Philosophies, Styles, and Methods

Charlotte Mason: Based on a method introduced by nineteenth-centure educator Charlotte Mason, this approach includes nature studies, journaling, narration, and living books.

Classical: Based on Dorothy Sayers' The Lost Tools of Learning, in which child development is broken up into three "stages" of learning commonly called "the Trivium".

Delight Directed: This puts the learning in the hands of the child based on his or her interests. Parents help facilitate this type of learning with appropriate instructional materials.

Eclectic: A mix of philosophies and curricula to accommodate each child's abilities and interests. Parents choose from any method or style only those components that fit their specific needs.

The Principle Approach: An approach based on the principles of our Founding Fathers and an emphasis on God's Word as the basis for every subject.

Tratitional Textbook: Normally uses a full-range, packaged, textbook type curriculum that also may include a scope and sequence, testing, and recordkeeping.

Unit Studies: All or most core subjects are covered while studying any one topic or unit of study, using a variety of resources and supplemental activities.

Unschooling: A relaxed setting where learning is directed by the child. Parts of this philosophy are based on research by John Taylor Gatto and John Holt.

(These descriptions are from the Spring 2009 issue of "The Old Schoolhouse" magazine)


As you prepare to begin homeschooling, you will need to decide which of these approaches you would like to try. You may find that the first one you try really doesn't work for your or your children, and you may need to try another. You may have to try a few until you find the one that really fits, or you may need to change as your children get older.

As I have mentioned, we have homeschooled for six years now. Our first year, we used the Unit Studies approach. It seemed to me the easiest way to teach more than one child of different ages. So, we tried Konos curriculum. We liked the curriculum as far as we really enjoyed studying the subject matter -- medieval times with knights and horses and the topic of "light". However, I felt that I had to really gear quite a bit of the activities down for my younger son or too many things went over his head. We finished the curriculum early because some of the activities were way to much work for me to accomplish and we skipped those activities.

Then, I created my own unit study with the knowledge that I had from using Konos and with the help of a book I read about creating your own unit studies. I let the boys choose a topic. They chose China and we went to the library and checked out books about China. We checked out a book on Tienamen Square, we read a great historical fiction book called The Kite Flyer, and we read a book on Confuscious. We looked at China on a map and read about it in our atlas. We listened to Chinese music. We found a Chinese cookbook in the children's reference section and checked it our and made a Chinese meal. I gave the boys vocabulary words from the things we read and assigned them writing assignments based on things we read as well. We even found a video at the library about the Chinese New Year. We watched it and on the video they gave directions for an art project -- making your own dragon using an egg carton and popsicle sticks and construction paper and sequins. I think we enjoyed our unit study on China even more than we enjoyed the Konos curriculum and because we used the library it was considerably cheaper. I didn't spend anything on the books or the video we used. The only things I needed to buy were the ingredients for the Chinese meal and some of the supplies for the art project.

So, if money is an issue, Unit Studies work great and you can really utilize your library. I'm sure that you can utilize your library for other homeschool styles as well.

For the two years after that we used the Eclectic style and we selected different subjects from different curricula.

For the past three years, we have been using the Charlotte Mason approach. We love books! That is why this approach works for us so well. We read a lot of books for history and science, not boring old textbooks, but what are considered living books. Books that tell stories and some of the characters may be fictitious but the time period and the facts and places of the time period are real history.

So, you see, you may need to try different approaches until you find the one that best fits you and your children. But, one thing I would really like to say is Don't Let Your First Year overwhelm or discourage you. It gets easier with each year, especially if you join a group and get to know other homeschool parents because you can learn from them and find support from them. It also helps to listen to your children. We study what the children are most interested in for the most part. I just make sure we cover all of the subjects that we need to cover.

How to Begin Homeschooling

This is our final week of school for the 2008-2009 school year. We don't take off the entire summer, but we will take at least three whole weeks off before we begin again, and then we will take several breaks throughout the summer before getting really in depth in our studies at the end of August again.

But, while we are finishing, I know there are many people who are considering it and may not know what to do or where to find resources and things. So, here are a few tips for beginning that I found in my Spring 2009 issue of the "Old Schoolhouse" magazine.

Discuss With Your Spouse: Educating your child(ren) at home is a huge decision
and should be one that is made with your spouse. Do not begin unless you are
in agreement about this decision. You will need the support of your spouse not
only at the beginning, but also throughout the year(s).

Research Your State's Homeschhol Laws: Be fully aware of your state's
requirements before you begin and especially before you take a child or
children out of public school. Each state's legal requirements can be found
on the www.HomeschoolLegal.com website.

Research Styles of Home Education: There is no one right way to educate
your child(ren) at home; however, there are many differing philosophies
you may want to consider. (I will give more information on styles in a
future post)

Find Support: After finding your style of choice (or a mix of more than
one choice), you may want to choose a support group that reflects that
specific style or just a general homeschool support group in your area.
Meeting with other home educators offers encouragement as well as
knowledge and assistance with your homeschool questions. Often,
organized classes or activities for your child(ren) are offered through
support groups as well. For information about homeschool support
groups in your area, check these listings:
www.TheHomeschoolMagazine.com/Homeschool_Nations/State_Listings.php
and www.HomeschoolLegal.com

Gather Resources: Some families start with a complete curriculum package,
while others start with a notebook and a library card. Choosing your resources
depends on your style or method of eduation and your own interests. If you
are financially burdened, there are free homeschooling resources on the web,
as well as discounted, used books in abundance.

You Can Do This! Parents around the world are taking back their God-given
responsibility to educate their children, and you can too. The Old Schoolhouse has
developed two downloads to help you get started:

"Homeschool With Confidence"
www.TheHomeschoolMagazine.com/HomeschoolWithConfidence.pdf

"Simple Recipes for Successful Homeschooling"
www.TheHomeschoolMagazine.com/How_To_Homeschool/tosbrochure.pdf


In a later post, I will also talk about the different types of curriculums out there.

A Wake Up Call

Ken Ham and Anthony


Wake Up Christians, Wake Up Church, and Wake Up America!

Last night my husband, oldest son and I went to see Ken Ham at a benefit banquet for the Associates for Biblical Research (ABR). I had heard a lot about Mr. Ham but had never seen him or heard him speak. Mr. Ham encouraged us to support ABR. He said that he doesn't usually lend his open support to other organizations, (Mr. Ham is the founder of the Answers in Genesis organization and the Creation Museum in Ohio), but that he has found that ABR stands for the same things that his organization stands for.

Mr. Ham gave a wonderful talk. His message was titled "Understanding the loss of Biblical Authority in church and the culture and its connection to attacks and compromise on the book of Genesis". It was powerful and I left feeling a fire burning within me to inform people of what I learned in his message.

He shared that the U.S. is becoming less Christian even though we currently have more Christian resources than ever before.

He also shared how President Obama made a statement, that, though sad, seems to be quite true of our nation and that is: "The present, in this sense, is less about the death of one God, it is more about the birth of many gods."

Mr. Ham pointed out that our culture has gone from a Jewish (believing in one God) culture to a Greek (believing in many gods) culture. He said that we need to "de-Greek-ize" our culture. He shared the Seven C's of History: Creation, Corruption, Catastrophe, Confusion, Christ, Cross, and Consummation. He referred to Genesis chapters 1 through 11 many times throughout the evening.

He shared that from the beginning of time, there has been an attack on God's word. It is what the serpent used in the garden with Eve, when he said to her, "You will not surely die?" (Genesis 3:4) After Eve had told the serpent that "God did say, 'You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die'." So, here the serpent was attacking God's word, which is what scientists, atheists, and others have been doing in our culture ever since.

Mr. Ham shared that our culture likes to say that they have succeeded in taking "religion" out of the schools. "However," Mr. Ham states, "they did not take "religion" out of the schools. They took "Christianity" out of the schools and they have replaced it with atheism.

He has a new book that is to be released soon, entitled Already Gone. It explains and shows research regarding how the students in public schools are "already gone" spiritually. Even if they attend church, they are not really present mentally or spiritually. Research shows that public school students begin to question the Bible and its truth in elementary school and the number grows in junior and senior high school. Mr. Ham reported that 90% of Christians have their children in public schools and he hinted that it is not the right place for them. He also mentioned about the Bible saying that parents are responsible for what their children are taught.

The research also shows that adults who attended Sunday school regularly believed less in the truth of the Bible than those who only attended Sunday school occasionally. Mr. Ham explained that the reason for this is because our Sunday school classes are being taught by volunteers, who may not have enough Biblical training or knowledge to be teaching Sunday school, and when students ask questions, their Sunday school teachers are unable to answer the questions.

Mr. Ham also explained how, in Sunday school classes, children are taught Bible stories. And, he explained that the word story means "fairy tale". Therefore, children grow up thinking that all the Bible stories, are simply just nice stories, but aren't really true. Mr. Ham suggests that Sunday school lessons be referred to as Bible History Lessons instead of Bible stories since that is truly what they are.

Mr. Ham said that the problem in our culture/country today is that we have turned our backs on God's authority and that we need to get back to God's authority. He said the solution to the problem is found in Isaiah 58:12: "Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins and will raise up the age-old foundations; you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls, Restorer of Streets with Dwellings." Mr. Ham said that we have to start at the foundation and work our way up because our culture did not change from the top down. It began with an attack on the foundation and that is where we must begin to rebuild.

I would like to just say that I have seen many young people who are "already gone". It was quite apparent in a junior high girls' Sunday school class that I was trying to reach for Christ and to teach the truth of God's word to. They didn't want to hear it. They complained that it was boring. They argued that they had heard other things in school or from other people. They already did not believe. These were junior high girls who were attending public school, where they are taught things like humanism, atheism, and relative morality.

This is a big reason that we homeschool.
We want our children to believe in God's word and in our Lord Jesus Christ. We want our children to know the truth of God’s word and to hold the same beliefs that we do. I seriously urge all Christians to seriously look at what is really going on in the public schools and, if you plan on keeping your children there, get active on the school board and speak up. There is also the option of Christian schools. I know that they are expensive. Of course, my strongest recommendation is to homeschool because then you are being obedient to God’s word: “These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.” (Deuteronomy 6:6-7)

Yes, homeschooling is a big commitment and requires self-discipline. It also takes a certain amount of sacrifice. But, aren’t your children worth it? It’s really not that difficult or that expensive to homeschool and the benefits are huge.

I would just like to end this post with what Ken Ham said: "We need to get back to the authority of God's word."

Famous Homeschooler of the Week

I know that this young man is not famous. You probably haven't heard of him. However, his story is one worth sharing.

Soaring to New Heights
by Cherise Ryan

Flying runs in the family of Cadet Will Flathers, 22. His grandfather was a decorated B-17 pilot in World War II and his father is an airline pilot.

“When I was looking at colleges, I was mainly interested in ones that offered Air Force ROTC,” said Will, a homeschool graduate. Also enjoying hiking, shooting, and camping, Will settled on the Virginia Military Institute (VMI) for his higher education. “I figured that VMI would give me the best of both worlds. I could do the army thing at school for four years and still get to be an air force officer,” he said.

Will’s drive and excellence at VMI went beyond getting him into the air force, however, when in late 2007 he became the first VMI cadet to receive the British Marshall Scholarship (named after VMI’s famous graduate General George Marshall).

The Marshall Scholarship was established in 1953 by the British Parliament to express the gratitude of the British people to America for the Marshall Plan. The program stresses keen intellect, a broad outlook, and is awarded to 40 young Americans each year to finance two years of study at any graduate school in the United Kingdom.

“As could be expected, the competition is fairly stiff,” Will explained. Approximately 1,000 people were nominated for the scholarship this past year alone.

Will started his application in April 2007 (going through 10 drafts), submitted it in October, and was interviewed in November. Interview questions can be anything from “What would you say to Hillary Clinton if you had two minutes to speak to her privately?” to “What do you think is the role of post-Cold War NATO?” Will said one of his interviewers began with, “‘I’m probably your worst nightmare… .’”

Raised in Rixeyville, Virginia, Will is the second of five homeschooled children. He was homeschooled since 3rd grade and grew up on a historic farm that added adventure and education to his homeschooling experience. “Every time the veterinarian came to look at the animals, it turned into a science lesson,” he recalled.

“Homeschooling prepared me well [for VMI] because I was used to studying on my own,” Will said. “A lot of my peers had a hard time adjusting from the high school mentality of ‘learn everything in class’ to the college model of ‘learn the highlights in class, everything else on your own.’ Getting off on the right foot is what set me up to be competitive for the Marshall Scholarship in the first place.”

Will plans to use the Marshall Scholarship to study at the University of Sheffield in England after he graduates from VMI. “When I got into my undergraduate research projects at VMI, I found that I really enjoyed engineering as an art and science. I wanted to take the next step and get a master’s, and I wanted to focus on avionics (the electronics inside airplanes),” he said. The University of Sheffield has been doing work in that area so the Marshall Scholarship was a perfect fit.

After graduating from VMI in May 2008, Will will commission as a second lieutenant in the air force with his first assignment at the University of Sheffield. Afterward, he plans to attend pilot training at Sheppard Air Force Base in Texas.

“My two biggest passions (as far as careers go) are flying and engineering,” he said. “I would like to combine them someday as a test pilot. Eventually I would like to get out of the military and just be a civilian.” He said he may return to farming when all is said and done. “We’ll see where God leads.”

Your Support is Imperative!

This past weekend's CHAP Homeschool Convention in Harrisburg, PA was wonderful, as usual. They always bring such wonderful speakers who encourage, inspire, inform and support what we do.

There were two matters of the utmost importance this year. The first one applies to ALL parents. Our government is considering a bill called the "Convention on the Rights of the Child". It would give children the same rights as adults without the responsibility. They would have the freedom of expression; freedom of access to media; freedom of thought, conscience and religion; freedom of association; the right to privacy; the right to health care; they would receive a compulsory U.N. (United Nations) approved education; and the right to leisure. These freedoms and rights would be upheld even against what parents think would be in the best interests of their child(ren). In other words, your children, or anyone they would enlist for aid that would be in agreement with them, would be able to sue you for any decision that you have made in regards to your child's life that you thought in their best interests, simply because they disagree or think it unfair. The court's decision would be completely up to the judge hearing the case who would base his/her decision based on his/her own beliefs.

Thankfully, Mr. Mike Farris, a prominent lawyer, who founded the Homeschool Legal Defense Association, has written the "Parental Rights Ammendment". He and others are working hard to try to introduce this into the government. This ammendment would make parental rights explicit in the text of the Constitution.

If this concerns you as much as it concerns me, here are some things that you can do:

Sign the petition by going to http://www.parentalrights.org
While you are there, click on "Join the Fight"
Donate what you can to help

I'll address the other issue tomorrow.

One Year Ends and We Plan the Next One

I'm very excited to go to the Christian Homeschool Association of Pennsylvania's (CHAP) convention this weekend. Technically, I wouldn't have to go, because the curriculum we use has to be mail ordered, and I know several people who do not go to this convention. However, I have found that I NEED to go to the convention each year because it helps to revive me and get me geared up for the next year.

People come from surrounding states to attend this convention, which takes place in Harrisburg, PA. There are many guest speakers who hold seminars throughout the two day convention. These sessions are great and very helpful. They have something for everyone in every aspect of homeschooling. They have seminars for those who are just beginning their homeschool journey, seminars for people who are teaching their children who have special needs, seminars about what is going on in the political and legal arena in regards to homeschooling, seminars on homeschooling through high school, seminars on how to prepare for college and what college path is the right one for your child(ren), and seminars about history, disciplining children, etc. all according to God's word. If you attend some seminars it is easy to be rejuvenated and re-exhilarated for the coming school year.

Then there's the huge room filled with stands of vendors with all of their resources. There are hundreds of them. It can be very overwhelming to the newbies, but it is so much fun for those of us who've been doing it for a while. We plan and put money away for months in preparation for this. I will be there all day Friday and Saturday, and each and every year I find that I know more and more people who attend. It's exciting and pleasing to see the hundreds, maybe a thousand or more, who come to participate.

Who knows, if you're a homeschooler, maybe I'll see you there.

No College Degree? How Can You Teach Your Child Through All Grades?

I have heard these questions so many times and felt it was time to respond. First of all, I don't understand why this is so hard to understand? The people who go to college for teaching are not really learning EVERYTHING in EVERY SUBJECT. They each have their weak subjects just like the rest of us. Also, they spend more time learning how to manage a classroom FULL of students.

I only have my children to teach -- not a classroom full of students. Therefore, my children receive A LOT MORE INDIVIDUAL, PERSONAL ATTENTION. If any of my children struggle with anything I can give them aid and time to learn it or I may become aware that they may need something more. My youngest son had two years of speech classes and later, a year and a half of Vision Therapy. Had he been in a public or private school, he most likely would have been mis-diagnosed and would have been medicated instead of receiving the vision therapy. Many people do not know much about vision therapy yet. It is not related to "eyesight". It has to do with how the two eyes work together. If both eyes do not work together as they should, it can cause printing on a page in a book to go in and out of focus or to look like they are moving. It may cause other issues as well, and it affects the child's behavior due to their frustration or headaches, and they are unable to tell what the problem is because they don't know it's not normal for their eyes to do whatever they are doing that is causing the problem.

Also, no one knows my children as well as my husband and I do. I know their strenghths, weaknesses and interests. I can allow them to pursue their interests mor in depth than they would be able in a public or private school setting. I can let them work ahead in the things they excel in and give them the extra time and aid they need in the things that are more difficult and challenging for them.

Most importantly, my husband and I can teach them our morals, Christian beliefs and lifestyle and know that they will not be constantly exposed to morals, beliefs and lifestyles that we do not agree or approve with. We do not hide them in a closet or away from the world. They have plenty of interaction with others in church, in the community and in sports programs, but we get to choose what to expose them to and when it is appropriate to do so. We also get to decide how to present the information.

Finally, we are also not just given complete freedom in our homeschooling. We are held accountable. Here in the state of Pennsylvania, we have some of the most stringent homeschool laws in the United States. We must report to our local school district annually, and we must have a certified school teacher evaluate our children's progress at the end of each school year. We go to see our evaluator once a year and must present him/her with samples of our children's work from beginning, middle and end of the year to show their progress. We must also present the evaluator with a log showing that we completed at least 180 days of schooling. (We do not get to log less, even for illness). Our evaluator also talks to the children and asks them questions about things that she sees that they have studied over the year.

So, we are not just homeschooling and flying by the seat of our pants, and our children receive a good education. I will show more evidence of this in future posts, one such example is my weekly post of "Famous Homeschoolers".

Our Homeschool Story

We are a family of born again believers in Christ and we try our very best to live according to God's word -- the Bible. We knew right from the start that we did not want to put our children in public school. When our oldest came to live with us under foster care until his adoption went through for us, we could not even consider homeschooling -- foster care rules didn't allow it. They also told us that Anthony HAD to go to preschool.

He began in an I.U. preschool class because of the issues that he was struggling with. He was very impulsive and had a lot of anger issues. His I.U. experience was really good. His I.U. teacher was wonderful! She kept constant contact with us by sending a notebook back and forth on a daily basis so that she could let us know how he had done in school and we could let her know about things that happened at home. With her love and support, as well as ours, Anthony made tremendous progress and after being in her preschool class for almost two years, he was ready to go into a regular classroom setting. We, however, wanted to see how well he would do in an environment that had a larger group of children and he would receive less attention, so we decided to have him do one more year of preschool instead of putting him into kindergarten.

He did very well in his regular preschool setting and had another good teacher, so we decided as long as he was doing well in the Christian School that was associated with our church, we would keep him there. His adoption went through right before he began kindergarten and he had settled down so much, now that he felt secure in his home. He did fairly well in kindergarten.

Nicholas came to live with us during Anthony's 1st grade year, and we put Nicholas into a preschool class at the Christian school. This turned out not to be a good year for either of the boys.

Anthony's first grade teacher kept coming to me and complaining about Anthony's behavior. Then, one night while Anthony was doing his homework, he complained to me about having to do it because "it was stupid -- it was too easy"! I called and asked for a meeting with the principal shortly thereafter. I explained that I thought that the 1st grade work was too easy for Anthony. I explained how we had held him in preschool an extra year, more for emotional and maturity and behavioral issues than anything, because he had always been quite bright academically. The principal said that she would talk to his teacher and get back to me.

When the principal called me for a follow-up meeting, she said that Anthony's first grade teacher agreed with me. She said that whenever she would hand out a worksheet to do, she would tell the students not to begin the worksheet until she went over the directions. She said that by the time she returned to the front of the classroom to go over the directions, Anthony had comleted the sheet and usually had ALL of the answers correct. The principal had also spoken with the teacher that Anthony had had for kindergarten, and she, too, felt that Anthony had been advanced in her kindergarten class the year before.

Therefore, the principal told me that she would move him to the second grade and after a month or so, re-evaluate the situation, with the stipulation that I work with him at home on math because that would be the one place that may pose a problem due to skipping some of the concepts that were learned in first grade. This was just one month after school had begun! Anthony did very well in the second grade class and was caught up in math in no time; but, when we hit about mid-year, Anthony began having problems again.


Now, his second grade teacher kept coming to me complaining about Anthony's behaviors. I gave her suggestions on how to deal with him, and she never put any of my suggestions into motion. She kept asking me if I thought Anthony might have ADHD, which really made me angry because I feel that they label way too many children with ADHD simply because they don't want to spend the time and energy on the active boys, or they miss something that is another issue altogther, not to mention the fact that Anthony had been tested for ADHD just two years before this and was not diagnosed.


Anthony's second grade teacher then decided to handle his behavior by separating him from the rest of the class. In the beginning, she would move his desk to the back of the room and explain to him that if his behaviors improved, she would move him back with the rest of the group after two days or so. After a while, she moved him to the back of the class and left him there and gave him no more chances to return to the rest of the group. This infuriated me because I knew the problem was that he was bored again, and she didn't try giving him any extra work or anything, but instead, treated him like an outcast, and I became worried about what it would do to his self-esteem. I felt that she was sending him a message that said he was a bad kid. He had also complained that his teacher liked the girls in the class better than the boys. This was also apparent to me. I worked in the lunchroom at the school during this school year, so I was present enough to have a good idea of what was going on.


While all of this was going on with Anthony, Nicholas was also having problems in preschool. He was getting speech with an I.U. worker once a week and he had an I. U. worker who came into his preschool class once a week to observe him and help him learn how to handle some of his behaviors. However, Nicholas was even sent to the principal one day -- in preschool!

I had been praying throughout all of this that God would help our boys with their behaviors and the teachers with their patience so that they would have better days at school. However, God had another plan. One night, I was awakened in the middle of the night and felt God impressing upon me that I should homeschool. I spoke with my husband about it the next day. He said that he thought I should start researching it and see what I could find out about it.

We knew a lady who was homeschooling at the time, but she was not someone we knew real well and we hadn't seen her in quite some time, so I didn't know how she'd react to my wanting to ask her a bunch of stuff about homeschooling. I sent her a note in the mail explaining that we were thinking about it and asking if she could give me some information. She called me on the phone in less than a week and was thrilled to be able to give me information. She invited me to her house, where she lent me several books about homeschooling, gave me a list of websites and talked about her homeschooling experience. She even invited me to go with her to the huge homeschool convention that is held in a city about a 45-minute's drive away.

Then, the last straw at the Christian school happened. I went to pick Anthony up one afternoon and found him with scratches all over his face! When I asked him what happened he told me that when they were out at recess, one of the kindergarten boys had jumped up on his back and started clawing at his face! He said that the two teachers were so busy talking to one another that they did not see this happen. He said that one of his classmates saw it and tried to help get the boy off of Anthony's back but the boy on Anthony's back punched that boy in the stomach. Finally, Anthony managed to wrench the boy off of his back and the boy landed on his bottom on the ground. Of course, that was the moment the teachers noticed and punished Anthony.

When I questioned the teacher, she said she really didn't know what happened because she hadn't seen it. The next day, however, the kindergarten teacher asked me if Anthony's teacher had given me a written report about the incident. When I said "no", the kindergarten teacher said that his teacher was supposed to, and she said that she had seen what happened. I never did receive a written report about the incident. As a matter of fact, I heard nothing more about it.

Then, I went to the CHAP Homeschool Convention in Harrisburg with the lady who had invited me. I loved it and was overwhelmed by it. I never realized how many resources were available to homeschoolers. I also never realized how many people were doing it. There were people from many of our surrounding states in attendance!

Then, during the summer, the boys were taking swimming lessons at our local public pool and I sat outside the fence watching and waiting for them to finish. One day a lady sat down beside me and we struck up a conversation. It turned out that she was a homeschool mom and she provided me with more information about homeschooling in our area, and she told me about a local homeschool group that offered a weekly co-op, field trips and sports.

So, God just kept leading and opening doors to homeschooling and we began homeschooling that very next school year and have been homeschooling ever since. It is wonderful for my boys! One of the best things about it is that they can work at their own pace. So, Anthony, who loves learning and soaks things up like a sponge can just keep moving. He is extremely self-motivated. Nicholas who doesn't have much of an interest in school and really doesn't like writing all that much can take as much extra time as he needs to understand each writing concept and the grammar. They can also delve much deeper into a subject that they take a particular interest in, instead of just touching the tip of the iceberg as they do in public and private school systems.

We have been homeschooling for six years now and have no intention of ever schooling any other way. The flexibility and opportunities that it offers are also so wonderful. I will go into more detail in other posts about the co-ops, flexibility and opportunities, as well as many other aspects of homeschooling.