Dear hubbie and I joined a “small group” that was geographically close to our home and was attended by some of our friends and aquaintances. When first we attended, we did not know the leaders except by sight. The Man and Woman leaders were welcoming and authentic people – nothing especially “charismatic” about either one, except that they genuinely seemed to care about me/us. The Man was a dad, high school science teacher, skilled musician, whole-hearted worshipper and home school parent (did you see that coming?). The Woman was a mom, skilled musician, whole-hearted worshipper and home school parent. And their family was our introduction to Home Education.
As I spent time with the Woman and watched her interact with their five kids and watched their five kids interact with each other, I recognized a tug on my heart; it was one of those “I think I found my tribe” moments in my life. Ya know what I mean?
Their kids were normal kids – they liked to play, to eat, to laugh, to talk, to bug each other. But they were also loving and respectful to each other and to their parents. The family had a shared sense of humor and seemed genuinely close to each other. Bright eyes, bright smiles and kids that talked with anyone and everyone in our Small Group captured my attention. And these kids loved to read books — the ones that were old enough; the younger ones loved to have books read to them. We babysat for this family multiple times, and I fell more and more in love with those kids.
That’s how I want our kids to be. And dear hubbie agreed.
So, we hid those things in our hearts, so to speak. Our firstborn was just a baby when we had this revelation. It was exciting and kind of overwhelming to think about. Over the years before our son turned 4, I had lots of conversations with home school moms who were already in the process or who had finished their race. At that time the church we attended had a decent nucleus of families who were Home Educating; most of those families were using a variety of different approaches and curriculums, which made it easy to do firsthand “research.” I listened to their stories and then “tried on” mentally what it would be like to do home education that way. God knew exactly how to help me move forward. And He guided me every step of the way, my hand in His.
You may be under a time crunch at this point in your journey, especially is you have just recently decided to home educate. It’s ok. Here’s what I recommend you do:
Think about your core values and why you want to do this; write it all down.
Think about each child individually and what you know about how they learn; there’s a great book which changed my life called “The Way They Learn.”
Then start shopping for the books and/or curriculum that you think will work best for you and for your child.
Just start the way that you mean to go. You can always adjust your course along the way. One last resource I recommend is what I used for keeping track of attendance and for planning out lessons. I used one of Donna Young’s v-Planners for years and years; check it out and check out the rest of her resources. I invested time before the school year started (actually, I often started planning for the fall semester during February) planning everything out. I never regretted that investment of time.
If you have any questions or want to talk with me about home schooling, please contact me at connectworktasks@gmail.com. I would love to walk alongside you in your journey.
~thankful for my blessed life, on the Indiana prairie
amylynndemoss 