Home Schooling - A Fresh Approach

When I first decided to home school Alexis in the 3rd grade, I did it out of peer-pressure I guess. I jumped right into it without really knowing what the heck it meant because everyone else was doing it. I bought the popular boxed curriculum which seemed good but very quickly and apparently became overkill to me. It was frustrating. I tried something else the next year - with the same realization.

My poor Alexis was a home schooling guinea pig and I don't think I did her any favors at all. It's a good thing she is such a smart kid and was fluently reading at a 5th grade level by the age of 5 - and she taught herself I should add. Even so, I felt that I was not covering everything. I felt scared and pressured. Out of frustration and doubt I put her back into the public school system where she was placed in the "gifted" program but was still bored and distracted. So in and out of public school she went.

Last year, this time for the right reasons I believe, I kept all my children home to school them FOR GOOD, but I must admit that this past year has been a lesson for me in what does NOT work for us. I worried that I wasted a lot of time but after reading (in progress) The Successful Homeschool Family Handbook by Dr. Raymond & Dorothy Moore, and Educating the WholeHearted Child by Clay & Sally Clarkson I have to say that my fears have been relieved and I feel more confident to carry on for the rest of my children's school "careers."

I highly recommend these books to anyone contemplating home schooling but don't know where to start -- heck, even if you're a veteran home schooler it's good info -- to give you direction and peace of mind (thinking of you Delia). :) I actually haven't finished reading these books because I'm weird in that I like to read several books at once, so I'm about half way through both of these (along with a couple others) but I truly feel for the first time that I really CAN do this right!

So after MUCH research and a little guidance over the last several weeks, I've BUILT my own curriculum using many different resources that I feel are more customized to my children's learning styles and that gets the job done to the point without a bunch of busy-book-work. Learning should NOT mean having your face in a workbook all day! I also don't believe we will be following a strict yearly schedule since learning happens every day. I guess we'll be doing a "year-round" schedule with frequent breaks.

I will be listing my curriculum choices for this school year soon (it's gonna take a little time to compile) along with some great links for curriculum at the lowest prices I have found (and trust me I have SEARCHED a LOT)!

BTW, this is not a sponsored post, I just thought I would share.