Homeschooling - Stay the Course

Recently I met with a mom friend who was fed up with her children's experiences in public school. 
Too much.  Too hard.  Too soon.  That's why we homeschool.  We can take our time.  We do not have to push them with rigorous academics beginning in kindergarten. 

And today I was thinking about some other mom friends who homeschool and are very comfortable with their methods, which may include taking multiple days off at a time when needed.  It also includes "organic" learning, which occurs when the children/students ask their parent/teacher to teach them subjects that have arisen from natural curiosity.  No pushing to achieve certain skills by certain ages or dates.  Just let the children develop these skills naturally in their own time.  A very gentle approach with a relaxed pace. 

There are others in the homeschool movement who choose to drive their students academically and their children begin community college by age 13.  They win Bible Bees, Spelling Bees, Story Writing Contests, Science Fairs, Young Musician Competitions - you name it!  Some families and children thrive on competition.  There are also young professional athletes, such as U.S. Olympic hopefuls, that homeschool in order to keep up with rigorous practice schedules and competitions.

All this leads me to wonder - where do we fit in?  What "type" of homeschooling do we do?  Is what I'm doing "good enough?"  Will I looked down upon by those who "organically" homeschool if I'm driving my child to learn her addition and subtraction facts?  Will I be scoffed at by the hyper-achieving homeschool families if they find out my second grader is merely an emerging reader?

I suppose I consider our homeschooling the "Doing the Best We Can" sect.  We use some workbooks.  We use some computer programs and websites.  We use Youtube videos (this is my new favorite homeschooling resource - it rocks!!) and we read aloud all kinds of books.  Hodgepodge?  Whatever Works?  I can't seem to come up with a good enough title.  Eclectic.  I think that's what the homeschooling how-to guides call it.  Yup.  That's us.

My daughter and I become bored easily - working in the same 5 workbooks every day is mega MO-NO-TO-NOUS.   We don't do history or science every day.  Those come and go as interest leads (oooh - I think that's our organic section!!).  Writing is different every day. 

Sometimes copying a Bible verse.  Sometimes writing practice in a workbooks.  This week we are copying sentences describing my daughter.  She HATES writing and I'm trying to make it fun and various to keep the blahs away.  Reading - any book she would like to try, we read together. 

I still have some books leftover from last year's curriculum purchase, so we're reading those - some classic Peter Rabbit tales. Math - the same.  Sometimes for time telling, I might have her pretend to be a clock and use her arms to show the time I call out.  Today we took the actual clock off the wall to study and count all 60 little minute lines.  Workbooks and computer games also reinforce concepts.  Why is telling time so hard?  We have been learning it for two years and it just doesn't stick.  It doesn't make sense.  Does YouTube have a video for this?  Sometimes I leave the teaching to the people on Youtube.  I've found some sites I really love - and why not vary my daughter's teachers?  It's okay to learn from someone that is not mom.  I need a break sometimes!

So - I guess my conclusion is that we are eclectic learners.  We do school every day, but vary it to keep it interesting.  I suppose my desire to see what everyone else is doing, and hearing other people's methods, shakes my own resolve to stay the course and be confident in what we are doing.  I don't want to overachieve, or necessarily underachieve.  What I really need is one of those desk blinders - you know those three-walled study carrell things they used to put on the desks of the kids who liked to cheat?  Or had zero attention span?  I need that for our homeschooling.  Just focus on the task at hand, where I am, with my kids alone.  Be confident.  Stop worrying.  Enjoy it.  Period.

Ecclesiastes 9:10 "Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might..."