefore, if a child has interests and abilities beyond their parents' capabilities, parents find a resource to accommodate that. (ie: Kristen's piano lessons.)Homeschooling, in order to work, is a commitment made by both parents and a high priority for a family.
Like WilliamB, my boys surpassed their mom's math abilities at a young age...due to the fact that their math genes come from their dad who is a college math instructor!:) Guess who teaches them math?!:) And, other skills that neither my husband or I have are covered by tutors, good curriculum, or special classes.
Like I said, it is hard work, and as my kids get older it has changed...but it is totally doable if both mom and dad are on board and willing to make the commitment. (And, if only one parent is committed to it, my advice would be to DO SOMETHING ELSE! Really! It can cause too much conflict and be counter-productive if one parent is strongly opposed to the idea!)
Question to homeschooling parents... DO your kids have "summer" break? Are there veriations on breaks your family might do?
Stephanie-absolutely! We don't usually do any school in June, July, or August. And if the kids finish a schoolbook before June, then they're just done with that subject for the year. For instance, Lisey finished her spelling book at the beginning of May, so she was done with spelling then.
We also take two weeks off in September to go to the beach. And we usually take a bit more time off at Christmas than public schoolers do. However, because homeschooling is very efficient (and because we don't have days off for things like teacher work days and government holidays), we still manage to get all of our work done each year without a problem.
I LOVE how flexible our schedule is because of homeschooling. Love, love, love it.
I should add that we do still learn things in the summertime. We still read, we still watch educational DVDs, we teach the kids outdoorsy skills (like swimming, biking, etc), and other stuff along those lines. It's just not formal.
We also follow a traditional school year since my husband is a teacher...we're off when he's off.
I can appreciate how the lifestyle of a homeschooling family could seem odd to those who don't do it. However, it is so very normal for us and like Kristen, very efficient as well.
Also, this past year one of our children attended the local public school full time. He is very athletic and involved in sports/workouts quite a bit and this was a good change for him. (We could have continued homeschooling him and have him play sports at the school, but chose for him to attend school for various reasons.) He easily maintained a 4.00 GPA, and spent a lot of time w/ sports. He did not qualify for the TAG program....all that to say, he's a normal, average, busy kid...who homeschooled but was well (over?) prepared for the academics in our local public school...by his very average mother!
I have a question regarding homeschooling also. Both my husband and I attended public school, but we are interested in homeschooling (we aren't certain yet if we will homeschool or not). Does anyone have some suggestions for us on resources for how to get started, etc. My kids are 3, 2, & 2, so I have a little time, but I like to try to be prepared. It seems rather overwhelming when I have started looking around online at different resources.
@Kristen
Thanks for the info! I have family that homeschools their children, oldest being 13! They too have told me that it feels way more efficient, and they can cover more in the same amount of time, perhaps because you aren't waiting for the class to settle, or walking to and from classes for the older kids. It is definitely something I am determined to do, it is just a bit overwhelming leraning about all the material, different curriculums, am I really going to do a good job etc. I can't see my son especially in a public school setting, and private schools are out of the income qquestion! 🙂
@Kristen
The flexible schedule is one of my favorite parts about homeschooling, too. Letting my son sleep in and wake up when he's ready is just priceless. Every morning used to be a huge battle, one or the other of us would end up in tears half the time, and he'd end up brushing his teeth in the car during the mad dash to school, I'd be putting sunscreen on him while we were in the school parking lot, ugh. He also often has trouble going to sleep at night (can't turn off the brain) and so now I don't have to worry that I'll have to wake him up at 7:30 for school even when his body needs more sleep. If he needs to sleep till 9:00 a.m., that's okay. If the weather is nice (not a given in Seattle!) and we want to go to the park in the middle of the day or for a nature hike, we can do that. My husband gets 4 weeks of vacation a year, so we can schedule those for times when everyone else is in school, then we can travel during the cheaper off season or just do stuff in our own town during the week when there are no crowds. We haven't been able to afford it yet, but next year we plan to accompany my husband when he has to travel for work, this means we still get to be with him but also can explore another city, without having to worry about missing school. I traveled a lot when I was a kid and that played a huge part in making me who I am today.
@Stephanie
You're spot on about the amount of time wasted waiting for the class to settle down, standing in line, herding 25 - 30 kids from point A to point B. As I alluded to in my original post, my son would pick up the negative emotions of every kid in the class in moments like those, every bit of chaos, every rude thing someone said to him, and store that till the end of the day---then he'd let it loose on me, physically and verbally. He was only 5, 6 or 7 years old, he couldn't process all those feelings and all that negative energy on his own. Now, he will work on a project literally for hours (yesterday he spent 3 hours working on a "store" for gladiators, this involved history and math and drawing and writing) and I don't interrupt him unless I have to. I want him to have that kind of focus for writing college papers. 🙂 And there are people who would say that's wrong of me, when he gets a job he will need to know how to handle interruptions, how to handle the other people he works with or meets during the day, etc. That's true, of course. But he's still only a little boy, he's learning about who he is and what works for him, there is time in the future for learning to deal with the world at large. I completely understand him in that regard, because I'm an introvert too, I get so stressed out by crowds and noise and the stress of dealing with other people. One last note: most private schools do offer financial aid, should you decide one day to try to put your son in a school. We paid only 1/3 of tuition at our son's school. That was still an enormous amount to us, but we did get value out of it that first year. The hard part is dealing with the wealthy parents and their kids, their values and their lifestyle were quite different from our own and I didn't like my son being exposed to that consumer-driven lunacy at such a young age. My mother-in-law just bought him a Wii for his birthday, something he's wanted for years, and something we told him he'd have to wait until we could afford. His first comment was, "now I can tell my friends from school that I have one too!" (Most of his friends had 3 or 4 game systems, we had none.) Oh man. That shocked and upset me, but it was a remnant from his time at a fancy school! (And so far he hasn't played with it as much as we thought he would, he prefers to make up his own games. I'm glad it was her $250 and not mine!!)
@WilliamB
Thanks for sharing your experience, William. As for math capabilities, I feel like my son at age 8 has already passed me. (My husband explained binary code to him and they were both talking about it and they lost me at the very beginning.) My brain is just not a math brain, it's a language brain. (I graduated Phi Beta Kappa and cum laude with a BA in German.) I have spent enough time in an academic setting to accept my own weaknesses, and I freely admit those weaknesses! 🙂 So starting in the fall, he will have a math tutor, perhaps a science class, and whatever sort of "enrichment" classes (money permitting!) that he needs to keep himself busy and challenged. He likes to figure stuff out on his own and not be spoon-fed in a classroom or by me either, for that matter. So we are really more of an "unschooling" family than strict home-school house style homeschooling.
@Battra92
"Now I'm just smart but still a trouble maker". That's funny. It's the trouble makers that change the world, you know!
Hey Kristen, sorry to hijack your blog this morning! This stuff just really strikes a chord with me, I want every kid to be happy and fulfilled and challenged and appreciated for who they really are.
I have a question regarding homeschooling. My husband and I both attended public schools, but we are considering homeschooling our kids. Can anyone point me in the right direction (good resources, etc)? I have started checking around, but all of the info is very overwhelming and I don't know where to start. I have a little time (our kids are 3, 2, & 2), but I would like to be prepared so that we can make the best decision for our kids.
The wealth of information out there and the curriculum options are somewhat overwhelming at times. I love reading about other people's homeschooling experiences.
Julia: I totally agree that the topic of education in general strikes a chord with me too. I want to raise happy and fulfilled children too.
For anyone who is interested, I came across a Christian literature based curriculum that looks like it might be good. I don't have any personal experience about it, but from their website and catalog, it looks like it might be a good option, if I decide to homeschool my little guy. It is, Sonlight curriculum, http://www.sonlight.com/
I used Sonlight for 10 years and LOVED it! Very flexible, but enough structure to keep you on track. "Literature based" means that they use a lot of historical fiction and biographies to give the kids a feel for the historical era, rather than textbooks. Also, they tie the language arts lessons into the books the kids are reading for history, to reinforce the history. It's Christian-based, but you don't have to buy the Bible curriculum if you don't want to, and they aren't "preachy".
We homeschool in pretty much the same way as you. It's very interesting to hear about different ways of doing the same thing but most of the points are the same for us too.
I stumbled on this looking for the opening hours for our local Aldi -- ours is right next to a Goodwill too. And we homeschool -- three kids, each three years apart. The oldest is 13. I heard about homeschooling while I was still in high school, and thought, "That makes so much sense -- why would anyone want to do anything else?" This was while I was in public school, with siblings in private school. I didn't have a particularly bad school experience, but the amount of wasted time was phenomenal.
I would suggest anyone thinking about homeschooling ask themselves what it really means to be educated -- really give it some hard thought. Keeping that in mind as our goal helps us steer a course through the curriculum options. We realized our kids needed to be able to recognize and communicate the truth; that guides everything else we do. And we want them prepared for whatever God has planned for their future, so we try to stretch their abilities and their strengthen their weaknesses. Obviously, you aren't going to know all this about a kid from the moment of birth, so it's a developing process. One resource to check out is the Maryland-based The Homeschool Resource Group -- http://www.homeschoolresourcegroup.org/ -- they have live people who can answer questions.