I saw this post on Spunky's blog yesterday and it really got me thinking about what I would do differently if I had the chance to begin homeschooling all over again!
The original question was, "If you could begin homeschooling again what is something you would have done differently? Or what is something you wished you knew then that you know now?"
1. I would have NEVER sent my kids to public or private school, but starting homeschooling with Kindergarten. Actually, I had purchased Sonlight's Kindergarten program AND Five in a Row (and collected all of the books, both in and out-of-print) and was ready to go! Then I chickened out ...
2. I would have used Ambleside Online's curriculum from the beginning and stuck with a more Charlotte Mason-friendly curriculum plan. I'm glad that I read The Well-Trained Mind and I love the Classical Model, but I wish that I had folded more CM into it.
3. I wish that I had found Excel Math earlier. I would have used in until about 4th grade and then switched over to Saxon.
4. I wish that I had not done the "curriculum dance" as much as I have ... constantly switching from one thing to the next in the hopes that the next curriculum is better than what I already had.
5. I wish that we had had more fun in grades K-3 and not been so "schoolish."
It has taken almost 4 years for me to find my groove and I am fairly happy with where we are right now. I do want to add in more fine arts study and I would love for us to go with a 4-day school week, year-round ... this would mean dropping our Weds. co-op so that we could school M-Th. I'd love to have Fridays off for errand-running, house cleaning, home baking, etc. As my children get older and their schooling at home increases, co-op just does not seem that important. A lot of the classes offered are NOT academic and I wish that more of them were so that I would feel like co-op is adding more to our lives than just a morning of socialization ... sigh ...
There are things that I am glad we've done.
1. I'm glad we are studying History chronologically.
2. I'm glad the kids are learning to play piano.
3. I'm glad the kids HAVE to take karate lessons.
4. I'm very glad that we've spared no expense building a home library.
5. But, most of all, I'm glad we took the risk and choose to homeschool. That is one choice that I will never regret!
... Kris ...Posted in daily life on Oct. 8, 2005
Comments
Posted by spunkyhomeschool
I loved that one about the curriculum dance. I'm going to add that to the list. It's so true!
Posted by Anonymous
Thank you for a great post! You have confirmed so much of what I've been thinking about our future in homeschooling. Our son is 5 and I have already purchased many of the AO books for YEAR 1 (we will not start that for a year or two...but I am excited!) I found it very encouraging to see that you would have made K-3 less "schoolish." That is my hope for our home :)
-Jessica
http://jphillips4.blogspot.com
Posted by Anonymous
I have never heard of "Excel Math." Would you have used this for level-K, also? We are currently doing one lesson per week in Making Math Meaningful.
Thanks!
-Jessica
http://jphillips4.blogspot.com
Posted by ClassicalEducation4Me
I'm not sure what I would have used for Kindergarten ... I probably wouldn't have started formal math until 1st grades, so we would have worked on coins, telling time, counting to 100, calendars, etc.
Kris
Posted by maggieraye
The curriculum dance, hmm, maybe we should call it the Carnival Curriculum Dance! It's funny, I started out with the Well Trained Mind (almost 5 years ago) ended up with Ambleside Online (this past year) and we still seem to dancing around what best fits the moment at our house. Thanks for sharing this. I think if I could do it all over again, I'd want to have the courage to start from the beginning with my oldest, never having placed her in private or public schools. I just didn't think single moms could do it -- now I know better -- 'cause not only am I doing it but so are lots of others.
Thanks for sharing!
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