Homeschool thoughts

We finished our first year of homeschool. We began in August of 2012. Haley began her sophomore year and Cole & Garrett began their 7th grade year. After teaching in the public schools for 19 years, it was quite a change. I began with your typical "school at home" mentality. After all, that's what I'd been used to for so many years.

But, slowly God began revealing to me that one of the reasons we chose to homeschool was to do things differently. So, I gradually began letting loose of my created schedule and chilled out on needing to control everything...it was a battle I didn't want to fight any more. My children are gifted by God with unique abilities and passions. Why not allow them to pursue those things that are interesting to them rather than studying what the "schools" think they should study? One of the things I have learned over the years is that you can't MAKE someone learn something if they aren't interested.

I'm really speaking more for Haley here than anyone. She's the one who dislikes (that's putting it quite mildly) school. She is my strong-willed, right brained, creative, smart child who wants to be a photographer and possibly a missionary. For the first half of the year we were butting heads on her biology course. She HATED it. I did everything I could to make it fun and interesting, but she just DID NOT care about it. So, I began praying...and decided that not every person needs to know biology! I know, I can hear a gasp! What???? That's crazy. Doesn't everyone need to study biology, chemistry and physics? My answer to that is a resounding NO!!!

One of the things I struggled with in the school system was how every child was expected to learn the same things at the same time just because they were the same age. I knew in my heart that just wasn't right, it didn't make sense. I worked my butt off making sure I pre-tested, differentiated learning for each student and made sure my kids learned. But, that sucked every bit of time and energy out of me. I was EXHAUSTED! I also had my own 3 kids who needed me & many times they weren't getting what they needed at school. I can't tell you how many parent conferences we attended that I left feeling so irritated because I knew there wasn't anything wrong with my child. There was & is something wrong with the system. It was so frustrating to be working so hard for other people's children and not having the same thing being done for mine. So, I quit. I knew my children deserved better.

Boy, have I made mistakes this year with them! They learned a ton, but it wasn't always easy... We've had to learn how to be around each other 24/7. We've had to learn how to give each other space (I'm an introvert, so this has been really hard at times). We've had to learn how to try and not annoy each other. But, we have gotten to be much closer to each other. Our family life is much less chaotic. Our family is much less stressed. My kids are beginning to like learning...a little.

My next post will be discussing the overall philosophy of our homeschool heading into year 2 & the curriculum choices that emerged from that philosophy . It's kind of a combination of a few...stay tuned!