Pathetically, my "blog" is one I don't even visit! 
It really isn't that I have nothing to say. It is more that I have too much to say or that I don't know WHAT I want to say!
I have been a teacher in the public school system for 11 years, private schools for three years, Christian schools for three years, and homeschool resource centers for four years. That's 21 years of teaching experience. After all of that, I know a whole lot about what doesn't work in education.
Since stepping off the "institutional schooling" wagon, I've read a lot about education. (BTW homeschool education is so different than what I learned while in public, private, and Christian school education that I have found little overlap). I've read books on unschooling, textbook-based schooling, unit studies, a Charlotte Mason Education, neo-classical education, traditional classical education, A Thomas Jefferson Education, etc. etc. etc. I've looked at The Well-Trained Mind, Trivium Pursuit, Veritas Press, Institute for Excellence in Writing, Truthquest, Tapestry of Grace, Sonlight, Bob Jones University Press, Ambleside Online, Robinson Curriculum, and many, many others. Some of these websites and curricula I currently use and some have merely been stepping stones to where I am.
Frankly, any of them can be good and all of them, carried out in a Christ-centered homeschool setting, are better than anything I saw in group-school settings.
So, where am I in all of this? What do I teach my own children?
That's the tricky part.
Here's what I KNOW works so far:
1. Children should have time to be children. They need to have time to play--no "screens," no structured activity--PLAY. They need to make-believe they are explorers or mountain-climbers or mommies or sailors or pirates or teachers. Children need to play hopscotch and freeze tag and jacks and red rover and jumprope and kickball. They need to have time for puzzles and playmobil and fingerpaints and stringing elbow macaroni and making drums from Quacker Oats boxes.
2. Children should be read to. Children need cuddle-time. They need moms and dads to read to them. Of course, the less "twaddly" the better. But reading ANYTHING can be good! We read Heidi and Pinnochio, Pilgrim's Progress, and Black Beauty. But yes, we also read The Berenstain Bears and Pete's a Pizza. Read to them! I read "mainly" great books and generally for at least an hour each day, often two or more.
3. Less is More. Deep rather than broad. This means that the early years are formally devoted to literacy--reading, spelling, handwriting. Informally we learn about nature through time spent outside observing, history through books we read aloud, music through listening to CDs, and homemaking and "people" skills through working as a family to complete household tasks.
4. Loving and serving others is important. We may write a note or make a card for someone in the hospital or needing some cheer, bake cookies or a whole meal for a family with a new baby, rake leaves for an elderly neighbor, vacuum a house for a family of tiny children whose mother broke her arm, help with an election campaign, babysit for a single mother who needs a little time for herself, or visit a retirement home. As Christians we are to serve others and to be a light in the darkness.
5. Narration is a wonderful learning tool! Narration benefits children on so many levels. It helps children think sequentially and orderly, build vocabulary, rehearse the material just read, cement thinking, and increase oral language skills. Knowing that one MIGHT narrate also causes increased attention to the material being read or listened to.
As I suspected, once I begin to roll, I have too much to say rather than not enough. I will have to continue this post in a "Part 2."
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