Notes from a homeschooling mom: Things we like about homeschooling

homeschoolers visiting Titanic Exhibition, by A. Hermitt

I can write oodles about why homeschooling is good and why it is the right thing to do for kids.  The thing is, none of that would matter if it were torturous and not a great deal of fun.  With that said, here are the things we(my family and I) like about homeschooling.

1.  Control of our lives.  We can order education around our lives and not the other way around.  This allows us to have more unique experiences in our lives.

2.  Variety.  We don't have to do the same thing every single day.  My daughter did not realize what a great perk this was until she want to a day camp every day of this past month.  Halfway through she ran out of steam and said I don't know how public school kids do the same thing every day.  It's so monotonous.

3.  We can integrate games into lessons.  We like to write down science and social studies facts and move pegs along a boardgame as the kids answer questions.   You can combine science and art, and also take a Scrabble break and call it spelling.

4.  More family time.  We can decide to have a family day and instead of doing seprate curriculum, we can watch history and science documentaries under blankets while eating popcorn and junkfood. We never have to wait for Wednesday night to have family time.

5.  When things dont work we can make changes.  I just changed math curriculum mid summer.  My kids do math all year, and mostly review work in the summer.  We were struglling through the one we were using and so when we discovered Kahn Academy we switched over.