Califoregon Living

OK, so I have fallen hopelessly behind on these assignments, but rather than give up, I will re-start now with assigment #20.

Our assignment this week is to blog from our “hearts” the details behind our choice to homeschool.  We are encouraged to write out our educational philosophy, our general teaching approach/method, and if we have a homeschool name.

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My initial (mis-) understanding of what the homeschool world was that everyone was odd, anti-social, not able to make it in the real school system, and/or had behavioral , social or learning disabilities.

When my first son was born, I looked at this precious little bundle and said, “how am I going to fill up our days together?”  I wanted to enrich him in some way, but did not know what to do.

We were living in Seattle at the time and were researching other areas.  The Seattle school district is pretty poor and it was important to us that we either enrolled out children into private school or find a better public school system.  Since we were not in a position to pay for a private school, moving was our option.

I pored over the school scores in our region and was pleased to find that the area that we now live in ranks quite high.  This was a big factor in why we chose to move here.

I also began surfing the internet for activities I could do with my baby.  Websites I discovered kept mentioning how this activity would work well with homeschoolers.  I kept running across this term and became curious.

At the same time, I was also growing in my faith, and began to discover the belief of “training up your child”, and how parents are able to provide a strong, solid foundation for their children through homeschool.

I began to realize that there is a whole world out there full of proactive, responsible parents who have their child’s best interest in mind when they choose to homeschool, and not a reaction to their child not “making it” in the school system like I thought.  Once I was able to wrap my head around this, I became even more curious about it.  This soon became a passion that God had laid on my heart and I really felt that this was something we needed to consider for our children.

Well, DH was not so keen on the idea.  His initial concept was similar to my original one.  He was concerned about the fear of raising social misfits or outcasts.  I did not know what to do, so I just began to pray to God to either make it clear to me that homeschool was not for us, or to make it clear to him that it was.

I spent about a year just researching.  I checked out all the books I could at the library, copied my favorite parts into a notebook, surfed the itnernet and bookmarked over 100 sites for future reference.  I learned about different educational approaches,  terms, and philosophies.  I learned that there is no one way to teach, and no one way to learn.  This was super hard for me to accept because what I initially wanted was a cookie-cutter process, and that proved elusive.

I suggested to my DH the possiblity of homeschooling preschool.  He agreed, I think, for two reasons:

1. Preschool is expensive, and with two little boys by this time, budgeting for preschool would not be fun.
2. Really, how bad could I mess our kids up with preschool?

But, he made it clear that it was just for preschool.

When ‘A’ was around 18 months, I began very simple, loosely structured activities.  I relied on letterofthe week.com, our public library’s “Books to Grow On”,  Starfall, and then, when they were a little older, “Before Five in a Row”.

I loved teaching my boys.  For the first time ever, I felt like I knew exactly why God placed me on this earth.  I have never felt such purpose or passion for something, as I do for homeschooling.  I decided to continue to pursue my own education in the homeschool world and enrolled in a homeschool course by Barb Shelton.  This course meets the requirements set by Washington state to homeschool.  Barb really helped me cement my conviction and confidence to homeschool, and also taught me how to create a “lifestyle of learning” environment for my children. 

I started to do a little bit of “lapbooking”, but discovered that it is not much fun (and not too educational) when I am the one doing most of the work.  We were able to complete two lapbooks, but this has been shelved until they are old enough to do it on their own.  The great thing about homeschooling is you can shelve something that does not work for you, and move on to something that does.

We finished ‘Before Five in a Row’ and moved on to “Little Hands to Heaven”.  By this time, I had become enthralled with the Charlotte Mason approach, as well as the Sonlight curriculum.  I loved the philosophy that Charlotte Mason embodies, and I loved the literature rich environment of Sonlight.  I felt confident that a combination of these two would create a well balanced, cuturally rich education for my boys.  I was excited about this prospect, but would not go any further without my husband’s blessing.

Late January, while vacationing on Maui, God created some incredible interactions with DH and strangers that, I think, helped shift his thinking about homeschool.  Then, in July, he gave me his blessing to continue homeschool, and take it “one year at a time.”  He said that what he has witnessed to date has been incredible and feels much more confident that this is what is right for our family as well.

It’s funny, but what was so alien to me a couple of years ago is now so normal.  I now cannot even comprehend the idea of placing my boys into a traditional school setting.   I am occasionally stunned when I receive a negative comment about homeschool and am placed in a position where I have to defend myself.  Fortunately, I am in a community and area that has a strong homeschool support system, and for the most part, Washington state is pretty supportive as well.  I am also blessed to have a family where some whole-heartedly agree with our choice, and those who do not quite undertand it or agree with it, trust our judgment as parents to make the right choice for our children.

I guess I have kind of answered the “how” we came to homechool, but not really the “why”.  The “why” is a much longer answer.  I guess, for that, I will refer you to my Book Review link, and Soft Answers to Hard Questions.

If you have made it this far, thank you.  You really do love me! 🙂

Oh yes, and our homeschool name is ‘Riverbend Prep’, named after our neighborhood.