Dear Friend,
I am glad for the opportunity to share what I know of homeschooling with you. Let me start by reminding you that I am not an expert! Both my knowledge and experiences are limited. I have dabbled in books and surfed the web enough to be familiar with the main arguments for and against homeschooling, the main teaching methods, and the well-known curriculum companies. Thus far, my experience in homeschooling has been with my oldest two kiddos. Seven year old Maggie learned to read easily and beautifully and follows along pretty well with whatever her teacher (that’s me!) assigns her (that’s most of the time, anyway). Simon is almost 5 and is progressing well with phonics and early reading through all kinds of move around, sing a song, and hide ‘n seek type games we play. Both really enjoy being read aloud to – which is one of my very favorite parts of our homeschooling days and a major way that learning takes place at our house. Despite my amateur status as a homeschooler, I hope that sharing a bit of our homeschool life will be helpful and encouraging.
About two years before my oldest was school age, I began looking for books to read about homeschooling. I think that this is a great first step. Read all you can and from all different points of view. One book that does a great job of presenting a wide variety of homeschooling styles and methods is Lisa Whelchel’s So You’re Thinking About Homeschooling. I appreciate Lisa’s down to earth, unintimidating manner of introducing her readers to the world of homeschooling. She describes what homeschooling looks like in the lives of 15 different fictional families that she wrote about after interviewing about a thousand homeschoolers around the country. In doing so, Lisa gives her readers a great big picture view of the world of homeschooling. You might be able to check this book out at the library – the Omaha Public Library has 4 copies! Lisa also has a website with a section on homeschooling which is once again a nice and not too overwhelming introduction to homeschooling. While you’re there, you can read Michael Ferris’ (founder of the Homeschool Legal Defense Association) review of Lisa’s book.
About the same time that I was beginning to read about homeschooling, I had a friend whose oldest was just getting started as a homeschooler. As I expressed interest in their homeschool, this friend invited me to attend parent meetings and field trips of her homeschool support group. Through these mommy meetings and field trips I gleaned (and continue to glean) all kinds of bits and pieces of information and encouragement that have been helpful for my homeschool journey. By rubbing shoulders with a variety of other homeschoolers, I am exposed to methods, lifestyles, and ideas that don’t come so naturally to me.
Those are my general recommendations for exploring the world of homeschooling – read all you can and spend some time around other homeschooling families. Next, I’ll give you just a few personal recommendations that show more of my heart, mission, and goals in regards to homeschooling.
First, I’ve written up a little article that answers the question, “Why do you homeschool?” You can read Our Family’s Homeschool Mission Statement on this blog. That article means a lot to me because I actually think about my mission statement often. It keeps me encouraged and pressing forward on long or doubtful days.
I also want to share a little bit about my personal favorite in the world of curriculum companies. I love the literature rich approach to homeschooling from Sonlight! While I am not a Sonlight user that dutifully crosses off every assignment in the Instructor’s manual, I have modeled so much of what we do from what I have seen and learned from Sonlight. One emphasis that I love in Sonlight is learning through stories – both real and fictional. Through the amazing biographies and literature that are part of Sonlight’s curriculum, my kids are being exposed to people, places and God at work all over the world. Not only that, they are being captivated by great stories, stories that make them laugh, that make them courageous, and best of all that make them love to read and love to learn. I haven’t always ordered their whole package. I haven’t used all their materials for teaching my kids to read. I haven’t exclusively used their suggestions for math, science, or spelling. I haven’t even included much of their history component into our homeschool yet. But, I have witnessed a 3 year-old boy begging me to read another chapter of Mr. Popper’s Penguins (which does NOT have any pictures!) and I have watched my daughter gladly practice her handwriting by copying a sentence from Homer Price that especially tickled her! You can explore Sonlight online at www.sonlight.com
I would especially encourage you to read through Sonlight’s Top 10 Goals. Whether or not Sonlight’s instructional methods match up with yours, these goals are well written and really capture what I believe is the direction we should be heading with our kids. It saddens me to see homeschooling companies and advocates putting such a heavy emphasis on protecting and sheltering our kids from the evil world. We are not to be on the defensive, retreating back into our own little homes and our own happy homeschool communities. Our God is leading us into a battle in which victory is sure. We are to be on the offensive, equipping our children to wisely and relevantly bring Truth to dark places! Ok, I just had to get that off my chest! Check out Sonlight’s Top 10 Goals and see if you agree.
My final personal recommendation is to get to know author and speaker Sally Clarkson. I am still getting to know her myself and haven’t even come to close to reading all of her books. From what I have read in The Ministry of Motherhood and through articles and newsletters online at www.wholeheart.org , I sense that she would agree with many of Sonlight’s Goals and shares my passion for equipping our children to be Truth bearers. She is a homeschool mom that has been there, done that. The inside of my computer cabinet is decorated with quotes from Sally that have inspired and encouraged me along the way. The neat thing about Sally’s writing is that those quotes seem more like notes from a good friend then something written by an author I’ve never met.
I think this letter has gotten long enough so I will close these ramblings for now. I hope that you’ve found something that encourages and spurs you on as you consider homeschooling.
Jennie
