Child-Centered Homeschooling
 
Homeschooling can be an overwhelming task.  I know that I was overwhelmed and unsure about all of the products available to homeschooling families.  Which one is "the best"?  Which one will my daughter like?  How can I be sure she is learning everything that she is "supposed to"? 

In the beginning, I spent countless hours in front of the computer trying to find answers to those questions and more.  Well, there was no website that was able to answer those questions for me.  At each turn, I was reading that you need to understand what kind of learner your child is and begin there.  Okay, but how do I know that?  It's really quite simple:  you observe them.  Is your child someone who responds better to visually stimulating material?  Does he/she respond to auditory information?  What about hands-on experiences?  Maybe your child performs best with a variety of techniques. 

There is also no "best" curriculum to use, if you use one at all.  The first year, we used a pre-packaged curriculum because I was unsure of myself as my child's learning guide.  While this worked well for us, it was too much like a regular classroom to meet the needs of our family.  I didn't feel the flexibility to add or take away from the lessons since I did not create them myself.  This resulted in questions of "how much longer?  How many more pages?  Do we have to do _______ (fill in the blank) today?"  Each time I would say, "we must do everything the guide tells us to cover today."  "Why?" would be her immediate question.  I was thinking to myself that her question was very valid...why indeed?

Now, this year, we have decided, together, to read the American Girl books and use them as the main focus of our school year.  So, that takes care of literature, but what about history, spelling, social studies, geography, math, grammar, science, etc.?  The answer was easy for me.  We will use the books to "build" our studies.  We have incorporated all content areas, save for math, into these books.  What an exciting, fun and interesting jourey it has been!  Oh, and the filed trips ~ in a word ~ AWESOME!  I wish I had learned this way.  It makes everything more clear and easier to understand when it all fits together instead of a piece-meal, hodge-podge.

I would love for you to have this type of experiece with your students/children as well.  Let me help you get there!  If there is enough interest, I will create a sample one-week lesson plan to give you an idea of what I can do for you. 
3/13/2011 07:08:41 am

Sounds so amazing and fulfilling. Congrats! (by the way, this is Jo... Slight... hahaha)

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