Homeschool FAQ

Don't you all worry!  This isn't going to become a homeschool blog.  I may post about some of the fun things we do, just like other mom's may post about what their kids did in school, but I'm not really interested in documenting every single little lesson of every single day.  But.... I keep getting asked a lot of questions about us homeschooling.  So I figured I would just go ahead and write a post to answer those questions.

"Did you always want to home school?"

NO!  Actually, a direct quote from my 21 year old self to my sister in law who was homeschooling her children was, "I know never to say never, but the ONE THING I can say I will NEVER do is homeschool my children."  Yep. I said it. Never.  That's what my college roommate and I use to call "the God tricked you game".  You know...when you make a plan, and then he laughs and says "now I will make you do the exact opposite".  Michael has been talking about me homeschooling since before we even got married.  I wasn't as much on board, because there were some weird homeschool kids on my floor at college.  Plus, I just assumed that I would always have the opportunity to send my kids to a Christian school, so I wasn't really interested in homeschooling.  But here we are.  15 years after that quote, and I have definitely had a change of heart.  Honestly, I'm quite looking forward to it now!

"Are you going to homeschool through high school?"

I don't know.  If there's anything I've learned, it's to not make plans that far in advance.  I have no idea how long I will homeschool.  It could end up being just one year for all I know.  Things change.  Life happens.  Opportunities and circumstances change.  So my answer is that we are taking it one year at a time.  What I will say is that it would take a major overhauling of our hearts to want to send our children to public school.  And I don't forsee us having $10,000+ a year (PER KID!) to send our kids to private school.  No one is lining up to pay that for us, either.  So I wouldn't be surprised if we are in this for the long haul.  I just don't know.

"What curriculum are you using?"

Opening our box and unpacking all of the pieces!

First, let me say that because of my background, choosing a curriculum was actually fun for me!  I researched the heck out of the topic. There were things I knew I wanted, things I knew I definitely did not want, some curriculum I was very familiar with, and some I had never heard of before.  After much research, I decided on My Father's World.  It is a multi sensory curriculum, and it ties in the theme for each week across all subjects.  My Father's World is obviously a Christian curriculum.  It was started by missionaries who were teaching their own children, and raising money to fund other missional work/translate Bibles.  Some of the money from my purchase still goes toward this today! From their website: (MFW) Combines the best of Charlotte Mason's ideas and classical education with a Biblical worldview, an international focus, and our own observations of how children learn.

I don't know if we will always use MFW, or if in the future I will piece together different curriculum.  But I really liked the way the Kindergarten year was laid out, so that is what we are going with for this year.

"What will you do with Logan?"

Everything I have read says that the little sibling often wants to just join in and be in the mix.

Here is my plan of attack:
1. Have supplies for him (paper/crayons) if he wants to sit at the table with us.
2. Let him join in with calendar time/science experiments, etc if he wants to
3. Have 2 to 3 of our out of reach educational toys/manipulatives available to him in the learning space (a la tot school) per week  These can only be used during learning times, and will be self led items.
4. He doesn't have to be in the space with us.  If he'd rather go play elsewhere, then that is fine.
5. If all else fails, he will have to play in his room by himself for some quiet time reinforcement.

He actually really enjoys learning, and he wants to do everything Olivia does, so I'm not anticipating him being a problem.  But if he is, we will set boundaries, rules, and consequences quickly on.
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"Are you joining a co-op?"

This is probably my most asked question.  My answer for now is no.  I know how it can be beneficial, and I realize people have concerns for socialization (not a concern for me).  I likely will join a co-op down the road if we stick with homeschooling for the long haul.  But right now, I'm already committed to being at MOPS and a MOPS type meeting every Wednesday morning from roughly 9 to noon.  So first of all, I don't want to give up another day for a co-op.  Secondly, if I did do a co-op, Logan would basically be put in a childcare type setting.  That sort of defeats the purpose for me.  If we do join, it will likely be when both kids are school age and could benefit from it.

So that's where we are at.  We are going to use a corner of a room for our homeschool spot.  We have a few more items to purchase, some organizing to do, and then we will get this party started. We will likely be starting in early to mid August.