Like I said in my post "Reasons For Homeschooling", I was very against hsing. God continued to guide me and I read everything about hsing that I could get my hands on. There was a lady at our church who homeschooled and I asked her a million questions. She was helpful but I'm not sure how willing she actually was to help. (She had like, 8 kids!) I didn't have anyone take me under their wing and help me. It was God who directed me all the way.
I want to be that source for people. I want to help people get their homeschool up and running or just give seasoned hsers a link, idea or inspiration to CHILL OUT! :)
I started off doing "school at home". This approach has the highest burnout rate and I now know why. It was very frustrating for me and even more so for my son. (The poor little guy!) I thought the strict schedule would work for me as I am a black and white thinker and list maker. I like order.
As time went by I started to
loosen up. I ended up going with the "eclectic style" but still on the strict side of schooling at home. Even though we were eclectic in our pics, there were still way too many tears being shed by all!
Just a year ago, I noticed how fun it is to be "relaxed" in our school day. I realized that we could do games, art and field trips along with our math and reading. I became more RELAXED in other things like science and history. Science and history weren't totally neglected, we just made them a part of everyday life. They ARE a part of everyday life!
Ever since we became more relaxed and
creative in our approach, there have been way
less tears. I haven't felt the need to threaten them that I was going to send them to school. That mommy meltdown usually happened once or twice a year. (Yes, it's true, I used to resort to threats in the midst of my tears.) I NEVER meant it for a second!
WARNING: I am about to get personal! My Dream Latte is a pastor and we were in a very tough church. (Yes, unfortunately, some "Christians" don't act like they love Jesus.) After about 5 years, some people came to us and said that they thought we should all start a new church in the next town. Well, as it turned out, that is exactly what God would have us to do!
In order to do this, we had to give up our home (the church house). We are now living at my in-laws'. Over the past year of living here, we have changed the way we school yet again. We are still very dedicated to math and reading but we do some other subjects together. We started doing Bible, history and geography together. I didn't realize it at the time but God was leading us toward doing a unit study!
We just finished all of our
curriculum for the year (except math) and needed to figure out
what we are doing next. I decided to
de-school for 2 weeks. In de-schooling, we did math and reading and the rest of the day they were able to be creative and learn whatever they wanted. They chose to do photography, art lessons on you tube, Lego's and movie making.
In the second week of de-schooling, our homeschool co-op started Spanish so we really began to focus on that. It has been so much fun for all of us! (We go to a local co-op once a week and take Spanish, art and forensic science.)
During the first week of de-schooling, I realized that we were going into the direction of unit studies so I began to look into them. One of the first ones that I found was "Learning Adventures". I am so excited to say that it is on order and will soon be here! I will keep you posted through my blog to let you know how it is going.
Since living at my in-laws, we have been forced to be
together more. We are seeing how important it is to help out, get along and show love to each other. Even though we would like our own home, it is amazing to see how we have
ALL grown and learned
valuable life lessons. The lessons along the way have been priceless. I can't wait to praise my God in Heaven when He blesses us with our own home but until then, I will continue to
praise Him through the hard times!
If you have read this far down the page, bless your heart! I hope to encourage you by our story and "The Homeschooler Cafe'" blog. Please leave a comment and let me know if you have found anything useful!
Latte Lady
