Posted in My Homeschool FAQs

I don't know why I was thinking about this today....

Long ago when my oldest child was two I was talking to a lady at the Library.  I said something along the lines of  "We plan to homeschool." and she started telling me that it was very important that I understood that children must sit at a desk to learn.  "It is a very physicological thing"  she told me.  I thought it was a little odd at the time, but she was so emphatic about it I still remember the conversation 11 years later. (Now I know my kids can learn on the stairs, in the backyard, in the car, anywhere!)

Witrh all this said I think one of the hardest thing about homeschooling is breaking out of the conventional way of thinking and just letting learning happen.  When we started out I want to do everything "right" and quite honestly only model of education I knew was what I was raised with, Public School.  Although I was never a fan of school it was what I knew and therefore the first few years of school for my oldest son looked a lot like public school.  He had workbooks, he sat at a desk, I put little gold stars on his papers, some days we even said the flag salute!  Well a lot has changed for us over the years!  To say I have relaxed is an understatement! 

Last week when my nephew was visiting he asked me we would be starting school.....The God's honest truth is I had not even thought about when we would be getting back to school at that point!  It kind of took me by surprise.  "School, uh yeah we will get to that soon.  I'm not sure when we'll start..."  Why am I so relaxed now?  Because I know my kids are learning whether I tell them we are doing school or not!  They are reading, asking questions, doing projects, etc.  Today my 3 year old watched a little video about George Washington.  Then asked me if he could color a picture of "dat president"  I mean he's 3 and he already enjoys learning!  What more could a homeschool Mom really want for her child?  Let's face it no matter how much we teach them we will never be able to teach them everything they will ever need to know in life.  So the more important goal for me is to teach them to love learning!  If they love learning and are curious about the world around them there is really nothing that can stand in their way in the future!