Homeschooling

I have wanted to do a post about homeschooling for a while. I am a big believer in it. We are in our 15th year. I would be lying if I said it was perfect. It's not. It is good though. We started the year SUU girl was in 2nd grade, Johnathon was in 1st, and Hobbes was in Kindergarten. We have had some stellar years and not so stellar years. The last several have been pretty bleak at times. It is difficult to be a working mom and a homeschooling mom. Things are getting better.

2007-08 and 2008-09 were supplemented by our participation in a co-op which kept the homeschooling option viable for our family. We had a fabulous group of families that participated with fantastic children that all got along well. It was pretty perfect. We met together on Thursdays. We divided the children into 3 age groups: the littles, the middles and the olders. The moms took turns teaching history, english, or science. It was well structured thanks to Teri Ebert who wrote the 4 year plan and has instituted it for many years much to the benefit of many families and my family in particular. Not only have my children learned much, made great friends and had some spectacular learning experiences, it is through our co-op, or group school, that we ended up with our fabulous neighbors--longtime co-op friends, the Capozzoli's.

My partner for those two years was my forever friend, and homeschooling mentor, Danielle. There is no better partner in the homeschooling world. She picked up a lot of slack for me lots of times. Which I appreciate. Here is a picture of her teaching the littles about plants. Since the
whiteboards were occupied indoors she had the presence of mind to use the tree as a bulletin board so the children could see the words she was teaching them about. She is a brilliant teacher. All of the moms in that co-op were truly remarkable women. Our association with them for those two years was an enormous blessing educationally, socially and spiritually. They continue to touch and bless our lives in countless ways. I miss being with them. I miss group school Thursdays.

This year I felt that we should opt out of co-op. I knew that I was dividing myself too many different ways with work, daily homeschool, life in general, and grad school. I am at peace with the decision.

The whole point of this diatribe is to give a little background to my next great goal. As I have mentioned, we have been a little lax with our home school and I need to crank things up a notch or two or ten. So, this post is an announcement that I will be doing atleast a weekly homeschool post. In the spirit of goal setting that was launched by my daily blogging goal, I am determined to return to the ranks of disciplined, daily homeschoolers.... More tomorrow.