Planning to Homeschool

I am so excited about homeschooling my boys.

I am excited about the benefits to them: personalized pacing, one-on-one instruction, freedom from government indoctrination, a rich feast of subject material, a preserved love of learning, opportunities for hands-on experimentation, and more free time.

I am excited about the benefits to our family: flexibility, friendship between siblings, preservation of parental authority, time to enjoy each other, and transmission our family and religious culture to the next generation.

I am also excited for myself. I am excited about the creative challenge of designing and leading my own homeschool.

I have enjoyed daydreaming about homeschooling for the past few years. I have explored lots of different ideas and peeked in on lots of other homeschooling families via blogs and the internet. I have flirted with running a Waldorf-pure, simply Charlotte Mason, strictly classical, or wildly unschooled classroom and spent many happy hours imagining those possibilities. But I don't really want to adopt a plan formulated by an external expert; I want to make a plan that is perfect for me and my boys.

So now the challenge begins. I have a year before Soren hits first grade. This is my year to lay the groundwork for our very own school. I don't want to have anything set in stone (flexibility is one of the great benefits of homeschool!) but I do want to have some practical ideas and goals for myself as a teacher. What should Soren learn? What is the best way to teach those things? What do I need to prepare?

I am going to spend this month brainstorming. It won't be pretty but I want to get all the ideas in one place. Please, please, please contribute your thoughts in the comments. Most of "my" good ideas have come from other people and I'm sure that you have some good ideas, too.

Comments

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Mom Remembers

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