For years I have wanted to do an Annual, “What We are Doing” post. I never do. I’m doing my best to post a little more often now, but until I sit down and truly Block Schedule my time and somehow find time EACH day to (1) Homeschool, (2) Housework, (3) My Side Job, and (4) My Blog/Writing, regular-ness will not happen. I’m a total Commitment Phobe. I can’t even stand dinner reservations. Looking at a Weekly Schedule with Blocks goes against everything I want our Homeschool to be…FLEXIBLE and FUN!

However, this year, with such an influx of Homeschoolers nationwide, I have so many friends who are gathering information, looking for a place to start. So I have a motivation this year. Thank you, Friends, for giving me a little backside kick into gear! A few Caveats:

(1) I’m going to repeat the quote I used in the last of my Homeschooling posts by Julie Bogart of Bravewriter: “There are no educational emergencies.” I put my own spin on this to say, “There are NO homeschool emergencies.” I can’t repeat that enough.

(2) I’m a Curriculum Junkie. A full on Addict. I want it ALL, and I want to do it ALL! Yet another wonderful, wise woman in the Homeschool community is Sarah Mackenzie of Read Aloud Revival. For members of her Community, she does a monthly “Circle with Sarah,” and one of the most valuable ones to date for me was on Planning Overload. Because I will BUY ALL THE BOOKS. Then I will try to force my sweet, beautiful, smart daughter to do ALL THE THINGS. That has never worked and will never work. Sarah’s wonderful advice is to remember that all Curricula has SOME benefit, so we need to define our top three Homeschool Goals, then makes sure that instead of buying anything and everything that has SOME benefit, we are focused on the Curricula and Programs that clearly align with our personal, Top 3 Goals. For example, my Top 3 Goals are Heart Connection/Relationship, Love of Learning, and Hands on Experiences. Notice that Academic Excellence is NOT in my Top 3. It may be in yours. And that’s fine. Academic Excellence is not in my Top 3 because what I’ve witnessed for my daughter and our Homeschool is that if she enjoys the learning and she gets hands-on activities in her areas of study, the academic excellence becomes a natural outcome.

(3) Another repetition from the previous post, there are as many different ways to Homeschool as there are Homeschool families. My Curricula choices for our year are based on my daughter’s learning style AND my own engagement with each Curriculum. Take all this info you get, from me and others, and make the best choices for your children AND you. I use Evernote with tons of “Notebooks.” One Note is solely research with any and all resources I come across and am interested in using. I refer back to it constantly. If I choose a Curriculum that we end up hating after a month of using, I head back to that Evernote and look up what other options I’d heard about for that particular subject.

(4) Space! If you are new to Homeschooling, you may be looking frantically around your house wondering, “How?” “Where??????” Many, many families do “School” at the Dining Room table. You will want to find some space for either a few bookshelves (I’m a huge fan of the Threshold cube shelves from Target – they are very durable and can be used in every room in the house) or some bins/crates…you can set it up where each child has his/her own crate of their Curricula and Supplies. You can have a crate of Supplies, a Crate for Science & Math, one for Language Arts, etc…stack them all up in a corner and bring them out daily. If you are lucky enough to be able to carve out a dedicated space, then something that has been amazing in our space is our “Activity Table.” I have an adjustable height Activity Table from Wayfair (similar to the T-Mold 60×30), but WalMart and Costco also sell adjustable leg, folding tables that work well, too. We have had this for four years, and it is a centerpiece of our home (not physically, but usefully). Our daughter spends almost all of her time at this table – it’s her crafting table, creating table, eating table when friends are over, and our school table! If you do not have this type of space, then the dining room table works. The living room floor works. TV trays work.

Next up…Part 2…Our Choices for This Year!