How Our Journey Begins

Scroll down to What we're doing now... for recent updates!

Yep, this is me.

Honestly, I never had imagined us being homeschoolers. The thought never really crossed my mind. When our oldest daughter was almost 3 years old we enrolled her in a daycare/preschool program. My husband and I were hoping to soon be expecting our second child, and my pregnancy was going to be monitored as high risk which would require at least three appointments/week during my last trimester. Without any extended family in the area, the preschool with flexible extended care if necessary seemed like just what we all needed. Natalie enjoyed going right from the start - there were a couple rough days in the first week, but otherwise she really liked it there. In spite of attending only 3 mornings/week (for a total of 10.5 hours each week), she made numerous friends and adapted to their routine.

For the most part, her preschool experience seemed to be going well, but there would be occasional instances that made me think maybe the school wasn't for us. The deciding factor for me came at the end of the year. Her teachers sent home a "report card" which listed our child's skills, and the child that they were describing was (academically) NOT the child we were seeing at home. There were areas they showed her unable to perform in that we were seeing her do everyday at home. It was really disappointing to me. After over a year with these teachers, they still didn't have a good sense of who she was and what she could do.

At about this same time I remember having a lightbulb moment in my kitchen one morning while doing play dough with Natalie. She was rattling off some obscure facts about dinosaurs, counting them, talking about there colors and I realized that in her first 4 years she had come to learn all these things through MY guidance. Without the burden of self-awareness, I had been teaching her since birth. Why do I need to turn her over to a stranger to continue her education at the compulsory age of attendance? By the time kindergarten rolls around I will have had more than five years of getting to know my daughter - her interests, her strengths, her weaknesses. I can't expect even the best of teachers to have the time (with 19+ other 4 and 5 year olds to contend with) or the inclination to get to know Natalie the way I do.

So, at a time when most parents of 4 year olds were looking to enroll their child in preschool, we were taking ours out. It's been great so far!

Can I do this?

Well, I sure hope so! I really am pretty optimistic. The nice part about starting this journey at the preschool age is that we can test the waters without any real pressure. Here in California, the compulsory age of attendance (when a child must, by law, attend school) is 6, which technically gives us through the end of kindergarten before we need to make any statements about our schooling situation. As my husband said to me "What's the worst you can do? Make her smarter than the other kids?"

Both my husband and I are college educated - I have a BA in Philosophy, and he has a Master's in Electrical Engineering. This also gives me confidence. Between our two backgrounds and varied interests, I believe we have a lot to offer to our children's education. Sure there's a lot I don't know, but I am looking forward to learning things alongside my children as their interests develop. Already I know more than I ever thought I would about sharks and dinosaurs (2 of our daughter's favorite subjects), and I've recently been studying weather in preparation for a unit on the subject next month.

As the start of kindergarten approaches I admit that I am feeling nervous. Are we making the right choice? How will this affect her if we decide this isn't working out for us and she ends up going to public school? One of the best outlets for me has been our local young homeschoolers support group for parents homeschooling children under the age of 8, or those considering homeschooling and looking for information. Kids in attendance at our parkdays range in age from a few weeks old to pre-teens, but it's monopolized by 4-7 year olds. Our group branched off of a larger support group for all ages of homeschoolers. It's definitely nice to see real people - normal people :) - taking this step in educating their children as well. Having other home schooling families to talk to helps keep the what-ifs at bay. Internet message boards have also been an invaluable supply of information for the many questions I've already found myself asking.

Our Style

Once you start researching homeschooling, you discover that there are as many different ways to homeschool as there are homeschoolers. Less than a year into this journey, already our style has undergone a series of evolutions. At first I really intended to unschool entirely (I take this to mean letting my child learn through her day to day experiences without any "steering" from me). That seemed to be how she had learned for the past four years anyway, so why mess with what was working? Unfortunately for me, once we took her out of school and suddenly applied this label of "homeschooling", I was no longer able to just "let it all go" and feel confident that she would learn all she needed to learn. I suddenly feel compelled to "teach" her things, mostly to ease my insecurities and to have something quantifiable to show that this was really going to work.

I then did a 180, and began looking into a packaged curriculum for next year. The security of a packaged curriculum is in knowing we aren't "forgetting" anything. That could be very reassuring. There are some awesome curriculums out there. During this search I also learned about charter schools, and about the "politics" of homeschooling. There are some interesting issues afoot out there in the world of homeschooling! I think I've decided to forgo this approach for now, but I could see us coming back to it at a later date.

Then I read a copy of The Well Trained Mind, which is a very detailed account of the why's and how-to's of a classical home education. I'm not sure that their exact approach is for us, but I really like the literature based education. One thing I do know is that we will definitely use living books to teach history to our kids. I wish I had been taught history that way as a child - then maybe I would have had more interest in the subject, and might have a better sense of when and why things happened in the past. Can't wait to learn with the kids in this area!

At about this same time I also started researching the Charlotte Mason method, and took a look over at Ambleside Online. It's also a classical approach, and has an important element of nature study to it as well. CM also relies heavily on the use of narration in making sure children understand what they are learning. What better way to know you have a grasp of something than to be able to clearly articulate that knowledge to someone else?

As we stand now (2004 - age 4 1/2), we're pursuing kind of a child-led unit studies approach, which is pretty much what we've always done, but now with more guidance. When Natalie develops an interest or asks a question about something that requires more information, we head to the library. We read, read, and read some more. We are supplementing this with a phonics program (AlphaPhonics) and math (Singapore Math - Earlybird Kindergarten Math). And we're trying to read some good age-appropriate literature, as well as some more challenging literature (we've recently read Call of the Wild, Black Beauty, and Heidi). I'm sure our style will change as we grow as homeschoolers. We'll see where this takes us!

What we're doing now...

2004-2005 (Kindergarten)

We have decided to join California Virtual Academy (CAVA @ Kern) which utilizes the K12 curriculum. I've been intrigued by K12 for over a year now, and just haven't seen anything else out there that even comes close to the quality of the courses offered (I'm sure all parents must feel this way about the curriculum or style of hsing they choose to utilize!).

In choosing to enroll in CAVA, we are technically no longer homeschooling, but rather I am public schooling Natalie at home (although I'm hoping my friends won't make me turn in my homeschooling card! ;)). I will be responsible for tracking her attendance this year, as well as having phone conferences with our assigned teacher, and face-to-face meetings 3 times/year. Should we choose to continue with CAVA in the future, we would also have to agree to state testing.

All this in exchange for getting our desired curriculum for "free". I put free in quotations because in accepting CAVA's resources I feel that I am having to give up many of the freedoms that homeschooling allows. At the same time, Brian likes the security of being part of a "real" school (even though by law Natalie does not *need* to be enrolled in school this year, and nevermind that when we would eventually file an R-4, our school we be every bit as real as any other private school! No matter... that's a vent for another day!) We will try it for this year, and if it's not a good fit, we can always go independent. In the meantime, we will have had the opportunity to test-drive a great curriculum that we may choose to purchase on our own in the future! Also, importantly, we will still be able to watch and help Natalie to make good choices as she learns about friendship, respect (for herself and others), and being part of a community.

Natalie's extra-curricular activites this fall will include: science club (through Science Adventures), soccer, and karate (beginning her second year at Karate Kids).

January 8, 2005

I am really happy with our choice of K12 as our curriculum! It's such a well thought out program - all the subjects intertwine. History is fantastic - Natalie really enjoys learning about all the different countries around the globe. The literature selections are wonderful, and the goal of the language arts program is to really teach these kindergartners to think analytically about what they are reading. They approach the stories and poems from all different directions, and provide a variety of activities to reinforce ideas. Phonics has been just awesome. It was just what I needed to help Natalie learn to read. She's really doing great. It's still a struggle for her to sit and do the Oral Reading. There's a perfectionist lurking in there, and she's unhappy that she doesn't real aloud "like Mommy does". Science(K) is adequate, though weak by comparison to the quality of some of the other subjects. I really have no complaints (okay, I really don't like the Music program, but that might be a personal hang up, LOL). As for the charter, it's kind of a draw. I love our teacher! Her communication with us has been excellent - she always gets back to us quickly and lets us know when there are things we need to be aware of. I've been a little troubled by some last minute additions at the beginning of the school year that put more pressure on parents to have their children participate in additional testing, not mentioned prior to enrollment. It doesn't seem to bother the parents that are directly effected, so it probably shouldn't bother me. Most are just happy to have this quality program available for free. The only other thing I've noticed is that I'm really a slave to the lesson schedule. We are required to attain a certain level of completion of lessons for the year, which makes me feel compelled to plug away at our subjects each day. That's good and bad - it keeps me focused on the task at hand, but it also causes me to scale back on the sorts of activities I had envisioned us participating in as homeschoolers. I just don't feel like we have the time to spare. I know that what will probably happen is that we'll finish our lessons a month early, and have four weeks of fieldtrips at the end of May! I know I won't rest until then though. I don't think we'll go with a charter again in the future - but I know better than to say never!

April 19, 2005

Still mulling over what I want to do about a curriculum for next year - debating about whether I want to continue with the rigors of the K12 curriculum, or take more of unit studies approach to our homeschooling. I think it's the spring fever talking! I was also trying to decide which subjects I'd want to purchase from K12 - specifically trying to decide if the science course was really worth it. So I decided to consult the CA dept. of education's website and look at the First Grade Science Scope and Sequence. Do you know what I found out? In K12 KScience this year, we have covered all of the Kindergarten S&S, about 90% of 1st grade S&S, and will soon be covering the physics portion of 2nd grade S&S! So that set aside any fears about getting everything covered that the public schools are covering. I think we'll stick with the plan of going independent and purchasing K12 next year, but I'll still need to decide whether to do Science and History year round, or schedule them in 6 month blocks. Already decided not to order Art and Music. We'll stick with singing, recorder class, and painting, coloring, crafts and playdough!

Over the summer we'll complete First Grade math with our access to the On-Line School through the charter, as well as continuing to build phonics and reading skills. So for fall, Natalie should be ready to roll with the reading, and she'll be starting 2nd grade math. I think I forgot to mention that she's been in a Daisy Girl Scout troop this year with some other girls from our homeschool group. They've earned all their petals, and are getting ready to do a Mother/Daughter campout with an older troop on Mother's Day weekend. Come fall, the girls will be bridging to Brownies!