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Committed
Mar. 4, 2006
Hello
I
am starting this blog as part of my preparation for this, our first
"official" school year. I'm nervous. I'm not sure how to go
about all this, and even more I'm afraid I won't do it...that I'll
never feel that I have everything I need and so keep putting
homeschooling off till the "setup" is perfect....yeah. It's a
tendency I have, and I know I need to get over it.
One might think
that I would have an easier time than many others just starting
homeschooling. After all, I was homeschooled, all 13 years, no
less. My mother was one of the homeschooling pioneers, not quite
one of the first, but close on their heels. All in all I'd say
she did a pretty good job with us (myself and my little sister, both
homeschooled from K through 12th). I'm not sure, though, that
having been homeschooled is much help toward homeschooling my own
children.
My mother only had two kids, 2 1/2 years apart. I
have five kids, ages 6, 4, 3, 1, and 3 weeks. That's so
far. An important difference, don't you think?
Plus, I
remember what I put my mom through. This terrifies me: what if
one of my kids, or *gasp* more than one, does the same to me?? I
know it will happen, after all I have been the frequent recipetent of
the "parents' curse," you know: "I hope your kids are just like
you!" Yeah, that one. I think we've all gotten it.
Also, I don't plan on homeschooling the same way my mom did. She
used an expensive curriculum, with textbooks and tests and already put
together lesson plans and rulers with the curriculums logo on it,
etc. (By the way, if you are thinking of going the curriculum
path with your homeschooling, I do recommend what my mom used.
It's pretty good!) Me, I have to make things difficult by going
the Ambleside Online, living books, nature walks route.
Oh, and
homeschooling being so much bigger and more widespread doesn't
necessarily make things easier. I have to decide by the end of
next month which homeschooling group I want to join.
Which?!!?! My mother was happy if there was ONE in the
area!! There are so many options out there now I've been sorely
tempted to just walk into a homeschooling fair blindfolded and
whichever booth I bump into first will be the one I go with.
'Course with my luck I'll end up bumping the concession stand...
I'm excited about homeschooling. I'm also excited about posting
here about homeschooling, and other going-ons in my life, and meeting
friends who are going through their own homeschooling adventures!
(Please bear with me as I slowly figure out how to work this site. I'll catch on eventually, promise.)
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Comments
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Posted by
Posted by
Posted by
Posted by
Mar. 4, 2006 - Welcome!
I am also a homeschool graduate, and like you, I was very nervous when I first started homeschooling. I wondered if I would be able to teach my son to read--I am now successfully teaching my second to read. I worried that I wasn't doing enough--but my oldest is now in 5th grade and ahead of most of his peers in academics. The beauty of the Charlotte Mason method in the early years is that it is really just a natural extention of what most mothers already do with their little ones (reading good books to them, enjoying nature together, finding joy in new discoveries, discussing interests). It really does work!
I'll be visiting here again soon!