Home*School*Home: One Year Ago

Friday, July 29, 2005

One Year Ago

Home*School*Home
One year ago, I made the decision to homeschool my oldest child, at least for one year, to see if it made a difference in his (and my) stress level and really because I wasn't ready for him to go to middle school. The middle school is much farther away than the elementary school and he was probably going to have an hour bus ride, morning and night and I can't imagine how much homework he'd have, with six teachers every day. He was doing several hours a night, just from one teacher.

We decided to just try it and I am so glad we did. My life has completely changed to the point that I wonder what I even did before. I really enjoy homeschooling and the kids never want to go back to public school, even the one child who never said she didn't like it. The kids have more time to play, go outside and be kids and I get to plan fun things to do with them that we never had time to do before.

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Homeschooling Advice.

1. Try it. You might enjoy it. It might change your life. It might not be your thing, but you won't know if you don't ever try.

2. Find out what your state (or country) requires, the bare minimum. Do this and then with the rest of it, have fun with it. It doesn't have to be all serious and it doesn't have to look like the inside of a classroom. You're at home. Relax. Play. Read. Learn together. Enjoy your kids. They grow up way too fast.

3. Don't let a written curriculum boss you around. If it works, great. If it's not working for you, throw it out. If only parts of it work, use those and throw the rest out. It's not the boss of you. When shopping for curriculum, read reviews. Try to go somewhere where you can actually hold the book in your hands and look through it. Print out a sample day or week and try and implement it or borrow it before buying. It's kind of hit and miss buying books without being able to see them.

4. Find a homeschool support group. Or two. If you can't find one in real life, find one online. Get support where ever you can.

5. Make a mess now and then. Go outside and put some mentos in coke. Make alka-seltzer rockets. Make some great art. Make a timeline and a map. Grow some borax crystals. Use levers to lift things. Make a trebuchet out of whatever you can find around the house.

6. Go on as many field trips as you can.

The point of this blog.

"there is a theme, if you read, you'll get a growing conviction that homeschooling is a lifestyle that is worthwhile, that it is extremely good for kids and families, that it promotes bonding, is a personalized education that is superior to what you can get anywhere else for your kids, is fun and can be done even if you have a 400 track mind, no math skills (thankfully my husband does though), through working, job changes, bad hair days, home remodeling, deaths, illness, surgery, broken bones and various other things and it actually makes dealing with these things easier, not harder, than it was when we were in the public schools, because homeschooling is so incredibly flexible. That's the point I've been trying to make for the last 5 years or so."

Friday, July 29, 2005

One Year Ago

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The point of this blog.

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