Homeschooling and Schooling My Children, and Bureaucracy

I realized that as someone who was pretty vocal about my homeschooling and unschooling my children, I've been pretty quiet about our current schooling situation, and wanted to rectify that. For a while, to be honest, I was a bit afraid to say anything because everything seemed very turbulent and up in the air, and I honestly had no idea if our schooling situation would be forced to change.

Where I live, homeschooling is legal. With a caveat.

The law officially is that there is compulsory schooling from the age of 3 until the age of 18 in my country. (Which is something I find problematic for too many reasons to list.) In order to homeschool, you need to request a special exemption from the board of education in your district. Many people do not request this exemption and simply homeschool their children without getting governmental approval. That is what is commonly done here, and what those "in the know" recommend, as by asking for permission to homeschool, you're essentially telling the board of education that you're putting the decision in their hands, but if you show via your actions that you'll homeschool no matter what, they're more likely to approve of your homeschooling and give you an exemption.
So from the time my oldest was born, he and the rest of my kids were home with me, other than when Lee was six and Ike was 4, when I sent them to a semi private school for a year to learn the local language. I never requested an exemption for homeschooling from the board of education.

Roughly a year ago, I got a call from our local truant officer, who informed us that she knows we are homeschooling, and that we need to get approval for that from the board of education, and asked why we didn't get one yet. She informed us of the process to get approval for homeschooling, and tasked us to do that.

Getting Legal Permission to Homeschool

What Unschooling Is Not... and What It Is

My unschooled, not uneducated kids love learning
KhanAcademy math. This is a screen shot of what my 9
year old recently covered in KhanAcademy.
I never require him to learn math. He asks for it.

As someone who tends to be, not only the token homeschooler in most circles I travel, but also the token unschooler, I end up being an ambassador of sorts for homeschooling, and specifically unschooling, with so many people wanting to know what it is and how it works, and I've written a few posts on the topic in the past, including this relatively detailed one about what exactly unschooling is. (If you haven't read that, I recommend reading that before reading this.)
Yet despite that, the questions keep coming. Recently, a friend also wrote this whole long message to me about why unschooling is bad, but it was full of all sorts of misconceptions, none of what she said actually was unschooling.  And today someone mentioned that she unschools her kids after school, and by a few other people, I was asked to elaborate what unschooling is.
However, since I already wrote what unschooling is, I figured I would also attempt to explain it by addressing what unschooling is not.

Unschooling is not...

Autism, ABA Therapy, and My Next Step?

Usually when I write a blog post, it is because I want to share something that is important to me, that I discovered, something that I think will help other people. But this post isn't going to be anything like my standard posts. Instead of it being my sharing with you, it is my asking advice on a topic that I am not as well informed as I would like to be.
And though I have various Facebook groups that I'm in, ones that I joined to learn more about Autism Spectrum Disorder, now that it has been confirmed that my son, Ike, is, indeed, on the spectrum, I would rather ask my blog readers what you think, as you've been following my parenting journey for the past few years, where I've explained my viewpoint and parenting style and decisions, and I feel my readership is a community of largely likeminded individuals.

The question, specifically, is about my next step regarding my son's Autism journey.

If you didn't read already my post about how I explained to my children about my son's Autism, I recommend you read it first before reading the rest of this post, as it elaborates more about where I am coming from in terms of mindset.

In the past few weeks I've been thinking a lot about what I want for my son, now that I have an official diagnosis.

Explaining To My Kids About My Son's Autism Diagnosis

Ike with Annelise and Rose-
please excuse the red eye

I have been involving you readers on my parenting journey nearly since it started, especially when it comes to schooling my children, and some things came up that make an impact on our lives as a family and future decisions that we will be making, so I thought I'd share it with you.

Since birth, I realized there was something different about my son, Ike. He's the son that initiated my gluten free journey, since gluten seemed to have a big effect on him behaviorally. He's always been very intense. Bright, but intense. And he's had some learning issues that have affected his ability to understand the local language.

I long suspected that there was something more about him, and had strong suspicions as to what, and on Thursday, I had him evaluated by a professional, and he was diagnosed with High Functioning Autism, what formerly would have been labeled as Asperger's Syndrome, but was relabeled in the DSM-V.

Understanding that these is this specific issue with my son has already been helpful for me in relating to him, and explaining to my eldest son, Lee, about why my son is acting the way he is, which has already helped stop some fights between the kids before they even started.

I think its important for people to be aware of their strengths and weaknesses and what makes them tick, which is why I explained about my son's Autism to my older kids. I tried to phrase it in a way that my sons wouldn't feel there was anything wrong with them, just different, and that different isn't bad, it just is different. Because of this, I talked to my kids using the terminology- neurotypical and non neurotypical- average brain vs non average brain. And I started off by talking about the concept of gifted kids, since that is something my kids are aware of, since all my kids are gifted (as well as myself), with the pluses and minuses involved.

I was really proud of how my talk went with them, how much they understood it, and themselves, and each other after their talk, so I wanted to share it with you too. I didn't talk so much about learning disabilities other than Autism, simply because the time wasn't right, but plan on discussing it with them at a later point.

Here's how I explained it to them.

My Eight Year Old Sewed New Pillows, And You Can Too

Lee, super proud of the two pillows he just sewed!

Today was a busy, busy, busy day in my house- the Penniless full home makeover on a budget is well underway and today most of the work and transformation was done. As I was sewing things for the house, my 8 year old, Lee, asked me what I was doing, and why I was doing those, and I explained to him the various steps involved. He wanted to know how a sewing machine works, what the different parts were called, why we needed thread on the top and the bottom, etc...

He saw me pinning down hems, and then ironing, and asked me if he could do those, so I guided him how to do that and he loved it- "Mommy, can I iron things all the time? This is fun!" Haha, I hate ironing.

When the ironing was finished, he wanted to know if he could sew. He'd never sewn before on a machine, and I'm not sure I ever taught him to sew by hand either, but he has good hand eye coordination and a good eye for detail and he's very responsible, so I figured- why not teach him how to use the sewing machine.

One of the simplest projects to make on a sewing machine is a pillow, and just our luck- pillows were some of the things I anyhow wanted to get made today. I tested out Lee to see how he managed to sew on a piece of scrap fabric, if he managed to go at a reasonable pace (and not push down the pedal to the metal) and go in a straight line, and when I saw that he was able to do that very well, I decided to entrust the fabric that I bought to make our new pillows, to him. It was a gamble, letting my son make them, but I was hoping it would pay off. Worst comes to worst, I would just have to buy new fabric if he managed to botch it up really badly.

The Best of Penniless Parenting From 2015

Freedigitalphotos.net-noppasinw 

Wow, 2015 has been a whirlwind of a year. So many things happening in my life, things that, if you'd asked me about them in the beginning of 2015, I would have been sure that they would never have happened, and yet, they did.

It's interesting- I was looking back over my blog stats of this past year, and my posts almost seem like a representation of the highlights in my life, the biggest of which being that we bought a house, and the second biggest that I went paleo and the ensuing health effects it has had on my body in addition to finally being able to lose that stubborn weight and helping me feel so much better about my body.

So in the spirit of the new year, I thought I'd share a list with you of the 20 most popular posts on my blog of the last year, with the most popular ones first.

The Best of Penniless Parenting From 2015

The Benefits of Frustration (For Kids and Everyone)

Frustration- the true mother of invention

I was having a discussion the other day with someone about unschooling my kids, and how I try not to push them to learn things that they aren't interested in learning yet (yet being the key word), but rather, wait until they show an interest in learning that subject, and then we tend to learn it rather intensely and quickly.
This person, not a big fan of unschooling, was especially concerned about this approach when it comes to learning our local language. That actually is a subject that I do push to some extent and don't completely unschool it, but even that, I try not to make a fight about it or really pressurize my kids with it, because when I do, and especially when others try to push it (said person decides to school my kids in the local language every time they see them), my kids get very annoyed and it makes them disinterested in learning it, and very upset. And then, instead of my being able to teach them the language at a moderate pace, they don't want to learn it at all.
But I am seeing that they are picking up the language, and I see just how much their grasp has improved in the last year and a half or two since we started working on it, and I realize that it'll take time for them to become fully fluent, but they'll get there.
This concerned person was saying that right now they need the local language, to be able to function in society, to make friends, to be able to interact with people at the grocery store and playground, and if they don't speak the local language, they'd become frustrated.
My answer- becoming frustrated that they don't speak the language well enough is a good thing, not the bad thing this person was making it out to be.

And that, readers, is the point of this post.

Not every seemingly negative circumstance actually is negative. Sometimes they are actually beneficial.

I think frustration is a terrific thing, and very beneficial in certain circumstances.

In Defense of SWYPOs

Paleo toffee bars. Totally SWYPO, totally Penny approved.

I've been part of Paleo facebook groups for a long time, been reading a lot of Paleo recipes, simply because even if you aren't on a strict Paleo diet, Paleo diet recipes are made from scratch recipes, using healthy ingredients. So I just was in the group to read, absorb, and get recipe ideas.

Often when someone would post a cool Paleo approved recipe into these forums, others would invariably comment "I prefer real food, that is SWYPO". Real food? I mean, if it is Paleo approved, it is "real food" using only whole, unprocessed ingredients.
So I asked- what exactly is SWYPO?
Well, I learned that SWYPO is a concept invented/popularized by Melissa and Dallas Hartwig, founders of the Whole 30 diet, and it stands for "Sex With Your Pants On".
Essentially, what it means is- something good, close to the original, but not quite, which leaves you wanting more of what is forbidden for you.
In other words, if you're coming from an unhealthy diet, full of all sorts of junk, and instead you replace your junk with Paleo versions of the junk, you won't be satisfied and it will just lead to you to wanting some of the forbidden junk. The Whole 30 diet is, in part, intended to break people from bad eating habits, and they believe that giving in to your unhealthy food habits with healthy versions of the same stuff is not a good idea, and rather, you should just learn better food habits.

I hear the point of that, somewhat, but disagree in many ways. But the more I heard about it, the more I actually got upset about this concept.

You see, I did something very similar to the Whole 30 diet plan- the 30 day Paleo Reset diet, according to the instructions in Chris Kresser's book, The Paleo Cure.
These diets are almost the same, other than that on Chris Kresser's diet, cocoa products aren't allowed for the 30 days, neither are white potatoes or fruit juices. And nuts and seeds are supposed to be more limited. And seed oils like soybean, canola, sunflower seed oils are strictly prohibited on Chris Kresser's diet. On Whole 30, cocoa is allowed as a seasoning (for things like chili), white potatoes are allowed, fruit juices are allowed as flavorings in recipes, nuts and seeds are encouraged actually- to even have some at every meal as one of the possible fat allowances. (Chris focuses a lot on the Omega 3/Omega 6 ratios, which is why he says to limit your nuts and seeds to a handful a day, but the Whole 30 diet requires you to have fats with every meal and includes nuts as one of those fats that you should add to your meal.) And Whole 30 allows you to eat canola oil when out, in restaurants, etc...

But you see, essentially, these diets are the same.

But the biggest difference seems to be about SWYPOs. No such concept in the Paleo Reset, but in Whole 30, it is such a strong concept, that if you eat even one bite of something they call SWYPO, you need to start over your 30 days entirely.

What Exactly Is Unschooling?

TeachYourMonsterToRead.com-
because learning and fun can be simultaneous

I love sharing about unschooling, the method in which we "school" or rather, precisely do not "school" our children, because I am so in love with this learning method because I see how well it works for us. 

Most of our "official" learning takes place via conversations that I and my husband have with my kids, covering such wide ranges of topics. We learn so much this way and cover so much ground that often I share what we've been learning on Facebook, and how much we love unschooling, and inevitably I get comments like "Don't all parents have these conversations with theie kids?" and "What you call unschooling, I call parenting" and "I guess I both send my kids to school and unschool them."

These frequent comments by people make me realize that there is a huge misunderstanding about what unschooling actually is, it's not simply parenting nor is it something that you really can do in conjunction with school because it is a radically different mindset from that of standard schooling (though Montessori is probably the most similar schooling method to unschooling).

What is Unschooling?

Giving My Daughter a Pixie Haircut

Before I became a mom, I had all sorts of ideas of what parenting would be like, and even made a whole long list of things I'd want to do with my daughters, and another list of things I'd want to do with my sons.

Fast forward 8 years, and very few things of what I do are what I expected I'd be doing. For one, I'd always expected to have my daughters have long hair, which I'd style each morning. For another, I never expected that I'd be an unschooler, who doesn't just follow unschooling tenets for educating, but also sometimes when it comes to child rearing (often referred to as radical unschooling or whole life unschooling). We're definitely not complete radical unschoolers, but I do pick and choose certain things from the philosophy that make sense to me, and jive with my parenting style.
One of the big rules of radical unschooling is body autonomy, respecting your child's body, and letting them choose what they want to do with it, so long as they aren't hurting anyone else or themselves, and so long as it doesnt affect their health/hygiene. This makes sense to me. This, therefore, includes whatever hairstyles they want to have, even if it isn't the type of hairstyle you'd want your kids to have.

I've heard of parents that will not let their kids cut their hair. I don't think that is fair. It's the kids' hair, and the kids who needs to sit through the brushing, washing, styling of their hair, and for the parent to not let their kid cut it, simply because the parents can't bear to part with their kids hair- just doesn't seem right to me, and it seems that it isn't respecting the kid's feelings enough. Respecting a kid's body and choice over his own body is an important step in kids learning to take responsibility for their own body, respect their body, and not anyone take advantage of their body. Not guaranteed, but it certainly plays a part.
I'm also very into treating my kids the way I would want to be treated, and not deciding that the rule of "treat others how you want to be treated" doesn't apply to my kids. I can just imagine how I'd feel if I'd want to have my hair a certain style, and be told that I couldn't have that style because someone else doesn't want me to. I mean, excuse me- my hair, my choice.

So anyhow, why am I going into this?

Well, Anneliese, my 3.5 year old, has been asking me to give her a haircut for a while already.
Every single time she sees me cut her brothers' hair, she's asked me to cut her hair. Sometimes I oblige and give her a little trim.

But she has been getting upset at this.
She wants short hair, she says. Like her brothers.

Important Lessons From Some Soda Cans

Photo credit- anankkml; freedigitalphotos.net

I've posted before about how important I think it is for kids to have real life experience with money, already from when they're young, so that way they can learn from their mistakes when they're still young and their mistakes don't have as big repercussions, and I shared some ways that I allow my kids to earn money.
One of the things I touched on, but want to expand upon more, is earning money via recycling.
Because lately, my boys have gotten very into it, and I feel they are learning so many important things that way.

So let me backtrack.

In my country, they want to encourage people to recycle, so when one buys soda cans, beer bottles, small water bottles, and 1 liter glass bottles, you pay a small surcharge of 8 cents, and when you bring them back to the grocery store, you get your money back.
Only most places don't give cash, just store credit.

I've taught my kids the importance of recycling, and how we have to take care of our land, because if we don't, it'll number one be gross and ugly, and number two, hurt the environment. They don't litter and get upset with other people who do.
So my kids have started picking up the litter that other people drop.
Well, not all.

The soda cans and water bottles mostly, because that way they hit two birds with one stone- they are cleaning up the place, making it a more pleasant area to live in, and they even make money from it.

Since you don't get cash for these bottles, I offered to my kids to buy the cans off of them- whatever they collect, I'll give them the equivalent amount in cash, and then use the bottles that I redeem to pay for my groceries.
The reason for this is twofold.
I would like my children to be able to spend money on things that are important to them, that they save up for, and not just be stuck buying things in the grocery store, because that'll just leave them with the option of buying healthy food- which they don't need to buy, since I provide it for them- or junk- which they don't need to buy buying anyhow.
But I'm buying groceries anyhow, so using the bottles to pay for what I'm buying anyhow only benefits- they have actual cash to buy things with- with more options than just food that'll be finished in a second.

Teaching My Young Children Important Money Lessons

Photo credit- anankkml; freedigitalphotos.net

When I was a teenager, I said that when I had kids, I'd do certain things with my kids and money. When I was first married, I had other ideas about what I'd do to teach my kids about money management. And then when my kids were younger than they are now, I had even different ideas.
I find that my views on raising money smart kids evolves, and things that I said I'd do don't seem to be coming to fruition, and things that I said I'd never do sometimes end up happening... but you know what? I think parenting requires flexibility, and it's a good idea to do what works for you then, even if it isn't what you'd originally had in mind.

And so, I thought I'd talk about what I currently do with my kids to try to teach them important lessons about money in an age appropriate way.

My kids are 7, 5, 3, and 1- so most of these lessons are geared towards my older two- but who knows what the younger two are absorbing via osmosis...

Cooking with my Kids

Today's supper- planned by the kids,
as well as partially made by them.

If you haven't guessed already, I really love cooking. (Which is probably why my blog, with the official goal of being a money saving blog, is probably more than 1/4 a cooking blog.) My husband, on the other hand... his cooking is mainly limited to cooking eggs and pouring himself a bowl of cereal.
I feel that being able to cook, and being a good cook, is such a benefit and useful skill in life. Not only does it help me be able to serve good food that is healthy and doesn't cost too much to my family, it also is a great and frugal way for me to express my creativity. I consider cooking an art form, and a super useful hobby.
Already when I was little, I used to cook with my mother. I was her official "taste tester", and by the time I was 11 or so, I was the designated soup seasoner- she'd make the basics, but then would leave the seasoning up to me.
I so appreciated being involved in the kitchen prep growing up, and see how it has benefited me so much in life. Therefore, it is something that I do with my kids, already from a young age.

When my kids are very little, and I have energy for cleaning up a little bit of extra mess, when making something "fun" like cake or cookies, I either let them dump the filled measuring cups into the bowls, or even fill them (with my help, if they're extra little), then dump them in, and then mix it and shape it.

But then once they get older, I sometimes let them cook "entirely on their own".
Well, not entirely.

Homeschooling- Because Life Doesn't Have To Be Miserable

Image Credit
David Castillo Dominici- FreeDigitalPhotos.net

My friend Kelly Sangree (author of the terrific book Hard Core Poor) is a fellow homeschooler, and wrote an article on homeschooling her kids. (One of them, anyhow. The other goes to Catholic school.)  As always happens in such homeschooling related media, a firestorm broke out in the comments section. Of course, I had what to say, and after I posted this whole long spiel there, I decided that it was something I didn't want to just leave in the talkback section of an article, but wanted to share with my readers specifically.

And it has to do with one of the main arguments I get as a homeschooler, an unschooler specifically, especially once people hear that one of the biggest things that draws me to homeschooling is that I feel it is the safest environment for me to raise my children in, from an emotional perspective. They aren't thrust in social situations above their emotional and mental capabilities and left to fend for themselves, taking their cues from the pool of kids just as immature as they are, about how to relate to others, especially when it comes to bullying, whether from classmates, schoolmates, or even how to deal with teachers that may do things that are bordering on bullying if not outright bullying. (And in case you think teachers don't bully... my husband has stories that would make your hair curl, about bullying both from teachers and principals, from as young as first grade.)

When kids are constantly stressed out by an environment that doesn't feel safe to them, an environment in which they are continuously on guard because they are afraid of getting attacked, either physically, verbally, or emotionally, they can't be receptive to learning as much as they could in a safe environment in which they can relax and open their mind to the multitude of information in the world around them.

An Awesome Get Together With a Like-Minded Family

You know how sometimes you have one of those days that are just so perfect, everything going so well, but they just are so full that they leave you exhausted afterwards? Today was one of those days.

I have a friend, Holly, who is just really awesome and we're so similar in so many ways. Her family is healthy eating, gluten free and dairy free and adventurous eaters, and they're homeschoolers- unschooling inspired just like we are. We're lucky to have each other! (Thanks to the internet for helping me connect with like minded individuals!)
Today I traveled with the kids to her hometown (1.75 hours away by bus) to give Holly and her kids a private wild edibles walk around and near her house.
So first we found, learned about, and foraged a bunch of plants: henbit, stinging nettles, wild mustard, mallow, milk thistle, calendula, dandelion, sow thistle, bull thistle, plantain, lambsquarters, olive leaves, large num nums, horehound, eryngo, mullein and more!

It was fun to do a kid centered foraging walk, unlike the adult centered ones I usually do, because it involved making it even more fun and hands on than I usually do, as well as giving me the challenge of figuring out how to explain it in kid friendly language.

Teaching Kids about Healthy Attitudes Towards Beauty, Health, and Weight

Audrey Hepburn, our "beauty standard"

I think one of the hardest things about being a parent is trying to find the middle ground, to raise your kids with appropriate attitudes towards different things instead of falling to either extreme. I want to raise emotionally healthy children, with a healthy sense of self and self image, as well as with a good attitude towards health and wellness. I want my children to be happy with themselves, to love themselves and everything about them, yet at the same time, always work on being the best "them" that they could possibly be.

I've written before about my desire to lose weight, and fortunately I've made progress, to the point where I am definitely in the healthy weight range, and aesthetically much better than before (I'm no longer regularly getting asked if I'm pregnant), but at the same time, I would like to lose more weight. Not a lot- my goal weight is about 15-20 lbs away from where I am now (I lost about 25 lbs already)...
The other day my son asked me if I am able to eat dairy. I told him that the answer is complicated. He wanted to know more. Question followed question, and eventually I told him that I can eat goat dairy, but I don't want to, because I want to lose weight.

"But what's wrong with how you are now, Mommy? You're not fat," my 7 year old Lee wanted to know.

That question was a toughie, and it scared me.
Because there is nothing wrong with how I am now. Yes, I am overweight, according to the BMI, but not by too much. I look good. I just want to look even better. I don't want my kids to think that there is something "wrong" with them if they're less than perfect, because no one is perfect. And I don't want my kids to think that someone skinny is better than someone fat. I don't want my kids to think that someone's value is connected to how they look. And I worried that maybe what I was doing might be harming my kids.

So that made me do a lot of thinking.
And though we generally tend towards unschooling, I put together a lesson plan to hopefully try to teach my kids healthy attitudes about beauty, health, and weight loss. Hopefully it'll help someone else here- maybe you can use it with your kids as well.

Why We Went Back to Homeschooling Our Kids- Again

A homeschooling lesson- real life learning.
Baking, following instructions, reading, math, etc..

Those of you who've been following my blog for a long time already might remember some details about my kids' schooling journey, how originally we were homeschooling, unschooling inspired, and then last year we decided to send our kids to school, and now we're back at homeschooling, again unschooling inspired.

People were surprised at my choice- many at my choice to send them to school in the first place (how can an unschooler not only stop unschooling, but actually send to a regular school?), but probably even more people were surprised that we went back to homeschooling after this year- despite the fact that we said from the start that our goal was to send them to school just for a year anyhow. Many said that the second we put them in school, we'd see how much better school was than homeschooling, and I wouldn't want to go back to homeschooling (because I'd miss the free time I had), and it wouldn't be fair to my kids to make them go back to homeschooling, since they wouldn't want it after being in school.

So, hence, this post. Why we're back to homeschooling this year.
But in order to address that question, I'd first have to review the reasons we sent them to school last year in the first place.

Having a Frugal Homeschooling Adventure

Yesterday morning, right after waking up, I turned to my 5 year old, Ike, and asked him "If you could do anything at all, what would you want to do today?" His answer? "I want to go exploring in the jungle."
Unfortunately, we don't have a jungle near our house, but we do have a small forest, and I presented that option to him. "Want to go exploring in the forest together today?" "Yea!" Lee and Anneliese were also excited about the idea of the expedition, and I decided to use it to turn it into a fun learning experience.

Because we're back at homeschooling this year (yes, I will be writing a blog post, hopefully soon, about why we're back at homeschooling), I am leaning more towards unschooling. (I wouldn't call myself unschooling 100%, but definitely my "teaching method" is inspired by the unschooling perspective.) I want life to be full of learning opportunities, but with these learning opportunities more "hidden" so the kids feel more the fun and don't realize how much they're learning. By keeping the learning fun, it'll hopefully help my kids retain their love of learning and not turn it into a battle of wills, and their eventual starting to hate learning as happens with many kids throughout their schooling career.

I didn't tell my kids: Ok, today we're going to be learning about map skills, safety, history, nature, photography. But I did open the door to these opportunities so that they would learn these skills and have a great time while doing it.

3 Thought Provoking Education Videos

I am beyond exhausted, had a long day, and had a post planned...
But I won't get around to posting it today, it seemed.
So instead, here's three videos I really enjoyed, having to do with education, and trying to change the state of education today.

This first video is by a homeschooled teenager, and what he calls "hackschooling", how he uses homeschooling to allow him to pursue his dreams, be happy, and get educated.

 For those that can't watch the video directly, here's a link to it on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h11u3vtcpaY

Sending My Homeschooled Kids to Camp

This summer I did something that shocked a lot of people, and led to people making assumptions about our family's lifestyles and plans for the future.
I signed up both my boys for the city-wide day camp this summer.

When people heard that, I got a mix of reactions:
Oh, so you're no longer homeschooling? You changed your mind and decided to send your kids to school next year? What made you change your mind?
Camp is expensive! Why spend money on that of all things? Why not keep them home in the summer, especially if you have good reasons to homeschool, and there are kids for them to play with during the summer? Isn't camp a waste of money?
If you have issues with school, why do you not have a problem sending to camp? It's got the same issues as school, and they don't even learn anything!

So many incorrect assumptions there!