Getting Started

I am about to start something that can change my life and my children's lives.  I am about to make a decision that will shape their futures.  I have been on the fence about this, and I am now forcing myself to make the commitment.  I am going to home school my kids.

It is still very early to make this decision.  My oldest is just shy of 2 1/2 and the baby is almost 10 months.  They don't have to be enrolled in school for quite a few years yet... but it is important for me to start now so that I can prove to myself and others that this is a viable option.

So much of our everyday interactions revolve around learning new things that it just seems like the perfect opportunity to experiment with more structured play.

With the kids being so young I have the advantage that just about everything we do can count as a lesson.  Simple coloring, making a collage, playing with mega bloks, going to Gymboree, reading together, playing with instruments... things we have always done.  When I decided to start this home learning I realized how easily these things all qualify into learning subjects, and how easily I can create a "lesson plan" to reinforce the learning that happens so naturally.

I have already started journaling our daily activities.  Sitting down to write every evening has really been wonderful.  Since graduating college I haven't needed to write anything and my brain is thankful for the exercise it is now getting.  I want to start this blog to be a sort of photo journal I can click through to monitor our progress, and to share our learning activities with friends and family.  My goal is to blog at least once or twice a week.  I'm thinking the beginning and the end of each week so I can keep track of what my expectations for the week were and what the reality was.

By starting now I am doing my best to make sure that myself and the kids will develop the proper tools and means to be able to learn at home in the future.

Wish me luck!