1) Kevin has always been excited about homeschooling and has convinced me that I can do it, and that learning together as a family and passing on a love for learning is a wonderful thing and a way of life.
2) I read all the “wrong” books. This past year I have read numerous books about how children should learn and have been convinced in my own philosophy of education. I have done a lot of research and we have chosen a program to help us homeschool in a “classical” style (I will write more on this in another post). I am now convinced that Meredith (and my other children) will get the best academic education possible.
3) I have seen first-hand the benefits of preschooling Meredith at home. There were many times I would have loved to have shipped her off to preschool (they are tough years and not my favorite), but we have worked through all of that. She is my buddy. I am very pleased with her inward character development. We have worked hard together and I am now benefitting from this. The “terrible twos” and “whiny threes” are over. I would miss her so much if I only saw her on evenings and weekends.
4) I do not feel that evenings and weekends are enough time. Education is about much more than academics. I want more time to continue to mold her character. I do not want to have to rush to get her off to the school bus every day. I have noticed that mid-mornings are often the time we have the most conversations about life and faith and things that matter.
5) I want to travel with my kids during the school year. I want my kids to have many hands-on learning experiences.
6) I want my children to have the bonding experience of learning together as a family, and having lots of family read-aloud time together. I want them to love learning and love books and am excited to be able to model this to them.
We have found an excellent classical homeschool support group. The kids and I are making some great friends – we have accountability and community. Here are the girls on the first day of homeschool group, Meredith’s first official day of kindergarten:
3 comments:
I think it's awesome that you really thought through all of that.
There are days when I think I don't want to do the work. And I'm glad I'm still a year out at least. But I can tell the time is getting closer and I really ought to buckle down and prepare myself a little bit more.
Which books did you read and would you recommend?
Carrie, I'll post this book list in the next day or two! :)
Obviously, I am a month behind on blog reading :) One that that I really respect about you is that you have studied and developed reasoning for your decision to homeschool. So many people do it out of pressure or because alternatives haven't been successful. I think you preparation will fuel the fire through the hard times. Good work!
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