Metamorphosis of a homeschool philosophy. Part 1

The last month or so my ideas and vision for homeschooling have been undergoing a metamorphosis. I like the term metamorphosis because I don't feel like they have undergone a mutation, but a natural maturing and development. I started out this year in the caterpillar stage, and now have moved to a pupal stage. It may take a long while for the butterfly to fully emerge and fly. But I am enjoying building my wings. So I want to share a series of posts about the process of my metamorphosis.

Like many I read lots of books, blogs, and message boards about homeschooling and started with a plan for K. I loved the book The Well Trained Mind. Classical Education resonated with me. Especially the emphasis on the integration of subjects.

Unlike some I wasn't particularly stressed about kindergarten. I have been blessed with a lot of favorable circumstances. Homeschooling is popular in my area, and OK with our extended family. My daughter has a very late birthday so easily could go to K next year if we wanted. But, she also happens to be very bright and enjoy academic type things. I love to teach, have a genius IQ, and feel comfortable with all things academic myself. Combine this with an almost no regulation state, and homeschooling was not daunting.

But, after we started I found that my daughters love of academics didn't carryover to daily mandatory lessons. I discovered that some of my carefully chosen curriculum didn't work for us, or didn't work consistently. It was a mix of being too easy, too boring, and too scattered (spiral). We tried some other curriculum and it had too many pieces etc... I loved parts of it, but not all of it. I still made it work, and we were learning, just not quite how I planned. Being frugal, it occurred to me to begin to reevaluate how I was doing this homeschooling thing. I didn't want to invest in the wrong curriculum, maybe there was a better way altogether.

To be continued...