Teresa at Three Thinking Mothers wrote a wonderful post today about transitioning from school to home.† It is a must read!

She talks about how she considered homeschooling before her girls even started school.† I did too.† I always wanted to homeschool Kei.† She thrived in public school.† There was no bad times, nobody mean to her, no one thing that made me say, “That is it, I am homeschooling you.”† One of the main problems I had with it was I wasn’t crazy about how ‘boy crazy’ the kindergarten girls seemed to be. It was unbelievable to me.† I mean I had boys I liked in K but they took it to extremes.† Thankfully Kei was never really like that.† She still isn’t. This may be due to the fact that she is marrying Johnny Depp and that is that! 🙂

But it was always there.† I had tons of information, sites bookmarked, lesson plans, books.† I was very worried that I couldn’t do it.† “What if I ruined her?”.† Looking back it was so silly.† I mean who could teach her better?† Me, who knew her inside out and had just her all day long or a teacher, full of a room of kids, overcrowded, overworked, worrying about discipline and test scores.† She had a wonderful year in Kindergarten, was the teacher’s pet, loved everything about it.† 1st grade was much the same but still the thought niggled at the back of my brain constantly.

Kei was in her first play at age 6 and I met a family that homeschooled.† I quizzed and questioned that poor Mom every time I saw her.† She had 4 kids and they were amazing children.† They acted, sang and danced and played instruments…all the things Kei loved to do.† I begin to think more seriously about it.† I had a friend whose sister homeschooled.† I would call her and ask her all sorts of crazy questions.

Kei started 2nd grade.† It was the first Monday after school had started on Tuesday.† Her teacher didn’t seem as dedicated this year,† she had just gotten married and seemed more interested in her new life.† There were more kids in her class.† She was bored and doing the other kids work for them when she was done.† One of my favorite stories was when she was helping a little girl count M&M’s for charting and she told me, “Mom she kept eating the M&M’s”.

I picked her up on Monday and said, “How would you like to be homeschooled?” And she said, “Oh please, I would love it”.† Next day, I went to the school and unenrolled her.† Just like that.† No clue..no plans..no cover school. :)† I didn’t know exactly what I wanted to do.† I loved the idea of unschooling and still find myself very drawn to it.† I love Charlotte Mason, love Unit Studies, love Well Trained Mind.

I found out very early that we were not a ‘buy a curriculum and go’ kinda girls.† I loved spending time searching for lesson plans and ideas.† I still love that so much.† Yes it is time consuming but it is so worth it. Aren’t homeschool Mom’s the BEST?? Anytime I try to search for a certain lesson plan I type in, ‘Ancient Greece homeschool” because I KNOW I will find the greatest things that way.† Everything didn’t work. I LOVE the idea of lapbooks.† Loved the way all the completed lapbooks looked but I felt like we were spending all our time cutting and gluing instead of learning.† I still love them and have to make myself NOT buy them.† We did several but Kei never fell in love with them.

One thing we did the first week was go to a Homeschool event.† I had heard about how great our local HS group was and we went to an inside playground.† This is the best advice anyone can give you.† FIND A GROUP.† The women I met were amazing! I was full of questions and they answered all of them.† In fact the first few women I met ended up being my very best friends.† We have a great HS group but we have a core group of about 7 Moms and 13 kids that we spend tons of time with.† It makes all the difference.† The thing I love about HS Moms is they are all so invested in their kids learning.† Not that they have the right clothes or get invited to the right parties or watch the right TV shows, just that their kids are the best they can be.† These are Moms who make time to talk and laugh and bond.† They are not dropping off their kids and running to work/home/gym.† The ones I have met are such ‘stop and smell the roses’ kind of people.† I love that!

I an an observer of people. I watch the kids at homeschool events and get togethers.† They honestly seem kinder, more willing to help each other, to have each others back.† I love the way they play together, all ages not dividing up by gender and age.† They seem more laid back, not so stressed about life.† Their play seems more complex, they are interested in so many things.† I think it is that they are allowed to be their true self.† They don’t have to pretend not to like something because someone will think they aren’t ‘cool’.

Kei’s K and 1st grade teachers both told me the same thing, that she was one of the most confident kids they had seen.† I wanted her to keep that confidence and she has.† She has thrived and learned so much.† The things she learns she remembers.† I love that she learns for life not for a test.

This is a journey, just like Theresa said.† A wonderful, beautiful, amazing journey.† Every day is different, there are few things written in rock.† Plans change and we change with the days.† We laugh and love and learn, always learn.† Seriously, what could be greater than that?

Karen

A journey is a person in itself; no two are alike. And all plans, safeguards, policing, and coercion are fruitless. We find that after years of struggle that we do not take a trip; a trip takes us. ~John Steinbeck

“A child miseducated is a child lost.” ~ John F. Kennedy