In the beginning of our homeschooling, when my 13 year old was 4 and just starting Pre-K I had spent wonderful days with him following his interests, making projects, reading books, taking trips. As far as homeschooling methods go we have been there and back again. Relaxed, Structured, Traditional Textbook, and my most favorite is Charlotte Mason. I have always missed those days following the Lord's leading and just living and learning. I was chatting with a friend on the phone yesterday about this and I think the conclusion that I have come to is....fear. Fear that my children will not learn. Fear that they will not get into the college of their choice, fear that family, friends and neighbors will not approve. And of course fear that if for some unforseen reason my boys must be enrolled in school, they will not be able to fit the mold.  I am also absolutely in love with organization, and being orderly and filling in the blanks and all of the squares in the lesson plan book. I love it and I also love learning and teaching/facilitating all of the time. My oldest boys 13 and 10 are very compliant, love to learn and will work those texts and workbooks and we seem to spend their free time in a very unschoolerish manner. They seem to be willing to jump through the hoops to get to those activities that they really want to do, which are just as educational. My youngest who is 8 is a different character altogether and wants to do what he wants, pretty much when he wants to do it. As my dear relative has put it, "he wouldn't be able to do that if he were in school". That's true, but he isn't, he's home and isn't that the point of it all? I have tried something new and for November rather than wake my boys up and have them set their alarms I have tried the radical idea of letting them sleep. And they have gotten up much more pleasant and gotten themselves together. Now for December - since it is a holiday month - perfect timing. I am going to give the idea of unschooling, interest led learning a try. I am, I'm going to do it. I will be writing all of this down though and at the end of the month, on New Year's Eve, I am going to sit down and review our progress. The boys of course are thrilled with this idea. My oldest will still be continuing in his texts because that's what he does well but at his pace. I am curious to see if they will develop their own schedule, if after the month trial they will want to continue or get back to routine, or some compromise of the two. I guess we shall see and I plan on putting this information as a permanent page on my website after all is said and done, which is www.homeschoolinghaven.info

I am hoping to let go of the control issue, give up the fear factor and truly learn the biblical meaning of "Let not your heart be troubled"