…homeschooling my boys.

Yes. This is like a complete new way of thinking for me. I mean, homeschooling isn’t something I’ve never heard of…I have family who have done some variation of it.  However, I’ve learned that not all homeschooling is traditional homeschooling. Apparently doing the online version of public school (tuition paid by the state?) is not considered traditional “homeschooling”.  Understandably so.

I’m lovin’ the idea of homeschooling my boys and yet a bit intimidated by it too. Let me be clear. I want to traditional-homeschool my boys not do the public school online version. For how long, I don’t know.

Why? Well its not about the school district we live in…I think we live in one of the best – probably in all of Ohio (though I’m not sure of its ranking).  Its not that we live in an unsafe area either. I could actually give you a list of the reasons why I want to do this.

I’ve done a lot of research on homeschooling lately. A lot.

I have some favorite sites already. I’ve found free printables, mombloggers who homeschool, even one or two local homeschooling groups in my area.

I’ve learned there are several- maybe many homeschooling methods. Being the creative person I am I want to do a mixture of some of these methods and make my own curriculum (well, to some degree). I want to blend our Christian world-view into our studies. I’ve learned that you don’t have to teach with dry text-books and you don’t have to test (in Ohio). We can do notebooking and more!

While my boys are learning how to add and how to write, I want them to be reading about missionaries who gave their lives to take the gospel to the world.

While they are learning about science and how things grow, at the same time I want them to learn that God created the world and everything therein. I want them to know that evolution has NEVER been (ahem- nor will be) proven.

Did you know that the bible described (still does) scientific matters long before modern day science ever would? Its true.

Think about this. Our kids go to school for what 6-8 hours a day and then come home with more work- homework! That I expect takes hours for some. Just having a kindergartner right now we don’t have that kind of homework. Then there are all the extracurricular activities and projects to do.

Well, I don’t want to lose all that time with my boys! Maybe its because I didn’t become  a mom until I was 34 .  I know now from experience what I heard growing up.  Regarding kids…”they grow up fast”!

Besides these reasons (and others I’ve not shared) I know my boys need my consistent training. We have our own obedience and bad attitude issues and its my job to teach them right from wrong. I can’t do this if they are gone for 6 hours a day 5 days a week.

And on top of it all. I want to take them on field trips 🙂

*I plan to share a list of the websites I’ve enjoyed using while researching. Some offer free printables to use and some will tell you more than you wanted to know about homeschooling. Stay tuned for that list to come up soon. You may want to subscribe to my email/rss updates for that.