Jul. 12, 2008 - Relaxed Homeschooling ebook
I wanted to share with you an encouraging find. I love to go to Kelly Crawford's blog http://generationcedar.blogspot.com/ and read her posts. I am greatly encouraged by her thoughts (and I enjoy her humor). When she recently released an ebook, Relaxed Homeschooling, I knew I wanted to read it.
I've been homeschooling for years - my oldest daughter is 13 and we've taught her at home all along. Before I had her, I taught 2nd grade. When we decided to homeschool, I thought I'd stay home and teach her just like I taught in the classroom - except at home. I even called some of the local private schools to see what curriculum they used so that I could use that material and plug her into a school if homeschooling didn't work out. How funny! 
God graciously led me down a completely different path before I even began walking on the "school" path I thought I would be taking. God led us to relaxed homeschooling and I truly saw the benefits - my children were truly learning for keeps - not just stuffing the info in their brains to spit it out on a test and then forget all about it again.
As time has marched on, I've added 3 more children into our teaching times not to mention higher level materials. I'm also planning to begin "high school" level materials for my oldest because she would like to the opportunity to graduate a year early. (Throw a tornado in the mix for good measure.) 
I'm sure you can imagine that my brain has been somewhat on overload and I again find myself at the place I did when we began our homeschooling adventure - what will homeschooling high school look like for us? (I know that each family/each child is different and that God leads us all to the paths appropriate for us - no two paths will look exactly the same because He has different paths for all of us.)
What a wonderful time to enjoy Kelly's book. It was a timely reminder that relaxed homeschooling does work. It's okay - actually very beneficial - to think outside of the box. She begins by writing about how we think about education - our philosophy of education, our objectives, keeping relationships with our children high in our priorities. (Again, a timely reminder as God has brought this to my thoughts time and again the last few days. This time after the tornado has been tough on our family in that we've been so busy with the work that's needed to be taken care of, we've had very little down time enjoying and being with each other. God's really shown me that the last couple days and I've been trying to redeem the time on hand - it's passing quickly and I want the relationships in our family to be close!) Sorry - back to the book. :)
Kelly then talks about a lifestyle of learning and how to foster it in our daily lives with our children. She then shares with us how their family implements their teaching objectives for their children. She also gives us practical learning ideas that are easy to implement in our homes. She answers common questions people express about relaxed homeschooling. Finally she shares some of her favorite resources and websites.
One of my favorite parts of the ebook are her quotes through out the book. These are applicable quotes from people such as Beatrix Potter and Albert Einstein.
Thank you, Kelly, for the encouragement. It works wonders!
If you're interested in purchasing her ebook, you can get it at the following link http://www.generationcedar.com/homeschoolingebook.html . Right now it's on a promotional special (1/2 price).
Hope you enjoy and wishing you all a great weekend and a meaningful time of worship tomorrow.
