When I first set out to homeschool my boys, I think I was like most beginning homeschool mom's.  I had a huge list of resources, materials, textbooks, workbooks, etc. that I honestly believed I *needed*.  Problem was, it was HUNDREDS of dollars...money we just simply did not have.  It didn't occur to me then, that my local library was a free and very valuable resource, nor did using the internet occur to me.  Boy was I ever lost! 

 

Swimming in this sea of bewilderment, with only a list of what my son needed to know, a child that wanted to learn, some workbooks from Wal-Mart, a few shelves of story books collected over the years, and part of a used Abeka Kindergarten curriculum set (student booklets only) I set out on an adventure.

 

At first, our homeschool was "public school at home".  Before long, both myself and my son hated it.  I think when that happened was when I first took a step back and began to really "research" homeschooling.  How did other families do this?  Surely someone out there had to have a better idea than I did!  Not to mention, that was also the school year that we got hit by several hurricanes almost back to back, and later a tornado that destroyed our home.  Good thing I wasn't keeping an "attendance record" that year!  LOL.  After the tornado was when I first began to realize that just about everything in the boys lives involved some sort of learning.  And being out of our home for about a month, with very few "school supplies", I took advantage of every "educational" experience that I could.

 

By our second year of homeschooling, I was a bit better equipped.  I had bought a printer!  Talk about one very valuable homeschooling resource.  It's a lifesaver!  Suddenly I was able to produce and keep better records, obtain worksheets, etc.  That was the point that using the internet for homeschooling really came into play.  But, I was still pretty clueless about these things called "Unit Studies" for a while.  But, that changed when I got bored one day when the kids were sick.  I got this bright idea to create a "unit study" that was mostly "just for fun" that dealt with decorating a bedroom.  It included math, art, etc. and I put quite a bit of thought and planning into it.  It was a hit, and gave me a much needed boost in confidence, a way of patting myself on the back and saying "You can do this!"  This was also the year that we became "year around schoolers".  I thought long and hard about this before doing it, but well...with homeschooling, you just don't really need a long summer vacation.  And, it's been proven that children who continue learning during the summer months retain more knowledge of what they've learned from one year to the next. 

 

This year, has landed me on yet another path in homeschooling.  Armed with a Bible, printer, computer, encyclopedia, some workbooks from Wal-Mart, a dictionary, and some reading materails, I have set out to "formally" homeschool two boys, one in Kindergarten and one in "advanced" 2nd grade.  For the most part, they share the same science, history, geography, art, music, etc. classes.  I teach both of them at the same time with mostly the same material.  And our main "text book" is...the encyclopedia!  Yes, you heard me correctly, I'm using the encyclopedia for a text book.  In it, we have found our science lessons, history lessons, some geography lessons, and much more. 

 

So, I guess that you could say that I've learned a lot about homeschooling over the years.  As well as learning about myself, my kids, and I think all of us are enjoying "school" now.  And sometimes, I feel like I'm learning as much if not more than they are!