Stumbling Into Schooling

At some point, I may make another blog for homeschooling, but at this point, my blog will suffice. I titled this post the way I did, because I do often feel like I am stumbling into schooling! I wasn't homeschooled, and up until the last five years I haven't known many homeschooled people. However, after teaching at BSF for several years and getting to know some smart adults who were homeschooled, I've seen the benefits. Also, Ryan and I feel that "we are to train Zooey up in the way she should go." We both feel that this can best be done when we are the ones educating her as we are the ones who are called by the Lord to teach her to "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up" (Deut. 6:5-7). This is our main aim behind homeschooling. There are others, which I am sure we will share at some point, but this is the biggest.

I have been having a lot of fun getting Zooey's cirriculum ready and marking the items I need to get on Amazon. The most helpful resource I have found at this point is this lady Erica's blog: http://www.confessionsofahomeschooler.com/. She has many of the same philosophies about homeschool that I do, and I really like her set up. She uses workboxes for her children's schoolwork, and she has her own preschool cirriculum, Letter of the Week http://www.confessionsofahomeschooler.com/letter-of-the-week, which we will be using, in addition to the SonLight 3/4 cirriculum. For now, my plan is to set up her desk in her room and set up her workboxes out of the way in the hall. This will keep her out of them during roomtime and other times she shouldn't be in them. We will begin school at the end of August (my start date is Aug. 27), and we will do school on Monday, Thursday and Friday mornings from 9:00-12:00. The nice thing about homeschooling is that for now we don't have to go with the traditional M, W, F or T, Th schedule. We will be going to BSF in the fall, and that's on Wednesdays, and I think that is a very beneficial part of her education, as well. It has been a lot of fun getting all the lesson plans and cirriculum ready. Zooey is really into fine-motor activities, so I feel this cirriculum will work well for her. It has coloring, magnet pages, do-a-dot sheets, cutting and gluing. It also has some fun ideas like letter scavenger hunts. The weather is so nice here that I'll be able to schedule in some outside time every day and be able to incorporate that time into doing art projects, alphabet and counting, too. I'm excited but nervous, and we plan to take homeschooling a year at a time. I can't wait to share with you how the process is going!