:: Tell us a little bit about yourself and your family, as well as how long you have been homeschooling.
My husband Adam and I got married right out of college ten years ago. We have three great kids - Anna is almost 8, Ariel almost 5, and Jordan is 10 months. We have homeschooled from the beginning. Even though my husband and I both attended traditional public and private schools, we knew this was right for us from the get-go.
Even though we school year-round, we do take a short break when we finish a curriculum. There's just no guarantee we will start our school year in August or September with the rest of the Back-to-school crew! But no matter when we start, I always take back-to-school photos of each kid and a video of them answering the same set of 'interview' questions each year (favorite foods, what do you want to be when you grow up, etc.). They like looking back on these videos and seeing how they and their answers have grown.
We tend to dive right in to take advantage of motivation and momentum while we have it. The main reason we school year-round is that I can't guarantee I'll make it through five days every week, and we tend to take a lot (planned and unplanned) of time off for travel and activities.
This is the question people ask the most and I still don't have a succinct answer. Homeschooling just 'feels right' for us. But it comes down to a combination of things. Firstly, I believe I, and not the government, am responsible for preparing my children for their future in this world. Secondly, I only get a relatively short tie with them, and I want to spend it making memories, not reminding them to do their homework. Thirdly, I love the freedom homeschooling offers. We have the opportunity to experience so many things because we can travel outside the walls, schedule and calendar of the public schools. We can develop relationships with what we are learning about and make it a personal lesson that we own. For example: recently, instead of reading about bees in a book, we visited a friend's beehive and tasted their honey. We also had the flexibility to travel south to the St. Louis area during the Solar Eclipse to be in the path of totality. The homeschool lifestyle gives us a chance to experience that life itself is the lesson.
We really don't have a typical day and are off the chart of schedules and rhythms. I aspire to routines, but there always seems to be some activity that throws us off. At the moment, what works for us is lists. I let the kids know in the morning if we will be attending an activity out of the house and what time we will need to leave. I write a list for each of them, dividing up what we need to accomplish for the day and whether we will do it before or after said activity. It helps keep us all on task so we can experience the fun things but still accomplish academic progress.
We land somewhere between Charlotte Mason and Classical with a but of Montessori thrown in. I believe strongly in giving my kids a liberal arts education with a good grasp on history, and we do a lot of reading in our house. But, I also want to take advantage of the fact that at home, we can play to their strengths and indulge their interests, so I will certainly follow them down the path of discovery when it's feasible.
We are currently using My Father's World: Rome to the Reformation. It's technically not for my kid's grade level, but we were going chronologically through history using Simply Charlotte Mason before we switched, and this package was the next logical place to continue that. I love all that the curriculum offers, but it's my first year using a boxed curriculum and I do find myself struggling to stay 'on the schedule.' The kids love it because it encourages me to do a lot more 'projects' than I would ever plan on my own, and they are learning a lot. I'm not ready to decide if I'll use it again next year or not, though.
Thank you so much for taking the time to talk with us Sarah! Have a great school year.
Channon
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