We decided to homeschool by accident. A friend told me she was thinking of homeschooling her then 2 year old daughter and I was convinced it was the wrong thing to do. Afterall I was an expert on such things. I possessed a public school education, a bachelor's in elementary education, a 2 year old of my own and I knew one homeschooling family whose children seemed a little socially inept. Surely I knew what was best for my friend's daughter! So I rattled off my list of reasons as to why homeschooling would be an irresponsible choice for this mom (yes, I even mentioned the dreaded socialization issue ) and my friend had a clever response to each objection. Not to be easily dissuaded, I went straight to the library to reload. I read every book on homeschooling and before I knew it, I was convinced. I was now certain that not only should my friend homeschool her daughter, but we should also homeschool ours!
My husband, who had a less than stellar academic background, was fully on board from the beginning. So off we went to our first homeschool convention when our daughter was barely 2 years old. Perhaps we were a little on the early side, but we were soaking up all the information we could get our hands on. We walked into the convention hall and I actually started crying. I was so relieved to see throngs of "normal" looking people versus...Well I'm ashamed to admit it, but I was certain that the only people who homeschooled were the large families who all wore matching, homemade outfits and played musical instruments together. To be sure, we did see a few families like that - but there were also families in jeans and t's with kids running around acting like...kids!
So our first convention was back in 2000 and here it is 2008! I can't believe we've been at this (in one form or another) for 8 years already! I remember those first couple of years when I was doing "organized play" for preschool and feeling like we'd never get to the "real" academic subjects. Here we are all those years later with kids in 4th, 1st and preK and feeling like we are already behind! How did that happen when we had such an early start???
I know the answer to that question. We never sat down and made a vision statement for our school. We've been very fortunate to have been led by God to a couple of wonderful programs that we've used for our main curriculum and I learned very early on that:
- You have to trust the curriculum and
- All curricula basically teach the same stuff. Be patient and you will eventually fill in any perceived gaps.
Those two little tidbits saved us quite a bit of potential curriculum hopping over the years! But I was never really sure we were on the right path. Then I started hearing and reading about the importance of vision statements for our homeschools and it all fell into place. If we have a conscise vision statement (or statment of purpose) for our school, we can use that as the benchmark for choosing curriculum and evaluating our efforts. There was another *duh!* moment for me. Once we set our priorities, we'll know if XYZ history is going to meet our needs or if ABC extracurricular activity will be worth the havoc it wreaks on our weekly schedule. We'll know if teaching a certain subject is truly necessary or just twaddle (my new favorite Charlotte Mason word) that corrodes what could be free time.
So 8 years after officially declaring ourselves homeschoolers, my husband and I finally sat down to write our vision statement. It's a work in progress so I won't post it yet, but it began with a simple question:
"Why are we homeschooling?"
It seems like a simple question and one that should be very easy to answer, doesn't it? Hmph!!!! This simple little question turned into a 4+ hour discussion that lasted until the very wee hours of the morning! It was nice to sit down and really discuss with my husband what we are doing and why we are doing it. It's a conversation that we really haven't had since my oldest was in a stroller and homeschooling was just a novel idea. Now that she's a 'tween, no longer an only child and talking about ideas and goals of her own, our thoughts and priorites have changed.
Writing this vision statement isn't only interesting, but it's really helping us narrow our focus and "get real" (sorry Dr. Phil) about what we are doing and WHY we are doing it. I didn't see the point when I had one Kindergarten student, but there's definitely value in defining purpose.
BTW, over the years I've come to know and love several large, clothes sewing, guitar playing families and my friend decided to put her daughter in public school so she could be a light amidst the darkness. Go figure.
