First post

I don't homeschool yet. Trevor is currently in kindergarten at a local public school. Rachael goes to preschool 3 days a week and Ariel stays at home with me full time. We had a rough first half of the year with Trevor. He didn't want to go to school, he cried every morning. It was pretty much torture for all of us so at one point we offered him the option of homeschooling next year but we would have to finish out his first year of school and make an attempt to make it work.

So, even though he is OK with going to school, he has still reminded me that he would like to homeschool next year. Since I had been planning on homeschooling before I decided to give public school and try, I figure I can take advantage of the fact he wants to stay home! Rachael, while she likes preschool, has also said she would like to be home next year. I think she is saying this largely because her brother is but, since preschool isn't mandatory, we'll give it a try.

I know we will definitely follow a curriculum but I have not decided on which yet. I looked into full on packages that were complete but there was always something about one part or another I disliked. So I am still on the lookout. I probably will use free resources for Rachael, since she is so young. I love the Waldorf approach to learning, but I am quickly finding that Trevor is ahead in some areas because waldorf follows a delayed approach to learning and with Trevor's one year in K, he has surpassed most waldorf grade 1 LA curriculums and even grade 2. I will probably pull nature oriented lessons from waldorf, math from saxon (which always seems to have good marks) and I haven't decided on language arts yet though I have found one book I would like to use but it would only be a part of the big picture. I haven't decided how to approach history.. if I should start with our local virginia history, US history or start with actual history of civilization (which I am leaning towards), etc. I think music will be satisfied through basic kindermusic type classes or a waldorf music type method. I haveb't researched it enough yet.

Right now I am really in the researching stage. I know homeschooling will allow me some extra time with my children (Trevor especially since I feel I hardly ever see him now) and some control over what he is learning. It also gives us more time for other activities. Right now Trevor spends all day in K, so I hesitate to fill his full time schedule of school with anything else (we leave for school at 8:40am and he gets home most days at 4pm). He needs time to be a kid, you know. But I hope with homeschooling we can sign him up for some interesting activities. The biggest advantage to me right now will be the extra time outside and following a family rhythm. The big thing school has taken away is the simple fact of family. Trevor spends so much time with other people besides us and is usually tired and GRUMPY when he gets home. He grumps and argues with his sisters, doesn't want to go outside and I really miss the way he was able to relate and play with his siblings and talk to me. His imagination seems to be stuck in a rut because it doesn't get the workout it used to get. I miss that he doesn't see the way a household runs, he doesn't see the laundry going into his drawer or being washed, he doesn't see baking happen or bread being made. History, science, math, etc are extremely important. But so is life, being outside and practical matters. So is the ability to be self directed. He spends much of his day being directed into actities and stimulated by other people that he hardly knows what to do when someone isn't giving him an activity or telling him what to do. He misses alot of this by spending an ENTIRE day on learning.

We'll see! I will use this journal more when Trevor and Rachael are both actually homeschooling. I might post from time to time here if I order something, or set up a part of the house for schooling. It's all a grand adventure!