Excited About Homeschooling

I read a post the other day on Progressive Pioneer on ways to re-focus and re-fresh any homeschooling regiment. She also asked "How do you get excited (and get your kids excited) about school and learning?"

And because I love so much about this part of my life I have to answer:)

I actually just start the "school year" at the beginning of the year and plan what we are going to do year round... What places we want to visit, what adventures we are going to go on. Why start in September? Why not just start with the new year! This is when everyone is making goals and starting a new:) Makes sense to me!

Planning by seasons is also energizing to me because I can plan around the weather and things we can do for each... out doors and indoors:) "Schooling" during the summer is actually my favorite time of year:) But our summer school isn't the public school system's summer school by any means. Honestly, I can't say that we ever start and stop school or take actual vacations; that just happens naturally with cold and flu seasons, pregnancy, newborns and my husbands freelance schedule.

Another thing we do is advance in "grade skills" around birthdays. One of my sons told me he didn't want to start learning to read until he was 5. The day of his birthday he said, "Okay I want to learn to read now!" And for the first time in his life picked up a pencil and traced a letter. No prodding from me. He wanted to do it so he did:) He has a whole list of things he said he doesn't want to do until he is 6... He sure is in charge of his life, wouldn't you say:)

On the hard days I sometimes question why I do it? But if I think about it for just a moment and compare it to what my life would be like if they were in school I remember all over again how much I love and appreciate my life!

So these are the reasons why I keep doing it:)

I do it because I love the freedom. The freedom to learn what we want to learn when we want to learn it and how we choose to learn it. There are no outside pressures. To time limits. No tests. No one telling us we can't learn that now because we will learn that later.

No one is being taught something because they might need to know it for the future. Everything we study is because we are interested in it right now. 

We can go where we want to go as much as money or time allows. Not just a two week vacation or a one time field trip... we can visit the museum anytime we want and even leave on spontaneous road trips.

Our trip to the salt flats when it was glazed over with water was my favorite this year for sure!

We don't have to rush through scripture study. We can do it more than once a day. We can pray as a family multiple times a day. We can go out and do service projects. That can be our school. It is a part of our daily life... at least that is that plan as the kids get older. 

I have learned that just because I haven't given a lesson on a subject that doesn't mean they haven't learned it. The kids figure out so much out on their own. 

We can have nothing planned. We can sit for long periods of time and think. Analyze things around us. Often from these ponderous moments arises an interest that we end up studying.

One of my sons, the "thinker" in the family, sits like this often, just rubbing his toes. 

He is the one who asks the most inquisitive questions about life, death, the body, cells...

We do what works for us. Reading time with the kids is often only when they are using the bathroom. Especially when they were younger they wouldn't let me read books to them otherwise. We do no sit-down reading lessons and yet somehow my kids are learning to read. Sometimes I briefly mention a reading rule or pattern, then play long-term unrestricted games with it until the game dies and they have mastered it. 

The kids only write in private diaries where no one can read it or critique it but have been taught to always do their best. Of course they can't help but share what they have done with me. 

We get frustrated and mad when new things are hard for us. But we are in the safety of our home so no one will judge us. And the kids are not considered problem children when they have a break down moment or can't sit still.

There is no homework after school. No missing the bus or early dismissal, only for me to forget and arrive late or not be home (this would happen to me so often, I just know it;)

Just time to play and learn, learn and play... this is our life.

Above all else we are free and we love it!

I'm grateful to my God for putting the thought into my head to homeschool. I am glad that he left it up to me to make the final decision though. I am thankful I get to spend this time with my kids, even if all moments are not perfect. Now I just need to spend our time wisely exploring the world.

I can't tell you how much I love my life! I just have to sit down and think about it for a moment when I am down and having a hard day and it re-charges me:) I was having one of those days today and now feel so much better and know that tomorrow will be great!