Notes from the Trolley Station

Jul. 7, 2008

Introduction

I've finally decided to start a blog to be able to share some of my learnings and my family's homeschooling adventures with others. I currently homeschool one child, an active 7-year old boy. My husband and I are also currently in the process of adopting another child, probably a toddler or slightly older. We've been homeschooling for two years and each year I learn more.

We follow a bit of an eclectic approach. We like unit studies, hands-on activities, and field trips. I design a lot of our curriculum myself, referencing lesson plans and units found on-line. A lot of our units focus on an aspect of history or science. Come springtime we switch to more of an unschooling approach as the outdoors beckon us to other activities and we have a much harder time focusing on preplanned lessons. Currently we use Explode the Code for phonics instruction. In the fall I plan to also utilize Learning Language Arts.

In addition to homeschooling, I'm also a home birth midwife (Red Tent Midwifery). My son has been blessed to hold new babies and enjoys playing with other kids during appointments. He trudges along to the State House with me when I'm working on legislation to protect birth options, comes to meetings with me, and loves the potluck gatherings with other families. He accepts that when my phone rings at night I might be off to a birth, and that occasionally he may find me gone when he wakes up in the morning, but we cherish all the time we have together.

Homeschooling is a blessed gift from God. Prior to homeschooling my son was in daycare 3-5 days a week. In the beginning he wanted to ride the yellow school bus with his friends, but once he realized that homeschooling meant more time with mom and more time to play with his Legos, he never said another word about going to school elsewhere. I love that I learn with him, I know what he learns, and because his schooling is really geared toward his way of learning, he retains a lot of what he has learned. I had always known I would homeschool my children, but never could have dreamed I would get so much out of it myself. Sure, we have our days that just aren't fun, but overall I know this is God's will for our family.

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About Me

This is a compendium of favorite resources, techniques that have worked well for us, and sometimes funny accounts of our homeschool activities, written by a mama who splits her time between homeschooling an 8-year old boy, working part-time, and running a homebirth midwifery practice. The blog title comes from our home, a renovated trolley depot.