I first read about the benefits of homeschooling when we were awaitng the birth of our oldest son Ian. I had beeen researching Attachment Parenting and I think it was in Mothering Magazine that I had first came across an article on homeschooling. Though it was not something that I had really thought about, I knew that I wanted to look more into what it entailed. Almost five years later, and here we are homeschooling for the first time this September.
I have put alot of thought and time into learning about Homeschooling. It is a decision that has not been made lightly. The concept is not as strait forward as some may think. There are so many "ways" to homeschool. Different philsophies. It was interesting learning about them all and seeing what would fit within our family.
Initially, I thought that we would use a Waldorf curriculum exclusively, but over the last year I have been reading about so many other ways to homeschool that make sense and that I want to incorporate. I find some of the principles of Montessori and unschooling very appealing. We have decided to not define our homeschooling practice. I think it will evolve over time to what it is meant to be and how it will work with each of our children's personalities. Right now, the best way to describe it is eclectic.
We are starting early homeschooling our son. Ian does not turn five until December. I still wrestle with the idea of starting him too early. I initially thought we would wait until he was closer to six but my son says that he is ready and he wants to learn. My husband agrees. Why put a stop to his natural curiosity and desire to learn?
Child led learning has been taking place informally in our home. Ian has learned his numbers and most of his alphabet all by himself. He is even starting to tell time and do simple addition and subtraction. This is where the unschooling philosophy has been unveiling itself to us.
Most of all, the main reason I want to homeschool is so that Ian will LOVE learning. I don't really want it to be dictated to him what he should learn in an environment with too many students and only one teacher in a way that may not take into concern his natural learning style. Also we want to spend more time outside learning from nature and we want to learn together as a family.
We have decided since this is our first year of homeschooling that we wanted a curriculum to follow just in case we had no idea what we were doing. Oak Meadow has spoken to us. It embodies so much of our family values. It is a very gentle curriculum which is Waldorf inspire and nature based. When we were looking at curriculumm Oak Meadow jumped out to both of us. It just makes sense. So we will be following the Kindergarten curriculum this year and supplementing Ian's interests as well. It is a win win for all I think. We will take what works for us and what Ian is interested in and go from there. The curriculum is gentle which suits this mama. Ian will have is formal learning time that he has been asking for. I think we will all be happy. I can't wait to see what this journey will bring over the next year:)
