A Series: Education at Home

I am attempting to write a series of posts about education at home. Having my children home with me is a very important part of our family life. I could not imagine my children being gone for seven to eight hours a day; they will be out of our home soon enough.
I am not even going into the why we educate at home, that isn't the purpose of this post.
I am going out on a limb here to say this but if you even entertain the idea of educating your children at home, they you probably could go ahead and do this. I mean if you have children you are qualified to educate them at home. Do not let the seed of doubt sprout in your mind and keep you from doing something so rewarding; yet so challenging. Speaking of challenging, if you choose to educate at home, you will be challenged. Patience? Yes, I used to have patience and then I had children! Seriously, I have no patience. I have to daily work on patience, daily people and I am not joking at all. The students challenge me and I do not have to just "make it through" this school year and pray for less challenging students "next" year. The same students show up year after year. Which, in reality, is great. I get to see them grow and they get to see me grow. Yep, they get to see Mom admit her failures and face her struggles and in the end I know we will all be the better for making this journey together. So this is just as much a learning and growing experience for me as it is for them.
Home education is no longer denim jumper clad women who grind their own wheat and make all the family's bread. (Not that there's anything wrong with that, I make my own bread and grind my own grain)  I am very thankful for those families who chose to educate at home when this was such a rare thing and many had to endure legal battles and home education in hiding to do what they knew was the right thing for their family. I think that there is a new face to home education. Just spend some time reading home education blogs and you will see. Children educated at home are no more different than the next kid. I can sure tell you that most can hold a conversation with an adult because they are not corralled off with a group of their peers to feast or famine through the education buffet that is out there.
Our Blessings have never attended school and I really cannot pinpoint a time where we struggled with whether or not we would send them to school, never. We just kept them home and kept going.
When Levi was seven years old and finishing up a school year of Bob Jones First grade curriculum, I attended my first curriculum fair here in our area. (This isn't a big homeschool conference like some may attend but the speakers are great and I learn every year. ) Joyce Herzog was the keynote speaker that year and our home education process has never been the same. I came home and threw out that curriculum that was causing me so much stress and never looked back. We began reading a book and learning! I enjoyed it and I think he did as well. You see, I had already been spending many hours researching methods, curriculum and education philosophies and Joyce just confirmed everything that I already knew. You see, that wonderful little curriculum was written for a classroom even though they have homeschool editions it still is the same as the classroom, full of busy work to pass the hours of the day and to make sure that each student "gets" what they should there is plenty of repetition. Not necessary for all subjects and for all learners.
Now, where do you begin? I suggest doing what I did when I began. Google the words home school and see what you get. I started there and kept going and going and going. There is so much information out there, glean from what others have learned. Take time and research. What would you do if you wanted to find a recipe? You would either ask a friend or "Google it", right? Well, spend some time reading and researching the topic you are wanting to learn about. Just remember that what you are reading is someone's opinion and take it for that. Keep reading....