I like to imagine spending days with my children like this, untethered to the typical rigidity of having to adhere to scheduled lesson plans, unaffected by social pressures such as fierce academic competition, and unaware of the large blocks of time we spend doing things we love while learning. This scholastic utopia seems a little out of reach to me at this juncture, mainly because I've yet to figure out how I'm going to successfully pull this homeschooling gig off, and partly because we haven't decided which direction we're going in. I'm glad I started planning this long before my kids are even ready for preschool, because it's clearly going to take a lot of effort on our parts to construct an at-home program that we're comfortable with.
The most difficult choice involving homeschooling our kids hasn't been arriving at the decision to educate them from home - that part came fairly easy. The difficulty is deciding which method would best suit our family and our kid's learning styles, which honestly - at two years and 17 months of age, I've yet to fully identify with. We're still figuring that part out. I found after a rudimentary scrub of the internet that there's a LOT to choose from. I've researched them till I was blue in the face, and I'm pretty certain that we're not going to bank on one set method, but rather customize our own program using the features that resonate with all five of us, as a family unit. That is to say, I'm taking everyone's considerations (including the kids) into perspective and doing my darndest to choose what will be the best fit. And I'm allowing LOTS of room for revising, redoing, and completely changing our minds as we grow and learn together.
What began as a personal research project (using the internet, books, and virtually EVERY blog I could find on the subject) turned into a 5-part blog series, because I'm thorough as hell and like to have material I've paraphrased available and at the ready, should I decide to change gears mid-school year. Please note that this was NOT written to critique other people's homeschooling methods. What works for others may not work for our family, and vice-versa. I simply journal'd my findings so that it will help our family decide which teaching model we're going to use to educate our children when it's time. Lucky for me, I've still got TWO years of the terrible-twos to contend with first, which is really just an incredibly long string of diaper changes, tantrums, and food being hurled in my general direction. Oh, and cheering on my husband as he toils and labors at remodeling our 2-car garage into something resembling a classroom before our schooling begins. But I'd be wise to not pressure him about that particular up-and-comer project, as right now he's in the throes of building the MOTHER OF ALL swingset/playhouse/backyard-fun-ensembles that we're hoping will be ready by Easter. That's going to be a whole other post. GOOD TIMES!!!
But back to the not-so-perfunctory task of choosing a homeschool method - below are my (highly opinionated) reviews of a few of these education methods, and what I feel are the pros and cons where the style of teaching and curriculum are concerned. I'll be adding to this as my drafts are completed.
Links to Parts I-IV:
Building Our Homeschool Foundation - Part I: The Charlotte Mason Method
Building Our Homeschool Foundation - Part II: The Classical Education (Trivium) Method
Building Our Homeschool Foundation - Part III: The Montessori Method
Building Our Homeschool Foundation - Part IV: The Unschooling Method
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