Considering Homeschool

As a homeschooling family, we were always a little unusual. Some people thought we were just plain odd. Instead of packing lunches and sending our kids off to school on a big yellow school bus, we "did school" at home. Many people envisioned our children sitting at desks, with Mom standing in front of a chalk board teaching arithmetic. Some may have seen advertisements for homeschool curricula featuring pictures of little Johnny at the kitchen table dressed in a collared shirt and dress pants, while his blue-denim-jumper-clad mother leans over his shoulder and smiles at his books. Usually, there is a globe nearby and, of course, a shiny red apple strategically placed in the photograph. While some families may do things that way, many do not -- especially families with five children! In order to dispel these misconceptions and, perhaps, encourage someone who may be considering homeschooling, I'm going to try writing a weekly post on the subject. Who knows? Maybe I will pique the curiosity of somebody who never even thought of such a thing!

The logical time to begin a series on the subject of school might seem to be August or September, when our thoughts turn to a new academic year. Indeed, just about every August, someone with a child about to enter kindergarten will ask me The Question: What curriculum did you use? They think they already know the answer. Of course, because we are Christians, we must have used XYZ Christian Curriculum. But they are wrong. I cannot answer their question with a simple one minute answer. Furthermore, the time to be asking this question is not seven days before school starts!

I understand that circumstances sometime arise which require a parent to make a quick decision regarding school for their child. Having taken the drastic action of pulling a child out of the local public school, the parent is desperately trying to find out what to do next. If that is the case, my first advice is to pray! For some reason, we often seem to wait until things get out of control before we ask God for guidance. Believe me, God knows what's best for you and your child, and He will show you the way, if you ask. But then, after that, you had better start doing your homework! Get busy and learn everything you can about the legal requirements where you live, find a homeschool support group, and educate yourself. Books and websites on the topic abound, and the amount of teaching material that exists is astounding.

In this series, however, I plan to begin at the beginning. Why on earth would we have chosen to teach our own kids? How did we figure out what to do? How did we do it? Did it work? And, of course, the answer to The Question: What curriculum did we use?

Join me as I take a trip down memory lane and share our adventures. Don't miss a post. You can sign up, on the right (web version), to follow by email. Feel free to post questions or comments below and share with your friends and family!