A New Day, A New Perspective

If you read my last post then you know that I have been struggling to find my path when it comes to homeschooling. When I wrote that last post I was decided and settled on using an online academy. It was the perfect solution for my need to control and have structure. To make sure I was making the right decision I posted a question asking for advice in a homeschool message board that I'm a part of. The advice and feedback I received was overwhelming. I'm so grateful to have found a community of parents who have been there, done that, and are just as enthusiastic about it as I am. They opened up a world of options for me (which can sometimes scare me) and helped alleviate a lot of my concerns.

One of the parents put it perfectly. She said to be careful what I wished for because I was probably going to have even more options now. Well, she was right. But instead of feeling overwhelmed with all of the new knowledge I was given, I was able to get back to where I wanted to be when I had originally decided to homeschool. I want to homeschool to give my kids a different learning experience, not to just "school-at-home". I didn't know how to achieve that though and so I was ready to take the easier way out. I think an online academy is still a great option. Especially since there seem to be some out there that do try to give you as much flexibility as possible. Someday I may still decide to check one out. What I really want to learn more about though, and apply in our home is the  Thomas Jefferson Education philosophy. Many of the other homeschool parents mentioned this philosophy to me, but then one of them broke it down and everything she said was exactly what I had imagined when I thought about homeschooling my kids. If you're at all interested in homeschooling I highly recommend checking out the link. I am by no means an expert, since I'm still scratching the surface on all of this stuff, but from what I've read so far I'm very impressed. I'm buying this book "A Thomas Jefferson Education" to read more in depth about it.

 The cool thing about homeschooling though is that you can pick and choose from different philosophies and adapt them to what is right for your family. I know, more choices right? Well, I'm starting to figure out what kind of homeschool parent I want to be and it's helping me sift through all of the information out there. I'm sure I will still feel out of my element at times. Overwhelmed at times, and even lost at times, but everyday that I learn more, I get more and more confident and excited. Not to mention I'm meeting parents that are extremely helpful and I've been offered many phone numbers to call if I have questions or need help. I spoke to a mother yesterday who told me that there are over 700 (I think that's the right number, if anything it's more) homeschooling households in Davis County alone. Who knew there was such a big homeschool community out there?

My path has already changed a few times, and even more in just the last few days. And it's bound to change once I actually start implementing these things and seeing how the kids do, but with each change I'm feeling better and better.