Saturday, September 17, 2011

I'm always grateful that I am a homeschooler...

...but this time of year really rams that home for me. :)

I'm sure it won't come as a great surprise to you to learn that I, as a blogger myself, like to read other blogs. I like all blogs, but homeschooling blogs are of a particular interest to me. I like to read how other families handle certain situations and what curricula/programs/resources they are using. Even though I am very comfortable with our current curriculum, I'm not opposed to adding or supplementing with additional books or programs.

I also like to read about current homeschool trends. We ended up homeschooling because I showed my butt and pulled Bailey out of public school in a fit of anger thinking (ok, hoping, but whatevs) that someone in that school office would call my bluff and bend over backwards to make things right for my kiddo. Obviously, that didn't go as planned. Heh. Having never thought about it before that, I hadn't given any thought to why people would choose to homeschool. Now, being much more secure in my decision, I find it fascinating to see why others make this choice. Is it a religious or spiritual issue? Are the schools in their area really that bad? Are other parents as selfish as I am when it comes to wanting to squeeze out every possible second of time with their children as they can? :)

Crap. I've digressed again. One day I'm going to be able to be focused and concise when it comes to my thoughts. One day. *sigh*

Back to being grateful. Why am I so grateful this time of year?

Because I know, at least mostly, what our year holds for us. I am not scrambling and searching through curriculum choices. We aren't trying a new program and having to adjust. I don't have a lot of hoops to jump through with the school board (In GA, we are very lucky. Taking a glimpse of other states' homeschool laws...all I can is yikes!). I have been reading other homeschool blogs and I see posts about changing curricula, AGAIN, because something was tried and didn't work. I see posts about homeschoolers having to submit homeschool plans and syllabi for school board approval. I see homeschooling moms kinda freaking out about how they are going to prepare and keep their homeschool portfolios for the year (this is something that I honestly don't have to worry about because Time4Learning has excellent record keeping... all I have to do is print off what I need, when I need it, and voila: portfolios! Lol.).

So for all of these reasons of me NOT worrying, I am grateful. :D

2 comments:

Kerry said...

Isn't it nice to have those things already figured out?? Now...when you get to high school, the game changes all over again. ((sigh)) But continue to enjoy these great homeschooling years!!

Anonymous said...

You know, when you unschool (like we mostly do), you usually don't have to worry about that. I have known numerous people who unschooled all through high school with fantastic results.

High school, though, can throw you curves because you do have to stop and think early about about diplomas vs GED; CLEP tests, ACT/SAT, etc etc and it's challenging to find a plan early on that isn't going to result in piles of "work" at the end if you decide to go the accredited diploma route.

Last year was my freak-out year, but once we found our game plan, it's basically back to our regular programming. We're on the cusp of driver's ed, and having a license will surely change the game again.

When did I get old enough to have kids this age? :D