February Sonlight Blog Party! How we decided to homeschool

The short answer: we didn't. Fell into it face first like slipping in a muddy puddle.

My oldest, E, has a late September birthday. In order to begin kindergarten, she had to have turned 5 by September 1. My husband couldn't understand why she couldn't start school - she was ready, she was smart, etc. Finally, he said, well you're home. Teach her something here. We figured we'd put her in kindergarten the following year as normal. Somewhere along the line, I found the Well-Trained Mind book. When I looked up on the internet, I found a WTM forum. This was in 2004. By December, I was convinced I would homeschool and prepared to explain to dh all the benefits and whys of doing so.

Sometime during that year, I came across Sonlight. I read the marvelous catalog full of book descriptions, and was hooked. I got some of the Preschool books (there was only one preschool core at the time), and the IG and we started.

When Kindergarten rolled around, we looked at each other and decided she was too immature to be in a classroom with 20 other kids and no real guidance. Then, he related to me all the reasons why she should stay home anyway - all those reasons I had read about (and he had not) and was prepared to explain to him. He looked at me, and said (in Spanish), "Did she learn anything with you this year?" I answered, "Ask her anything about plants."

I think he'd had enough of plants, lol! That was her self-chosen study, and it lasted all year. We had checked out every plant book and video from the libraries. It was at that age she fell in love with Nigel (you know, the BBC narrator guy).

Anyway, we said we'd continue doing what we were doing for the semester and revisit after Christmas. After Christmas, we were like, why start and stop something in the middle of the year? So we decided to revisit at the end of K.

At the end of K, we looked at each other and said, "why fix something that ain't broke?" And, thus, began our homeschooling journey.

And, yes, this is late for the FEBRUARY Sonlight Blog Party. But, it is what it is.

Sonlight Blog Party


Comments

Popular Posts