Road to Homeschooling

 As I knelt on the ground with this weeks stack of grammar lessons, filing each into sheet protectors and placing each paper into my homeschooling binder, I wondered about the process that lead me here.

  When my daughter was two, Jackie recommended combining a Pinterest board for preschool.  Jackie had created a curriculum for her oldest daughter and shared the wealth of her handiwork.  My daughter loved all the new fun, creative experiments and coloring pages that started to fill our days.  One of the first activities we did together was cleaning pennies. We read a book called Charlotte the Scientist is Squished.  We began talking about the scientific method and then cleaned pennies.  I asked her questions to help form a hypothesis. We made observations together and tried to come to conclusions together.  We drew pictures in a notebook to catalogue our method, and I wrote in a separate notebook while reading out loud to her to give the example of writing.  My daughter had a true desire to learn in a logical way from a young age.  As I began thinking about what this would look like for her as she grew, I started seriously thinking about homeschooling. 

As the years progressed, I did not stress too much about her formal education and I put more emphasis on introducing her to new ideas, and creating opportunities to imagine, explore, and enter into deep play.  I set up my pantry to have a whole separate shelf just for her to play on with old milk jugs and spice jars.  We spent many hours outdoors, exploring dirt and trees and animals.  We sat on the floor with big puzzles learning to put them together.  We read many books, many, many books.  We enjoyed each other's company by looking out the window and talking about the many birds that came to our bird feeder.  

However, she kept aging and I knew a formal education was inevitable and her little sister would eventually need one too. As I was praying and thinking about what this would look like in reality, I scrolled through Facebook and saw one of my good friend's posts.  She mentioned it was time for her to start planning her next school year and posted a picture of the books she used to aid in her curriculum planning.  Instead of asking her about them, I went online and purchased them.  The two books were as follows: The Well Trained Mind and the Unhurried Homeschooler.  After I started reading these books I stumbled upon this youtube video from an alumus of the University I attended in my young adult life.  She recommended using another resource: Designing Your Own Classical Curriculum.   

As I began reading about classical curriculums I was overwhelmed with the information.  Where would I begin?  There were so many resources and so many cool things to learn together.  Do I let it be child lead or do I have a complete set curriculum?  Do I implement Montessori or Charlotte Mason Methods?  I was flooded with so much information, I did not know where to begin!  In the midst of my decision making I was invited to a game night with friends.  While my kids were running around the house and I was trying to make sure this beautiful home did not end up with sticky fingers, the mom of my friend gently suggested something to me.  In a casual way she said, "Have you hear of a book called Teach Your Child to Read in a Hundred Easy Lessons?  You daughter seems ready to read."  I had not even thought about introducing her to a reading lesson.  I tried Hooked on Phonics and it was mostly on a tablet which I did not want to become a normal way of educating her.  I liked all the materials that came with Hooked on Phonics and enjoyed doing the little songs with her and so forth but at this point, I had not thought of using a book or a program to get her reading.  I was still in the preliminary stages of reading about methods.  I reached out to her after the party and she shared with me that she used this for three of her children and it worked well for them.  She shared with me the resource and I purchased it.  I started it with my daughter and when it became to much, I thought, we shall start again in a month or when she seems interested.  We slowly and together made our way into schooling at home, one step at a time, one book at a time, one lesson at time, and one piece of curriculum material at time.  

Today, we have six subjects throughout her week.  We fill our days with play, learning, and activities.  I did not know the joy I would get from watching her learn and realized if she would be in school, I would not have the opportunity to take in the small and big moments with her.  I am so grateful to all the mother's who have helped me and all the women willing to lend their wisdom.  And if you are just starting to think about homeschooling, one of the first things I read was Dorothy Sayer's The Lost Tools of Learning.  It is not going to give you the what or the how but the why.