Where do I even begin?!
I had a lot of time to figure this one out. My husband and I had discussed homeschooling off and on since my oldest was about one and a half. Since we've been homeschooling and meeting others who homeschool I realize just how lucky we were to have started out from the very get go. Now dont fret if youre journey has started mid year or after years of public or private school. Some of my go to homeschool mommas started homeschooling their little ones when they were much older than mine. My first step was to research the homeschool laws in my state. For us this means a new state and new rules every few years. Its not as bad as it sounds but it definitely adds to your work load that already seems pretty full. I had been misinformed about homeschooling under your home of record for active duty military but that is not the case. You must follow the laws for the state you and your family currently reside in. You can read more about that here.
Can I really Teach my Child?!
My next question was "Can I really teach my child?". Now this question was not mine originally, I had help. A 'concerned' family member asked me this on a regular basis until I was just about ready to give up on myself. Thankfully my husband had the good sense to keep the self doubt at bay. At the time M was almost three and starting to come into her own. By the age of four most of our family and friends have their children in some sort of school program. Now that M is almost six I know that I am more than capable of teaching her and my other two children. Most of us start out teaching our children from birth. So basically all parents are homeschoolers.We teach them how to say their abc's, count, walk, talk, use utensils, the potty and so on. If circumstances allow there is no reason why we cant continue. Even after most people send their children to school they still work with them at home. Ive found that like any thing else in parenthood you learn and grow with your child. So homeschooling full time isnt as daunting as most would lead you to believe. If this is something youve struggled with know that you are not alone and you can do it. Showing you have an interest in your childs education is the first step.
Whats Our Style?!
Now that I have all that self doubt out of the way what in the heck do I teach. If youve done a quick google search you probably noticed youre quickly sifting through secular and non secular curriculum, Complete Boxed or Singular Subjects. Literature based or Common Core Aligned. We are not a religious family so I knew I wanted to go secular. Which wasnt as easy of a find as I thought it would be. I found myself searching secular forums for help. Im a very artsy person as are my children and as a family we lean towards a more natural life style. (Nature studies came to mind, a lot) I loved the idea of child-led learning or unschooling but I also wanted to keep to a some what structured math and reading program. We're very much into attachment parenting so I wanted to make sure I was respecting my child's wants, needs, likes and dislikes. I also wanted to be able to get all of my children involved. I loved the idea of family subjects. As in doing history and science as a family instead of individually. After I sat down and figured out what I wanted out of our homeschool experience I was able to better select a curriculum. At least now I had an idea of what I was looking for. Here are a few outside sources you may find helpful in finding what style best suits your families needs.
Homeschooling Approaches,
Methods and Styles,
Teaching Methods
What Do I Teach?!
After finding our style I was still left with the what to teach questions. Now its trial and error time. Sounds scary? I found it fun. Sounds expensive? It can be. My best advice is to shop sales. They usually appear around tax season. Shop used. Facebook has some great buy, sale, trade groups. Just remember to pay with a paypal account. You dont need to have an account but it will protect you in case of fraud. Or shop on a site that has a trial period where after a certain amount of time you can return the curriculum if it doesnt work for you. For PreK we decided to go with a Waldorf All In One Curriculum. It met our wants. However after about 4 mos I realized it wasnt meeting our needs. So I spent the rest of the year supplementing with free online printables and workbooks I picked up from our local bookstore. By the end of our PreK year I knew that even though I wanted to love the Waldorf curriculum we were going to go a different route. Thats when I came across these standards. The world book typical course of study for PreK-12. This was my big break. With these standards I had an annual 'check list'. From there I could piece together a curriculum. In my opinion this is when the fun really begins. It was a chance for the littles and I to really explore ourselves.
In my next post I'll go over what I eventually pieced together for our 2014-15 school year and what sort of records I keep. Hopefully this will help you with your homeschool journey.
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