I am now in my seventh year of homeschooling, and on my third boy.  After reading MaggieRaye's  comments about homeschooling boys, it prompted my own thinking about what I do differently now that I've learned a few things in the school of hard knocks. When I started out I was very intimidated about homeschooling, even though I had read nearly every book written on it, watched other families do it very well, and perused all the curriculum catalogs available at the time.  I knew a lot, but I was scared of myself.  I tend toward the undisciplined, fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants side, and I could not see how that could be an advantage to homeschooling my sweet little boy and teaching him everything he would need to know in life over the short stretch of twelve years.  I was so afraid of myself, that I started Josh in K4, so that if I really messed him up, after two years I could put him in school and he might still have something worth salvaging!

In spite of my fear, my rebellious nature also influenced my homeschooling decisions and I tended toward unit studies that I planned and controlled.  In the first few years, with the interruptions of a new baby, a move, and the normal challenges of a young family, I basically unschooled.  It was so much fun.  When the Disney movie "Dinosaurs" came out, we spent a whole summer studying dinosaurs and reading Creation science books for kids.  I learned a lot!  We studied bugs, and the human body, oh yeah, and somehow along the way, Josh learned to read!  Being the rebel though, I decided not to bog him down with lots of memory work.  I came up with lots of reasons why I thought memorizing "useless" facts was a waste of his time.  I discovered last year though that knowing math facts is kind of important. 

So one thing I do differently now is to work on memory work a little earlier.  In the last few years I have been influenced by more classical approaches to learning, and while I will never be able to keep pace with some classical families, I have adopted a tighter approach to memorization.  In addition to math facts, we memorize scripture and the Westminster Catechism for Children.  With my slightly older children we have memorized poetry, the bones of the body, Spanish words, Latin roots,  and other things.

Anther thing I do differently is to make them accountable for keeping up with their own work and materials at an earlier age.  While my kindergartener has to put away his own books and supplies, my third and fifth graders are working off an assignment sheet (Have I mentioned Homeschool Tracker?  It's definietly worth the money!  Thanks again, MaggieRaye!)  They check off assignments as completed and turn them into one central location.  In the next few years, if I don't see a temptation toward dishonesty, I plan to teach my oldest how to use teacher's editions to check over his own homework.  I went to this simply out of exhaustion.  I couldn't keep up with three kids' assignements!

I have also become (gasp!) more disciplined.  Funny how at the time I am homeschooling my children, God is homeschooling me!  I am learning to get up on time in the morning, follow a routine, and stick to the plan, especially in those seasons of life when we have others depending on us to be in certain places at certain times.

I have not only become tighter in some areas, but I have also loosened up.  It doesn't stress me out any longer that boys need to listen to read-alouds standing on their heads . . . or playing with Legos.  I don't get so worked up when I find them wandering, I send them outside for  a few minutes to run around.  I give them trampoline breaks, and I think I feed them a little more often.  I've also given up on crafts.  I used to try to come up with craft ideas for every unit.  Last year we did one of the Dina Zike/Susan Simpson science units, and by two-thirds of the way through it we were all ready to scream at the paper folding and the glue bottle.  Although we managed to finish the science study (and the are VERY good, quite thorough, just not fun for non-crafty types!), I promised the boys no more crafts.  We do manage a little notebooking, and a very few coloring pages (and I've learned not to complain when they color William Shakespeare with Florida Gator colors, or Martin Luther's face purple). 

We read together a lot more (instead of doing crafts) and  listen to lots of books on tape.  I no longer have my aversion to using "curriculum."  This year I am using Rod and Staff for grammar!  And I actually like it.  I still like reusable stuff-just seems to make more economic sense that way.  As I go on and on, I wonder how we ever have time for anything fun!  But if I stop and look back at my kindergartener, yeah, he is probably worked a little harder on the "basics" than his brothers, and he doesn't get the "fun" unit studies, but overall, he still spends most of his day playing outside!  So maybe some things haven't changed that much!